Facility

Pine River Nature Center building

The Pine River Nature Center building is a 5,000-square-foot, log-style structure. It opened in April 2003. 

PRNC history

Virtual tour of the exhibit room

Main Exhibit

Checking out Furs

Nature displays

A large exhibit room has many things to see and touch. It's a great way to discover nature. The room features a variety of nature displays including furs and taxidermy from St. Clair County and the north woods.

The room also contains several live animals including:

  • Eastern Box Turtles 
  • Great Lakes Fish Aquarium
  • Ball Python

Viewspace Exhibit

The Viewspace exhibit provides updates on astronomical events, monthly constellations, and the latest research in astronomy. It is broadcast live from NASA's Space Telescope Science Institute.

classroom 

Classrooms

The basement of the nature center lodge is used for classroom instruction. It contains a classroom and wet lab. A ceiling mounted digital projector can be used for multimedia presentations. The classroom capacity is 40 students.

Basement Wet Lab

A wet lab area is ideal for hands-on science investigations. In addition, the nature center has stereo-microscopes which students can use to examine specimens.

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Wooden case with glass covering holding live beehive

Beehive Up close

Beehive display

An observational beehive with 15,000 bees has windows through which visitors can watch such daily hive activities as the honeycomb being built up, bees hatching, pollen being brought in and communication dances between bees. The Pine River Beekeeping Club monitors and cares for the hive. Staff at the nature center use the hive as a teaching tool.