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Sustainability less a concern, organization looks to growth and facility improvements

By Daniel Schoonmaker | TBL
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Blandford Nature Center Executive Director Annoesjka Steinman joined the organization at a time of uncertainty, but has helped it find newer, more solid financial footing as it now looks to grow its offerings to the community. PHOTO SETH THOMPSON

School children were once the most frequent visitors to the nature center, but now many in the community from hikers to gardeners have an opportunity to learn at one of Grand Rapids’ real gems. PHOTO SETH THOMPSON

GRAND RAPIDS — After a decade of turbulence and nearly constant reorganization, one of West Michigan’s premier urban assets has settled into a new business model that is already delivering significant increases in donations, volunteer applications and community participation.

Blandford Nature Center has pulled in $195,000 in new donations this summer to fund public awareness activities and facility improvements. Another $62,000 in new donations will keep its wildlife hospital and sanctuary open for the next two years after the program very nearly closed at the start of the summer for lack of funds. Its four-month-old membership program already boasts over 100 members, with more signing up every day.
“Even though we’ve been here for 40 years, we’re really just starting out as an organization,” said Annoesjka Steinman, now beginning her second year as the center’s executive director. “We’re a new nonprofit, only three years old.”

Originally a program of the Public Museum of Grand Rapids, the 143-acre facility on Grand Rapids’ west side was absorbed by the Grand Rapids Public Schools in 2002 as the City of Grand Rapids scaled back and eventually eliminated its sponsorship of the museum.

Local school districts have for generations been Blandford’s closest partners, with its educational programs a near universal experience for students in Grand Rapids and its first-ring suburbs. The field trips became an even larger priority while the center was a GRPS program, perhaps to its detriment. When the schools needed to cut maintaining the center out of its budget four years later, it had no means of sustaining itself without a major sponsor.

A nonprofit organization dedicated to introducing children to healthier eating habits through locally grown produce and gardening, Mixed Greens ended up taking over the program and increased the emphasis on urban farming in the educational programs, further reducing the awareness of the nature center outside the schools.

“People have forgotten that we’re out here,” Steinman told TBL. “For a couple of years, we were even closed on Saturdays. The focus was working with schools on these gardens, but we want the entire community out here, not just the kids. We want their families and everyone else.”

Over the past 18 months, Blandford has reorganized itself as a community asset invested in some of the region’s most popular sustainability issues, including urban farming, access to nature and wildlife and habitat conservation. While schools are still an incredibly important part of the center’s mission, it is now accessible to a much larger variety of interests and audiences.

Blandford now offers family-centered programming at least every other Saturday, including nature activities, harvest festivals and educational programs built around its taxidermy collection and wildlife sanctuary. Its eight hiking trails are among the best in the Grand Rapids area. It also maintains a historic village with buildings available for event rental and an urban farm and community garden with plots available for use by any member. The half-acre farm could be expanded to as large as 40 acres if demand warrants.

Steinman believes the Blandford farm could become a haven for people in the Grand Rapids area without enough land for a garden or access to a nearby community garden, individuals interested in larger plots than what their yards or a community garden can handle, and residents interested in raising crops or animals restricted from neighborhoods, such as chickens. A few farmers are currently raising crops at Blandford for sale at local farmers’ markets.

“We’re really trying to grow the farming program, both education and facilities,” said Steinman. “We think that is a huge benefit we can bring to the community. We can teach how to better farm or garden at home or to use Blandford if they don’t have enough land.”

The new programming and increased publicity efforts are already paying dividends for the organization, a necessity for its long-term sustainability. Of its $473,000 annual budget, only a fifth comes from educational program fees. With its endowment currently below its corpus thanks to volatility in the stock market, Blandford relies on gifts and grants to stay solvent. Much of Steinman’s work over the past year and likely into the foreseeable future has centered on improving the organization’s finances. Staff was reduced from 15 to 8 and unfunded programs such as the wildlife sanctuary would have been cut had donors not stepped forward to save them.

As evidenced by the $195,000 in new grants, including a matching grant tied to memberships at or above the $50 level, the philanthropic community has been very receptive to the new Blandford.

“We’re working hard to raise awareness and show the value we bring to our community,” said Steinman. “And a big part of that is doing a better job of capturing use. I see more people walking the property after hours than during working hours. We have eight different entrances to the trails. People are using our facilities that we never even see.”

Steinman said that eventually the center will install tracking sensors to capture the true number of people using the facility. For now, she is content with the growth she has seen in measured program attendance. The success has created the need for three new hires, which will be coming on board in the next month.

While financial sustainability is now less a concern for the organization, its environmental sustainability is becoming an even greater concern. Over the past 40 years, erosion, invasive species and other unpredictable issues have taken a toll on its natural assets.

In one looming example, the stream behind the interpretive center serves as a drain for stormwater for the suburban neighborhood adjacent to the Blandford property. Forty years ago, it was a slight meandering creek, but it has since carved out a deep ravine that feeds sediment into the Brandywine Creek system, regarded as one of the highest quality waters in the state, altering its cobblestone bed and putting the entire ecosystem at risk. More obvious is how the erosion has cut away the hill on which the interpretative center sits, threatening to topple it into the ravine. Steinman was recently denied a state grant to address the issue and is now hoping to tackle it as a volunteer issue.

Elsewhere on the site, work is underway to clear a literal forest of invasive species to reestablish a meadow. Blandford also suffers from a severe overpopulation of deer, so much that it could open its lands to hunters this fall for the first time in its history.
“You think you can leave nature to itself,” said Steinman. “But you can’t.” tbl

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