Five months after Hurricane Helene flooded the nearby Swannanoa River 鈥攕weeping away the WNC Nature Center鈥檚 lower parking lot and severing a visitor-access bridge 鈥� the 100-year-old property is welcoming animal lovers back.
Exhibits that include red wolves, bobcats, bears and other native critters reopen to the public on Monday, March 17.
This week, the nature center invited members and supporters to tour the site for a soft reopening.
The excitement among visitors 鈥� and some of the animals 鈥� was palpable. Willy, the center鈥檚 Sicilian Donkey brayed loudly at passing visitors and Obi-Wan, an American River Otter, wriggled around on a rock for onlookers.
鈥淣ow that they're seeing people again, they're kind of showing off for everyone,鈥� Chris Gentile, the executive director, said. 鈥淭hey're running around. They're looking at different people. They're play charging them and stuff like that. I really think that there is an element to having the public here. It's a very enriching activity for them.鈥�
Four-year-old Kadyn Rathbone, and her dad, Dakota, spoke to BPR as they watched two young red wolves tussle and howl at one of the center鈥檚 outdoor exhibits. Kadyn pointed excitedly at the pups, calling them 鈥渁wesome.鈥�
鈥淲e鈥檝e really been missing [the center] while it鈥檚 been closed,鈥� Rathbone said. On their drive over, Kadyn was 鈥渟uper excited鈥� and 鈥渟creaming at the top of her lungs.鈥�
Further down the boardwalk, another family 鈥� Kristen Frommal and her 2-year-old son Nico 鈥� gazed at a barn owl perched in a nest. Frommal got emotional on the drive over to the center, she said.
鈥淚t just feels like it's one more step towards being normal,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t was a tough six months for all of us, but we're getting back, and it's just nice to see friendly faces and people enjoying themselves.鈥�
In the area surrounding the nature center, the scars of the storm are still clear. Nearby, the rest of the Azalea Park property is scattered with debris. The broken bridge over the Swannanoa River cuts off in the center, a road to nowhere, for the time being. Across the river, the former site of Manna FoodBank remains mangled.
The nature center is one of the first city-owned recreation spaces that saw major damage to reopen since the hurricane. Many public parks, like Richmond Hills, Carrier Park and the French Broad River Park are still temporarily closed, with no clear reopening date.
Gentile said all animals and the building itself made it out okay, but that the property saw about $250,000 in damage to fences, boardwalks and animal habitat.
The center鈥檚 Hellbender, who is named Meatloaf, also had to be transferred to another facility for several months while Asheville was navigating a months-long clean water crisis.
鈥淲e had to rebuild our whole parking lot,鈥� Gentile said. 鈥淭hat was completely taken away with the storm because the water actually came up and went underneath that bank and took a lot of the the black top, a lot of the pavement out.鈥�
The city also had to reroute roads and find another bridge to connect visitors to the center.
鈥淭hat was probably our biggest challenge, figuring out how to get people to us,鈥� Gentile said.
Ultimately, the city threaded a one-way vehicle path using the existing John B. Lewis Bridge that had survived the floodwaters and was declared safe by city and state officials.
Much of the other damage was cleared up by volunteers from other zoos, who came from all over the country to help, as well as the local nonprofit, Friends of the WNC Nature Center.
Once the center reopens on Monday, it will be back to its regular daily schedule. It鈥檚 open seven days a week from 10 a.m to 4:30 p.m.
