Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 2, 1991 TAG: 9103020224
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Explore leaders say this means they'll have enough staff so they can soon start some breeding programs for endangered species at the 1,300-acre park site east of Roanoke - a key goal of new Environmental Director Rupert Cutler.
In return, the zoological society that governs the small mountaintop zoo gets a say in shaping Explore's animal exhibits. Zoo Director Beth Poff also hopes the connection with high-profile breeding programs will revitalize the zoo's mission and put to rest donors' frequent questions about whether the zoo and Explore are competitors.
The agreement formally brings together two groups whose relationship has been, at best, confused in the public's mind over the past six years.
The idea for Explore grew out of Mill Mountain Zoo's expansion plans in the mid-1980s - but eventually led to the creation of a new organization, the River Foundation.
From then on, the two projects were quite separate.
The River Foundation has sought to build a sprawling living-history state park based on the theme of Virginia's role in opening the American West, a park that would include only North American animals. Meanwhile, the zoo has tried to carve out a niche for itself by drawing up elaborate plans to focus on exotic animals from Roanoke's two sister cities in Kenya and Korea.
However, the zoo has been bedeviled by questions about whether it would close if Explore is built. And both the zoo and Explore have weathered fund-raising problems.
In the past months, though, the groups have sought each other's help.
Explore, eager to show progress, has decided to reconstruct one of its frontier-era farmhouses this year and hopes to have it open for visitors by this fall. The exhibit is to include rare domestic breeds that frontier farmers may have kept, and Explore has turned to Poff and others for expertise in selecting animals.
Meanwhile, Poff has been excited by the arrival of Cutler, former chief of Defenders of Wildlife, and has looked for ways to get him involved with the zoo.
The agreement announced Friday by Poff, Cutler and Explore Project Director Bern Ewert says that the zoo staff will help care for the animals Explore acquires.
That, they said, means the two groups - using the zoo's staff and Explore's land - also can start making plans to join some breeding programs for endangered species.
Cutler already has expressed an interest in the red wolf. Friday, he and Poff ticked off a list of other North American animals they might also choose to focus on - from the Virginia big-eared bat to the Florida panther.
Cutler seemed hopeful that the breeding program could get under way soon after the species are selected - expected to take three to four months.
"We're going to have a large environmental program," Ewert said, and the breeding program would be a good way to get part of Explore's mission under way before the rest of the park is built.
Meanwhile, if the zoo needs to take an animal off display - either to recover from sickness or to have privacy to breed - it can use Explore's land.
As part of the deal, Poff will chair Explore's animal selection committee as it plans the larger collection of North American wildlife that Explore hopes to open in 1994 - an exhibit that calls for such animals as bears, buffalo, wolves and an aviary of raptors.
In return, Cutler will advise the zoo on environmental matters.
by CNB