Outdoor Education Center

            After moving into our new educational facility in 2013, the Spencer County Cooperative Extension Council decided in 2017 to start the process of developing the 10 acres around our office.  In the spring of 2018, a University of Kentucky Landscape Architecture student used our facility as his senior project and he presented his ideas for the development at a council meeting later that spring.

            After the initial plan was developed, the council and district board agreed to move forward to hire a landscape architectural firm in the fall of 2018 to use the student’s initial plans and develop them even further.   Plans included a one-third of a mile walking path, new sidewalks connecting to the local neighborhood, amphitheater seating near our pavilion, and an outdoor classroom with rock seating.   The classroom also has 6 different sets of wildlife prints embedded in the concrete so that everyone can see what the different animals’ footprints look like.  Along the walking path, each area will be devoted to the different geographic regions of Kentucky, such as the Cumberland Plateau, Pennyrile, Bluegrass Region, etc. and highlight the different trees and plants that are located in each region.  

            All agents have worked together with our council and board to have this project come to life.  Currently, the walking path, amphitheater, and outdoor classroom are complete.  In the spring of 2020, the native grasses and other grasses will be sown and we hope to complete the project in the fall of 2020 with the planting of the appropriate trees of each region of Kentucky.   This project will not help to educate many of our residents about the outdoors, but will provide a new, safe area for them to get some exercise.