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Celebrating Wetlands: Groups plan May celebration of Eugene's unique wetlands- The Re... Page 2 of 7 <br /> Duckett, Wetlands and Open Waterways Manager for the city <br /> of Eugene's Parks Department. <br /> "The past 10 years have been focused heavily on acquisition <br /> and restoration," Duckett said. "Now we're trying to make it <br /> more of an asset that people can benefit from and visit." <br /> Enter WREN, a private, <br /> nonprofit corporation created by d , <br /> the partners to help oversee k i ` r <br /> wetlands education. WREN also `� 'Z 111, <br /> will help secure funding for a <br /> $12 million Wetlands Education <br /> Center proposed for <br /> construction on a knoll near the <br /> confluence of Amazon and <br /> Willow creeks. The site is north <br /> of West 11th Avenue and east <br /> Danebo Avenue, where the <br /> present BLM wetlands office is "Reflections" is the title of a <br /> located. photograph by Jeff Leezer entered in <br /> the Willamette Resources Education <br /> Network show of wetlands <br /> The group hopes to break photographs. <br /> ground on the first classroom <br /> phase next year and to <br /> complete the third and final phase in 2007. <br /> When completed, the center would house a greenhouse, <br /> classrooms for the Eugene School District's Rachel Carson <br /> natural resources program, a laboratory, a wetlands reference <br /> library, offices, exhibit and assembly halls, plus an outdoor <br /> amphitheater. <br /> The center "is the next logical step to connect the community <br /> residents to these unique public lands through education, <br /> recreation and interpretation," wrote former U.S. Sen. Mark <br /> Hatfield in the cover letter of a 36-page WREN brochure <br /> outlining the education center proposal. Hatfield championed <br /> several of the Congressional appropriations that paid for <br /> wetlands acquisition under the federal Clean Water Act. <br /> Eventually, WREN will launch a capital campaign for the <br /> Wetlands Education Center, hoping to raise private <br /> contributions that can be used as "matching money" for <br /> government grants. <br /> First, however, awareness of the new public asset on Eugene's <br /> western doorstep must be increased. <br /> "The idea being that as people <br /> come to understand what it is <br /> we're offering, and to see it as <br /> an asset, that will generate <br /> support," said Pat Johnston, the <br /> http://www.regi sterguard.com/cgi-bin/printStory.py?name=e6.od.wetlands.0501&date=200305... 5/5/03 <br />