According to Webster County Conservation Director Matt Cosgrove, the county’s nature center project and the city of Fort Dodge’s Central River District Park will revitalize the area along the Des Moines River on the western end of Central Avenue and help connect residents and visitors to Iowa’s most precious natural resource — water.

The project — a joint venture of the county and city — is expected to cost around $20 million in total. The 13,000- square-foot Nature Center alone is nearly $7 million.

The Nature Center building will be focused on Iowa’s water resources. Its exhibits will cover the water cycle, wetlands, glaciers and rivers and streams.

In October, the project was awarded a $4 million grant from the state’s Destination Iowa quality of life and tourism grants. The project is also receiving grant funding from part of a $300,000 grant awarded by the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs to the Boone Forks Region, an Iowa Great Place that includes Webster, Hamilton and Boone counties.

Construction on the nature center began over the winter after Jensen Builders Ltd., of Fort Dodge, was awarded the $6.7 million contract for the project. Cosgrove said that while the winter weather did cause some minor delays, the overall project is still on track to be completed by July 2024.

“They’re working on the foundation walls right now,” Cosgrove said. “They’ve got a lot of the perimeter concrete starting to get formed up and in place, so next will be pouring the floor and they’ve got all the steel down there for the building, so hopefully by the end of the month of April, they’ll be starting to put up the steel for the building.”

Taylor Studios, an exhibition design firm out of Rantoul, Illinois, is working on building the water-themed exhibits that will be featured in the Nature Center.

“It will take them almost a year to build those and they’re scheduled to be installed in the late spring of 2024,” Cosgrove said.

Cosgrove said the County Conservation is currently working on the designs for the remainder of the property along the river, including an outdoor playscape, trails, river access points and more. He said they’re hoping to have the designs ready soon for the river access points so they can start the permitting process in May.

To raise the $500,000 in matching funds that the Destination Iowa grant requires, Webster County Conservation launched the Connecting Kids & Nature Capital Campaign last fall. A trivia night was hosted at River Hops Brewing in September and a second trivia night was held at Soldier Creek Winery in February. An omelet feed at Camp Wa-No-Ki was held about two weeks ago.

Thus far, the capital campaign has brought in roughly $300,000, Cosgrove said.

The campaign’s next event will be the Call of the Wild Fundraiser at Lizard Creek Ranch on April 22 from 6 to 9 p.m. The event — which falls on Earth Day — will feature a smoked pork chop dinner, silent auction and guest speaker. Admission is $30 per ticket, or $50 per couple, or $200 or a table of eight.

The event’s guest speaker will be Vern Fish, the former executive director of the Black Hawk County Conservation Board and a current commissioner on the Black Hawk Soil & Water Conservation District.

Fish will give a presentation on Ernest Oberholtzer, a native Iowan who embarked on an epic 2,000-mile canoe trip across northern Manitoba in 1912. Oberholtzer was also instrumental in creating the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness on the border of Minnesota and Canada.

Sponsorships for individual features on the nature center campus are also available, including the outdoor playscape, the fishing area, two environmental education classrooms, Discovery Center exhibits, an augmented reality sandbox and more. Donors who support these opportunities will be given special mention on the Discovery Center’s Donor Wall.

To reserve tickets to the April 22 event or to donate to the Connecting Kids & Nature Campaign, contact the Webster County Conservation Office at conservation@webstercountia.org or 515-576-4258.