Trout Lake Nature Center’s museum, visited by more than 20,000 area residents, eco-tourists and local schoolchildren each year, is a 25-plus-year-old doublewide trailer with issues.
What’s more, the Eustis nonprofit’s unpaved parking area turns into a slick goulash of vegetation and mud after rain, forcing the cancellation of programs because vehicles can get stuck too easily. It’s too small too. Staff and volunteers often are forced to turn visitors away during popular events or programs because it’s full.
The issues hamper the 230-acre wildlife preserve’s commitment to provide even more nature programming to an ever-increasing number of visitors each year, as well as educational field trips to Lake County students.
Major efforts to alleviate Trout Lake’s woes are on the horizon, though. A capital fundraising campaign has been underway for two years, and an ambitious three-phased environmentally responsible, construction project soon soon will begin. The first phase will involve building a new exit road, extending water lines, hooking up to Eustis’ sewer system and removing above-ground septic tanks. Next, a new parking lot, with spaces for at least 80 cars will be built.
“The current parking area is just not big enough and gets too wet,” said Eileen Tramontana, executive director of Trout Lake for the past four years, one of the center’s three employees. “It’s definitely limited our programming at times.”
The final phase will include the construction of a 3,400-square foot building, that will house a new natural history museum on one side and a classroom, meeting and office space on the other. Outdoor bathrooms will be added, too, said Joan Bryant, past president of Trout Lake’s board of directors and current secretary.
“It will be a beautiful modern, sustainable ‘green’ building with breezeways,” she said. “We don’t expect to dedicate it until 2021, but it will be worth it.”
Founded in 1988 by the Oklawaha Valley Audubon Society, Trout Lake Nature Center was created following the purchase of land off East County Road 44 that once was part of the Haselton Dairy Farm. Eustis donated property in the form of a conservation easement, too, and plans for the nature center soon were underway.
“The doublewide trailer was the first building at Trout Lake and even with maintenance there’s issues because it’s just old and outdated,” said. “When there’s a hurricane we have to transfer everything out of there and move it to the education building.
“Then when it’s over, we, mostly volunteers, have to move everything back in again,” she said.
The fundraising campaign, started in 2017 and mingled with funds from an earlier campaign sidelined in 2005, has brought in $1 million so far, but Trout Lake needs an additional $1 million to meet the goal, said Bryant, whose been involved in the center for 10 years.
“It’s quite exciting and quite a challenge — we’re a small nature center,” she said.
Trout Lake relies heavily on its dedicated 100 volunteers to not only keep operations running smoothly but to lead school groups and events as well. Roughly 8,000 schoolchildren visit each year to learn about Florida’s wildlife and how to protect and preserve its environment, Tramontana said.
Once complete, the new construction will allow for better separation between visitors and the dozens of school groups that utilize the center each year. It also will have space for larger crowds, she said.
“We’ll have the space to accommodate more visitors, especially in inclement weather,” Tramontana said. “We’ll look at adding even more programming, too.”
Meanwhile, Bryant said she’s optimistic Trout Lake will reach its fundraising goal, but it won’t be easy.
“We’re not only fundraising for the capital campaign. We still have to raise money to keep the Nature Center going, too,” she said.
“We’re doing it though,” she said. “We’re moving along on the whole plan, and it’s a very good thing to see.”