The Fairfax County Park Authority is developing a mobile nature center that will bring nature-focused education programs to locations throughout the county.
The Wonder Wagon Mobile Nature Center will find people at libraries, community centers, and schools — with a focus on serving schools that have a high percentage of low-income children and underserved communities that may have limited access to green spaces.
“Our idea is to go to places where the people are and activate the nature of where they are,” says Tammy Schwab, manager of Education & Outreach, Resource Management Division. “There’s nature there, too — birds, bugs, plants — all those sorts of things are there, but folks might not view it as nature or might not be able to think about how they can connect to it. And that’s what we want to do with these vehicles.”
The vision for the Wonder Wagon is that it will be a large vehicle (either electric or hybrid) with an interior that can hold supplies and “even some nature, some small animals, and things like that,” says Bobbi Longworth, the executive director of the Fairfax County Park Foundation. The exterior will be covered in a colorful, custom, eye-catching wrap.
The Fairfax County Board of Supervisors approved $114,640 for the project in the 2024 fiscal year budget, which will go toward two staff positions. The program also recently received a $34,000 grant from the Environment Fund, a component of the Community Foundation for Northern Virginia’s Permanent Fund for Northern Virginia, which will help fund supplies and other programming costs.
The one thing the county does not have funds for yet is the vehicle, Longworth says. Donations are being sought online through the Mobile Nature Center Equity Outreach campaign.
Over the next few months, Longworth and Schwab say that they hope to acquire a vehicle, begin retrofitting the interior, and hire staff, with the goal of beginning test programs by fall. They’ll start with at least one vehicle, then potentially expand to more as the project develops and more funding becomes available, Longworth says.
In the meantime, FCPA plans to seek input from community members over the summer, to gain an understanding about what kind of programming would best suit the community.
“Connection to nature. That’s really what we want,” says Schwab. “We want people to connect with nature and to have empathy with nature because those beliefs and those thoughts are what help people take action to conserve nature.”
Feature photo courtesy Fairfax County Park Authority
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