The nature center would be at the entrance of the popular 11-mile drive, 2850 Lust Road.<\/p>\n
Orange Audubon is relying on its reputation to find donors and corporate sponsors for its $4.5 million project.<\/p>\n
The all-volunteer birding organization already has plenty to crow about.<\/p>\n
It won recognition in October as Audubon\u2019s top large chapter in Florida and earned an award of merit from the American Institute of Architecture\u2019s Orlando chapter for the design plan to convert rather than demolish an old cement-block repair shop to create the visitor\u2019s center.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re flying high but we have a ways to go yet,\u201d said Deborah Green, chapter president.<\/p>\n
Their goal is $1 million, though the group hopes to raise more by offering naming rights, she said.<\/p>\n
![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/6AMPCKYPW5DJRFLCOJZY5MDUII.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Red Huber \/ Orlando Sentinel<\/p>\n
An alligator opens his jaws Friday, July 14, 2017 catching a fish in a lake off Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive . The city of Apopka thinks eco-tourism will be important to its economic future and provided land to develop a birding park on 70 acres formerly owned by the St. Johns River Water Management District at the entrance of the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive. The park proposed by Apopka will give birders a place to huddle before venturing out on popular wildlife trails. (Red Huber\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
The nature center, located at the entrance of the 11-mile, one-way wildlife drive, would be the most prominent structure in a 70-acre uplands birding park. The site was previously owned by the St. Johns River Water Management District, then the city of Apopka. The district turned the land over to the city in 2018 with restrictions requiring it to be used to develop nature-based recreation and education.<\/p>\n
Green said Audubon, which has a 30-year, renewable lease for the site, hopes to break ground in the spring.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m hoping and wishing for completion by next December in time for the next birding festival,\u201d she said. \u201cIt will have a very cool, bird-watching annex \u2014 with bird-safe glass \u2014 looking out into a very beautifully designed native garden and a water feature to welcome birds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said the center also will feature avian murals by Apopka wildlife muralist Delia Miller<\/a>, 20.<\/p>\n The nature center was designed \u201cgreen,\u201d incorporating energy-efficient lighting and other sustainability features, including captured rainwater to flush toilets. She described the birding park as \u201ca little jewel\u201d separating the lake from new residential development to the east.<\/p>\n The annual birding festival draws binoculared avian enthusiasts from all over. Lake Apopka, once among the state\u2019s most polluted water bodies, has rebounded with the help of government money and now boasts a rich array of birds with 377 species having been seen there.<\/p>\n
![\"Deborah](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TOS-L-apopka-bird-park_1840f.jpg\")
Deborah Green, president of Orange Audubon Society, peers at birds near the entrance to the Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive on Lust Road in Apopka, Friday, March 22, 2024. She is leading Audubon’s fund-raising effort to build a nature center at the 70-acre birding park adjacent to the entrance of the wildlife drive. (Joe Burbank\/Orlando Sentinel)<\/p>\n