BOISE -- The Morrison-Knudsen Nature Center is celebrating 25 years. The center gives Idahoans the opportunity to get a glimpse of Idaho's many landscapes and wildlife.
The center will celebrate the milestone with a festival Saturday as part of an effort to help raise money.
What started out as a landfill and then a baseball field has now turned into a 4-and-a-half-acre oasis.
MK Nature Center Superintendent Dave Cannamela says the center is a good place to come to spot wildlife.
"Things just come here," he said. "We build a habitat and if you travel around the nature center you'll see all or mostly native plants. So of course that native habitat attracts those native animals."
The center gives people from the Valley and all over the world a chance to see a part of Idaho's flora and fauna; providing a little piece of green in a concrete jungle.
"Our walk-on visitation is about 100,000, 150,000, 200,000 a year," Cannamela said. "So if you multiply that by 25 years what does that do?"
It not only has a major impact on the center, but also the lives of the people who visit.
"We do tons of education here - about 10,000 students, parents, teachers a year come here for programs that are scheduled," he said.
The MK Nature Center runs completely on donations and volunteer work. The 25th anniversary Festival starts Saturday, April 25th, an 10 a.m.
The nature center is free for anyone who wants to go in.
