Major changes are in the works at the Rye Nature Center.
The center is planning an ambitious expansion and upgrade to accommodate a big increase in demand for its programs.
Plans include construction of a new 4,500-square-foot building, a new driveway from the Rye High School temporary parking lot to the nature center’s lot, and upgrades to the existing building.
The center plans to expand its early childhood education program, both preschool and after-school, and add to its environmental education programs.
The popular center, which has seen its program participation increase by 60 percent in recent years, desperately needs more indoor room.
“We just don’t have the space to have the variety of ages and program users up here simultaneously,” said Christine Siller, who has been the center’s executive director for the last 17 years. “And that is something that is really important to us.”
She added: “Building the new facility and then moving in there will allow us to do a proper upgrade of [the current] building. It’s an important memory for Rye. I don’t want to say it’s a historic building, but I would say it’s part of Rye’s charm.”
The work includes the Riparian Project, an ecological restoration of the Blind Brook, which passes through the property, and that work could help mitigate flooding in the area.
“We are focused on the science aspects in our nature camp, so when people send their kids for summer week, it isn’t just the freedom of being in the woods and a connection to the natural world — though that is important — but it’s also really understanding the science of nature,” Siller said.
The brook project is awaiting one more permit, but is expected to begin next year. Construction on the building and new driveway should start around the same time.
Siller said the nature center has raised nearly all of the project’s costs through private pledges and grants. The organization expects to seek additional donations from the general public at upcoming events, including the Sept. 12 square dance and Oktoberfest the following month.
On Aug. 11, the commission said it will await completed plans before fully endorsing the plan. At its Aug. 13 meeting, Rye’s City Council gave its approval.
One of the biggest environmental issues to consider, for now, is tree removal. To build the driveway, the nature center will need to remove 42 trees, which will then be replaced with more trees and shrubbery. Siller would like to have an arborist on site during this process and see how some of the raw material can be repurposed.
“We are looking into seeing how some of the removed wood could possibly be harvested into the new building project,” she said.
Father Mark Haydu, one of the nature center’s neighbors, said Siller and Nicole Pennucci, development and operations director at the nature center, approached him to discuss the plans. The Legionaries of Christ Rye, a Christian religious order housing six priests, will also have an entry point along the new driveway.
Haydu is on board with the renovations in principle, but has some lingering questions about traffic, and how the driveway’s entrance through a temporary parking lot at the high school may exacerbate congestion.
“It’s an ongoing issue that would probably need to be resolved,” he said.
The current building emerged phoenix-like from the ashes of a 1942 fire that destroyed a private home on the land. The house, known as Furzen Hill, was owned by the Parsons, a prominent Rye family, and built in 1905-06, according to the center. The fire that consumed the home was of “mysterious origins.”
While the house was destroyed, “the outer walls of the ground floor … were made of gneiss rock from the Rye Nature Center quarries, and these stone walls remain as the ruins today,” according to the nature center’s website.
In 1945, 35 acres of the Parson’s property “came into city ownership” when the Rye Park Commission convinced the city council to conserve the land. A proposal to turn the property into a site for an elementary school was rejected, and in 1956 the New York State Legislature designated the land as a preservation area.
Mayor Robert P. Hughes championed the project, and in 1959, the city acquired the property’s carriage house along with two other acres. In 1963, another 10 acres were acquired, bringing the site to 47 acres, where it stands today. The Rye Conservation Society was formed in 1964, and in 1993 the name was changed to Friends of the Rye Nature Center.
Rye Nature Center Staff: (from left) Steven Forte, Nicole Pennucci,
Christine Siller, Kris Karpinia, Henry Myers, and Katie Jamer. Photo/Lois Wald
In 2002, the city council decided it could no longer fund the nature center at the same level.
When the funding stopped, the center shuttered overnight, with kids showing up the next day to locked gates, recalled Bob Clyatt, who then headed the Friends of Rye Nature Center.
But that pushed the friends group into high gear with fundraising.
“Recasting our very hands-off, on the sidelines kind of role into an operating role made the difference,” Clyatt said.
After conferring with local political leaders Steve Otis and George Latimer, the Friends of Rye Nature Center transformed from a group that handled small, special projects to the sole operator of the land. With the help of community donations, the nature center was back up and running soon thereafter.
“ We didn’t have money in the bank, we couldn’t just start hiring people and writing checks,” Clyatt said. “That call went out to the community, and the community seriously responded.”
That charitable response moved to a much higher level in 2021 when the city, under the leadership of then-City Manager Greg Usry, gave the Friends a licensing agreement running through at least 2056. Before then, the city had required a new lease every five years.
“Prior to 2021, there wasn’t a lot of movement in wanting to invest because we didn’t have an agreement with the city that set up terms that made sense,” she said. “This was a win for the city and for the Friends. Greg made that happen, and while he did many good things as city manager, from my point of view, this was the best thing he did.”
The agreement allowed the Friends to think more long-term about its mission.
“Now, we are looking forward to an $8 million investment here,” Siller said. “It’s significant and needed.”
The details of the project are still being hashed out, but the nature center is optimistic and is confident of support from the community.
Siller said she recently heard from the mother of a former camper. He will be heading to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology this fall, and his interest in science, according to his mom, was sparked by his summers at the Rye Nature Center.
“The nature center was a walk in the woods,” Siller said. “It’s now an experience in a forest where you can feel very connected to nature and where what you learn here you can take into your future.”
