James Farm unveils new education campus

The Delaware Center for the Inland Bays celebrated the completion of its new education campus at the James Farm Ecological Preserve near Bethany Beach with a ribbon-cutting ceremony May 30. The event was attended by a wide range of Delaware elected officials, CIB board members, volunteers, community members, donors and others.

The new campus features the Susan K. Ball Education Center, a three-season environmental education building with capacity for up to 70 people, equipped with electricity, counter space, presentation space, and sinks for lab activities; an ADA-accessible restroom facility; outdoor amphitheater seating for 70; a new maintenance building with a full workshop and large equipment storage; a habitat restoration staging area; and ecotour concessionaire storage to support partnerships with local outdoor outfitters.

“All the wonders that this place has to teach people can be enhanced with access to microscopes and the technology that speaks to our youth today,” said CIB Executive Director Christophe Tulou. “This is critical. People need to know what is magical about a place like this, about an estuary like ours. This is our opportunity to give them that education.”

Through a capital campaign, the CIB secured state- and county-level funding, foundation grants, individual and corporate gifts and various in-kind donations. The projected overall cost for this phase of the project is about $2.8 million.

The new education center is named after the late Susan “Susie” Ball, a former longtime CIB volunteer and board chair, who dedicated much of her time to the preserve and advocated for its conservation and growth. Many who knew Ball described her at the ceremony as extremely passionate and knowledgeable about nature and all creatures.

According to her wife, Susan Delaney, she truly loved James Farm and believed it was the perfect place to educate children and future generations about the environment. For Delaney, it’s exciting to see the new building serve as a namesake for her.

“More than anything, it’s such an honor and a capturing of her passion,” she said. “This building is marvelous, and she would have loved it. It fills me with pride.”

The building will also provide covered shelter for visitors and volunteers during storms, something the preserve used to lack.

The new campus will serve as a mecca for publicly accessible environmental education, research and ecological stewardship. In the future, folks will have the option to rent out the campus or one of the buildings for community events, said CIB Communications Coordinator Caitlin Chaney.

Chaney hopes the improvements will attract more students and visitors overall. Earlier this year, she added, CIB received a community transportation grant, which allows them to fund buses to take students to the preserve in cases where student transportation is a challenge.

For some kids, although they live within a watershed, visiting the preserve is their first experience actually being in the water. There, they get to dip a net in, dredge up sediment and creatures from beneath the surface and learn about them.

“We’re so excited that we can now take that learning experience and grow it here with the education center, where they can also interact with science equipment and take that a step further,” said Aimee Isaac, vice chair of the CIB board of directors.

Other speakers at the ceremony included Catherine Libertz, Environmental Protection Agency Region 3 deputy administrator; Sen. Gerald Hocker, R-Ocean View; Rep. Ronald Gray, R-Selbyville; and Sussex County Council President Doug Hudson.

Also in attendance were Sen. Russ Huxtable, D-Lewes; Rep. Claire Snyder-Hall, D-Rehoboth Beach; Ocean View Mayor John Reddington; Bethany Beach Mayor Ron Calef; Delaware Secretary of Agriculture Don Clifton; and many others.

The completion of the education campus is a key part of the second and final phase of the James Farm Master Plan project. This phase also entails improving the preserve’s trail system, which has already been done, and adding new signage throughout the preserve, which will be completed this year.

The Phase II design team includes David D. Quillin Architecture, Bancroft Construction and Kimley-Horn Engineering Planning and Design Consultants.

Phase I, which was completed in spring 2019, focused on improving public access and outdoor infrastructure.

The entire project has been a major team effort, and Tulou expressed his gratitude to everyone involved.

“Success has many fathers and mothers, and this project is a perfect example,” he said.

The 150-acre preserve, which is located along the Indian River Bay, has been managed by the CIB on behalf of Sussex County since 1998.