Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, July 11, 1990 TAG: 9007110069
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Construction of the 6,380-square-foot glass-domed aviary should start in February, zoo officials said, and the donor has pledged to put up an unspecified additional amount to pay for the aviary's exhibits and maintenance.
The donation "breathes new life" into the mountaintop zoo, Executive Director Beth Poff said, and "shows that Mill Mountain Zoo is here to stay."
Meanwhile, the zoo is developing a 10-year expansion plan for a "Mountains of the Orient" habitat that will feature animals from the mountain regions of Japan, Korea and the Himalayas - taking advantage of similar terrain at the mountaintop zoo and Roanoke's sister city relationship with Wonju, Korea.
And the zoo is working on a 20-year expansion plan for an "African Kingdom" habitat that will concentrate on animals indigenous to the lowland areas of Africa - which ties in with Roanoke's other sister city of Kisumu, Kenya.
For this, the 3-acre zoo would need about 40 acres atop Mill Mountain.
Zoo officials said they don't have cost estimates yet on their elaborate plans, which also call for a 500-seat amphitheater, education facility and an animal rehabilitation center in cooperation with the Wildlife Center of Virginia, a non-profit center in Augusta County that cares for injured animals.
And any plans Mill Mountain does develop will have to be approved by the Mill Mountain Development Committee and the city - which owns the mountain and leases a portion of it to the zoo.
That could be tricky because the city has hired a consultant to study what to do with Mill Mountain - and there are various proposals for a D-Day memorial and a hotel and restaurant complex that may or may not compete for space with an expanded zoo.
Nevertheless, the zoo's plans signal what Poff called the "new start of a new future for the Mill Mountain Zoo."
For five years, the zoo has been relatively inactive while officials have waited to see what happens with the proposed Explore Park - which began as an expansion of Mill Mountain Zoo but has since evolved into a living-history state park with a zoo of North American animals as only one element.
"Now the board is saying the zoo is here to stay and is going to be improved," Poff said.
As a hedge against Explore's eventual success, Mill Mountain has decided to carve out a niche as a zoo specializing in endangered Asian and African animals. Such high-profile exhibits as the zoo's red pandas and Ruby the Siberian tiger give it a base to build from, Poff said.
"We're big dreamers now," said Rita Loeb, president of the non-profit Blue Ridge Zoological Society of Virginia that runs the zoo.
And the out-of-town donor - a bird-lover who insisted on anonymity - was a lucky break that allows the zoo to start making some of those dreams happen.
Loeb said the donor was introduced to the zoo by a relative in the area. "The relative brought the donor up to the zoo one day and the donor was so impressed by the zoo, by the upkeep of the zoo, by the future potential of the zoo, that [the donor] made the decision that this made the perfect location for an aviary," she said.
Loeb cautioned that the aviary and the zoo's other expansion plans aren't meant to put plans for the new tiger habitat on hold. "Ruby has become Mill Mountain Zoo," Loeb said.
Zoo officials showed off plans for the aviary that show a geodesic dome re-creating a Brazilian rain forest, with walkways past tropical plants and over ponds. If cost allows, there may be four smaller, adjoining domes housing rare birds from Southeast Asia, South Pacific, wetlands and birds of prey.
The domes would be climate-controlled so they could be open year-round. The zoo now is closed during the winter.
by CNB