The Bay City State Park (Michigan) in Saginaw Bay, Bay County received state funding to upgrade its visitor center, furthering its service to help visitors relax, recreate, and learn about nature.
The Michigan Department of Natural Resources (DNR) announced that a total of $15.9 million was allocated for the first phase of addressing ten different projects at Michigan state parks, according to a report.
The funding reportedly came from the Building Michigan Together Plan, a $4.8 billion infrastructure package signed in March. Of the ten other parks, the Bay City State Park received $1.5 million to renovate the interior and exterior of the Saginaw Bay Visitor Center.
“It’s very exciting to finally see the project we’ve been working on for the last few years trying to develop,” said Jonathan Massung, Bay City State Park interpreter.
The funding will be used to remodel the aging visiting center and to make general improvements to make the park more accessible.
The educational area in the center will be getting a major facelift, including the installation of new interactive educational displays and an expanded wet lab for environmental and natural science lessons.
“We know that there’s some updating we had to do, information that needs to be updated for displays – but also better ways to engage our audience with more hands-on exhibits and things,” Massung said.
The park is also a well-loved field trip spot for school students from all over the area. These improvements will enable the park to keep providing lessons on the unique characteristics of the Saginaw Bay area, including the Tobico Marsh.
One of the main points will be the design of a display that gives viewers an underwater glimpse of life beneath the ocean’s surface.
“We’ll have a modeled-out version of what we see at the dock,” Massung said.
Massung said that there would be a layer built into the display to mimic underwater views.
“You’ll be able to view down underwater in a few different spots, he said. “Like a pike as it’s getting ready to feed, so you learn about the food chain, or you’ll see some fish that are starting to nest underwater.”
The funding will expand the park’s current wet lab space, which is small and crowded, to allow students more room to learn.
“To be able to give them a really good experience, expanding our wet lab to give them more space so that they can have space to work on different projects and not be crammed together in our small wet lab we have now,” Massung said.
Massung said that he expects the project to be completed in the spring or summer of 2023.
In addition, $867,000 was funneled toward building a new state park in Saginaw County. The funding is intended to construct parking areas and a park entrance for a new state park already in development on the old General Motors site and nearby landfill, a reclaimed brownfield site on the Saginaw River.
The DNR and Saginaw County will jointly manage the park.
Click here to read more about the funding given to the other parks across the state. More information is also available at Michigan.gov/StateParksProgress.
This article originally appeared on MLive.
Nature lovers and inquisitive minds! How cool is it that the visitor center at Bay City State Park is getting a makeover? Imagine diving into interactive marine displays and getting hands-on with eco lessons. It’s like a deep-sea adventure coming to life! Get ready for an awesome educational journey!