There is always something new to do at Kalamazoo Nature Center with special programs every month for kids and adults.  Some of the fun and exciting programs that they have to offer include Yoga, junior Audubon club, connecting women and nature, green living series, and  Kalamazoo Astronomical Society.   They also have several education programs to get the whole family involved in nature.   From the Four Points by Sheraton Kalamazoo start out going northeast on E Cork St toward S Sprinkle Rd,  take the 1^st left onto S Sprinkle Rd,  S Sprinkle Rd becomes D Ave E,  turn left onto N Westnedge Ave,  Kalamazoo Nature Center is on the left.

The Kalamazoo Nature Center is a not-for-profit organization located in Kalamazoo, Michigan whose mission is to inspire people to care for the environment by providing experiences that lead them to understand their connection to the natural world. Certain places have a magic that draws people to them. Cooper’s Glen, one of the best-loved spots in Kalamazoo County, has possessed this power for centuries.  There is evidence that Native Americans camped near the glen prior to European settlement.  Some of Cooper Township’s first European residents lived close to the glen, building their homes in the clearings made famous by James Fenimore Cooper in his book “The Oak Openings”.   Later families and friends traveled out from Kalamazoo by dirt road, by boat along the Kalamazoo River or on the interurban railway to picnic.  In the late 1950’s gravel mining and commercialism threatened Cooper’s Glen, so a group of community leaders came together to purchase the land and establish an outdoor environmental education center that would become known as the Kalamazoo Nature Center—one of the first nature centers in the country. Today The Kalamazoo Nature Center, recognized by its peers as one of the top nature centers in the country, has expanded to include 1,100 acres of wooded, rolling countryside five miles north of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Website: http://www.naturecenter.org/

 Address: 7000 North Westnedge Avenue, Kalamazoo Township, MI

Phone Number: (269) 381-1574

Hours of operation:   Tuesday through Saturday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.

Sunday: noon – 5 p.m.

Closed Monday and major holidays