Detroit — I took my children to the Belle Isle Nature Center on a gray, wet day when my wife was sick and we needed to let her rest and recover.
Soon after we arrived, I realized that we should have stayed home and gone outside. Going to a nature center is still staying inside, no matter how many animals you see.
Having our children’s wildlife experiences consist of animals in glass cages in air conditioning does them a disservice. It deprives them of formative experiences outdoors.
I have to admit that we ended up at the Belle Isle Nature Center by accident. I had originally meant to take my daughters to the Department of Natural Resource’s Adventure Center.
But after driving to the Detroit Riverfront and finally looking at the directions in a parking lot, I realized it was closed on Mondays. No problem, I thought. We’ll go see the fish at the Belle Isle Aquarium.
Nope. It’s only open Friday through Sunday.
I was defeated. While mulling on my failures and feigning positivity as we drove around the desolate island, I spotted a glimmer of hope: the Belle Isle Nature Center was up ahead.
The nature center is operated by the Detroit Zoological Society, which receives roughly $15 million a year from residents in Oakland, Wayne, and Macomb counties. The society, which also operates the Detroit Zoo in Royal Oak, gets $570,000 from the city of Detroit.
Unlike the Detroit Zoo, which has penguins and polar bears, the Nature Center contains native animals and urban activities for kids, complete with an ant colony playground.
To the right of the main entrance is a dark sewer exhibit—fortunately without live animals—with light and sound effects that made the trip to the family restroom a nightmare.
My youngest fears it to this day.
One of the central “habitats” featured glass domes that let children get close to dazed frogs and toads. Even amphibians know there’s something not right about a pretend trash can and fake dandelions.
To the left is a hallway with a beehive behind a glass panel. You can see them huddling up and down. Some are clearly dead.
I enjoyed seeing the mudpuppies dredged up from the depths of the Detroit River, laying under their favorite rock, but my girls couldn’t have cared less.
One of the most interesting “exhibits” was actually just a window out of which you could see six or seven white-tailed deer stood mere feet away, horking seeds out of the bird feeders (contrary to DNR recommendations and signs on the island).
Of particular interest to my children was the ant-themed playground, which was great fun.
But here’s the thing about the nature center: We weren’t really exposed to nature at all.
It was all behind thick glass. Signs told us to wave at the turtles so as not to disturb them. This is obviously very different from the experience of seeing one in the woods where a turtle can just hightail it when the 2-year-old screams, “I see it!”
My wife and I are trying to spend 1,000 hours outside with our children this year. It’s not easy to get the hours in during the winter and early spring months. You have to push through getting the gear on and build up stamina to stick it out for an hour in the cold.
Three months in and we’re still under 50 hours.
But we’ve noticed that the mood generally improves as my kids spend time outside, even on the days with a foot of snow blanketing the backyard. The post-nap grumpies go away as our children put a spade in the mud or pull a sled around under the late-winter sun.
Kids intuitively understand life is better with fresh air. I feel bad for those who go to the nature center and see it as a viable replacement of the outdoors.
Maybe someday we’ll make another excursion in the doldrums of late winter to look at the mudpuppies, see the deer-feeding operation, and attempt to use the scary bathroom near the fake sewer.
But it’s more likely that we’ll skip the Belle Isle Nature Center and spend a few more hours in the real deal, finding the small animals where we can and yelling, “I see it!”
Brendan Clarey is deputy editor of Michigan Enjoyer.
