POOL NATURE CENTER

In 2022 the Pool Learning Center and Wilmington, VT Masonic Lodge donated 7.5 acres of land and a 1600 square foot building to the Vermont Museum of Natural History. This generous gift has become the staging area for the Museum's next exciting incarnation!

The Pool Nature Center Building was designed to provide one-on-one assistance to students with dyslexia and other learning differences. We will continue that tradition of educational use with a newly opened up classroom-sized presentation space. The Center serves as the base of operations for our traveling programs and home to our education animals.

The outdoor pavilion was built to expand our presentation space thanks to a generous gift from the Canaday Family Foundation. This 30 x 40 pavilion will be made available to the public and other organizations in 2025. The Museum also uses it for presentation and summer camp space.

IMPROVED PARKING & ACCESS

Thanks to a Vermont Outdoor Recreation Economic Collaborative (VOREC) Community Grant, we were able to expand parking capacity and improve the existing driveway. Our accessible trail was also supported by this grant!

LIVE ANIMAL HOUSING

Thanks to generous community support, we have built new enclosures for our non-releasable mammals and birds of prey. These enclosures were intended to be homes for the animals and not displays, but they come out regularly to meet visitors on-site and at traveling programs. Our reptiles, invertebrates and mammals are also housed on site.