From making and tinkering, to researching and investigating - the new Conservation Hub at the Santa Barbara Zoo is designed to get our minds working and thinking about ways we can contribute to saving the environment.
"We live in an amazing place with incredible biological diversity, the range of plants and animals, many that are found nowhere else on this planet," says Richard Block, the CEO and President of the Santa Barbara Zoo. "And this is one step toward building a greater appreciation for what we all have and share here on the coast. We hope that these experiences at the zoo will infect our guests with a sense that there are things that they can do in their everyday life to make a difference, and whether it has to do with water conservation, recycling, the use of energy to be more conscious of how we have a responsibility about how we use the resources and how it impacts wildlife around us."
Block says the hub is the latest in a raft of new exhibits which engage visitors and the local community.
"This facility adds so much to the zoo experience," said Block. "This is an investment in our guests and being able to share the conservation story of the zoo, to give people more background in what's important in our community with wildlife, some ideas of things that they can do with that we hope will inspire them to become more active and engaged. And it's a wonderful addition to the zoo experience for guests. We opened the ranger station last year. That was a good first step. This is a great step forward and opening with this is a conservation outpost over by the gorillas and all of these things added together give people a real opportunity to experience conservation, what it means in this area. And we help build, an affinity for, wildlife."
JJ McLeod, the Director of Education at the Santa Barbara Zoo, says the hub is simple but impactful.
"t's an ordinary place that people can do extraordinary things," she said. "We really want to stop telling people all the work we're doing and invite them in to help us do it. With that comes connection, comes empowerment, and it takes a village when we're trying to change our world," she said.
"All of our work that we're doing crosses all ages and every single age can make a difference from learning little habits of picking up micro trash, to actually building out robotics to help us in our endeavors with incubation and different machines that are actually helping us in different technologies that are helping us better preserve our wildlife," said McLeod.
And it’s hoped this immersive center can encourage the next generation to thinking like a conservationist.
