The Wilderness Center

Come play with us!

A playscape is a natural landscape that supports children’s self-directed play and offers natural and created features designed to encourage children to explore and learn from the natural world while in a safe environment. Making natural environments available to children allows them the time and opportunity to explore, ask questions, and develop their innate sense of wonder.

On average, today’s kids spend up to 44 hours per week in front of a screen, and less than 10 minutes a day playing outdoors. And for too many kids, access to nature is determined by race, income, ability and postal code. Abundant research has shown that children need access to the outdoors for healthy physical, cognitive, and emotional development.

The TWC’s playscape, created over 10 years ago, needs to be updated and redesigned with the creation of new features based on the best available research on the science of outdoor play. It is the intent of the TWC to create a new playscape that will include play activities accessible to all children and their families, regardless of their physical capabilities or limitations.

Included in this new remodel plan are changes to make our Playscape more accessible to everyone, regardless of physical ability. We will be adding additional handicapped parking spaces near the trail leading to the Playscape. The path into and around the Playscape will be changed into an asphalt path that will be  ADA accessible. We want all children to be able to connect with the benefits of having a nature-focused play space, and we need your help to ensure that this can happen. 

Many of the developmental tasks that children must achieve, including exploring, risk-taking, fine and gross motor development, and the absorption of vast amounts of basic knowledge can be most effectively learned through outdoor play. Play is essential for physical, emotional, and spiritual growth; intellectual and educational development; and acquiring social and behavioral skills. Play outside provides the optimal venue for holistic development. Not only do children learn lots of basic and fundamental information about how the world works, but children are also more likely to remember what they learned because it was concrete and personally meaningful.

The Wilderness Center (TWC) has a threefold mission: Conservation, Education, and Community. In service to our mission, TWC serves as a community-based, conservation-focused land trust, nature center, sustainable forestry service, green cemetery, and an environmental education center offering both active and passive learning opportunities.