Durango Nature Studies

VISION 

As an integral member of our community, Durango Nature Studies inspires a positive personal relationship with our natural world through outdoor learning, thereby promoting enhanced respect for nature.

MISSION

Founded in 1994, Durango Nature Studies is a 501(C)(3) non-profit dedicated to providing nature, science, and environmental education to the students and communities of the Four Corners.

ABOUT 

Durango Nature Studies has been bringing hands-on, outdoor, nature education to the Four Corners community since 1994. We teach students, adults, and families from Durango, CO to Cortez, CO, and from Silverton, CO, to Farmington, NM – an area of over 12,000 square miles! With a small core staff, dedicated volunteers, interns, and contractors, DNS serves approximately 8,000 people every year. We offer something for every age in the community – from preschool to adults. Our two-part school programs conform to national, state, and local education standards and are a state model of how environmental education organizations and school districts can work together. Our extremely popular summer camps and programs allow kids to keep learning about and playing in nature during the summer months. Durango Nature Studies is a community resource for all ages.

THE NATURE CENTER

The Durango Nature Center, near Bondad, was acquired by Durango Nature Studies in June of 1998. As part of the negotiations to acquire the land, as well as the goals of the organization, all of the acreage of the site was placed under a conservation easement. The upper 35 acres of the site is comprised of public access and parking area, prairie dog colonies, bird boxes, a children’s habitat play space, an ancient ponderosa pine cross-section with marked rings, xeriscaped landscaping, and a sage-rabbitbrush habitat. A footpath leads visitors down to 105 acres along the Florida River. There, trails wander through a wide variety of habitats – riparian, meadows, oak woodlands, piñon-juniper forests, and desert arroyos. Trails are marked with signs at ending points and junctions, as well as with interpretive markers and maps along the way. The Nature Center has a Welcome Building, an Outdoor Pavilion, and many benches and areas for observing wildlife. May groups have helped make the Nature Center the community resource it is today. Visit our Projects and Partners page to learn more about our Nature Center partners.