Everyone's "Buzzing" Over the Grand Opening of Phase II

Today, Park staff breathed a huge sigh of relief after the grand opening of our "Phase II" expansion area. All of you can finally see for yourselves, the results of all the construction that has been going on for the last several months. In the northeast corner of the Park, the state’s first wheelchair accessible tree house is now complete. Stop by and get a bird’s eye view of our natural wetland area from our beautifully built tree house. Along the path there, keep your eyes peeled for native wildlife. Already today, visitors spotted a pair of bobwhite quail strolling through the forested undergrowth.

On the way to the tree house, you’ll find a building that not only houses our new restrooms, but also displays three new exhibits: native frogs, carnivorous plants and…BEES! If you’ve never seen a live beehive before, but have wondered what one looks like on the inside, you’ll love our new honey bee exhibit. Over 25,000 bees have settled into their new home and visitors can watch them busily building honeycomb and storing honey through a glass partition. You might even try your luck at finding the queen (hint: she has a tiny green dot on her back!)

More exhibits are planned for our newly expanded area, so come back often…you might be surprised at the new animals you find!

To view WNCT’s piece on the grand opening, you can visit the video section of our web site here.

Ground Breaking

This past Friday at 1 pm, we broke ground for the second phase of development here at the park. This exciting new phase will include the first public, wheelchair-accessible tree house in the state of North Carolina. The tree house is part of a five-acre expansion and wetland restoration project that will allow our visitors to experience first-hand the sights and sounds of a forested wetland habitat and its wildlife. Park board members and visitors trekked a short distance to the site of our future tree house to listen to our park’s Executive Director, Mike Lubbock, and other dignitaries, including Scotland Neck Mayor James Mills and Halifax Department of Tourism Executive Director Lori Medlin who described some of the unique features of Phase Two and thanked everyone for supporting Sylvan Heights.

We must express our sincere appreciation to The N.C. Departments of Justice, The Rural Center, Touchstone Energy Cooperatives, The Cannon Foundation and The Conservation Fund for contributing more than $320,000 to support our expansion and wetland education programs. The park's expansion would not be possible without your generosity.

Sponsorship opportunities are available. To learn more about how you can sponsor one of the areas in our next phase of development, please contact Sylvan Heights at (252) 826-3186. Construction has already begun, so visitors will see a lot of activity and progress being made over the next few months. A grand opening is scheduled for this summer and we hope you will all join us for it.

Posted by: Monica Hazelton