The mission of the Lake Erie Islands Nature & Wildlife Center is to promote conservation of and education about the flora, fauna, and lands of the Lake Erie Islands ecosystem.
Introducing WILD March Madness!! Brackets are in, now stay tuned for the tournament results! We’ll be posting updates as the winners of each round is determined!
There are four “divisions” of animals found on the Lake Erie Islands: Mammals, Herps (reptiles & amphibians), Common Feeder Birds, and Raptors & Water Birds. Every animal has been ranked within their division based on different qualities. The winner of each match-up will be determined by a weighted random generator (so the rankings do matter!). Winners of each “match” will be posted here and on social media over the course of the tournament. At the end, we’ll tally up everyone’s points and declare the WILD winner! Brackets can be done in person OR virtually by sending $10 through PayPal and we’ll email you the bracket! Go WILD for March Madness!
Despite the difficulties of 2020, we are proud to say that the Lake Erie Islands Nature & Wildlife Center accomplished something we have been working towards for years: our beautiful building addition and remodeled Nature & Wildlife Center. We will always be grateful for the year 2020 because of this. Here is a look at the amazing transformation that occurred over the past year. Thank you so much to everyone who helped make this possible, we appreciate you all more than we can say! We are so excited to reopen and welcome everyone back in 2021 with our new and improved Nature & Wildlife Center!
Updates from the LEINWC
Construction is complete for the building addition at the Nature and Wildlife Center!! Thanks to the immense support of our community and donors, we have finally completed the addition after almost a year of construction. The building addition will add valuable space, as our visitor numbers have been consistently increasing over the years. In the addition, we will have a new display area that will house a wildlife viewing window area, a geology display, and most exciting of all, a new live animal display. We will also add a much-needed office and library space. We are currently hard at work to pull together these displays and furnish the remodeled entryway and the new office space. We are very excited to show off the new and improved Nature & Wildlife Center next Spring when we reopen! We hope to see you then!
We know everyone is experiencing difficulties right now, and we hope to work with our community and be an educational resource during these times and always. We have developed some resources to help families with fun activities to do while at home as well as educational resources for kids (and adults!), and are working on more. If there are any other ways we can be a helpful resource to the community, please contact us and let us know. If you want to volunteer to help the Nature & Wildlife Center, please reach out as we are always looking for help within the community. We sincerely appreciate any and all support you can provide, whether it’s donations, volunteering, or even just liking and sharing our social media pages and posts! Thank you to our amazing community, we appreciate all of you more than we can say!
We have worked hard to limit our expenses this past year, but as always, we rely on donations to help support our educational programs and operating costs. We are also still seeking donations to help with the new displays and furnishings for the building addition. You can help by sponsoring a display (contact us at leinwc@gmail.com for more details), purchasing an item for the Nature & Wildlife Center off our Amazon Wish List (don’t forget to shop through AmazonSmile and make the LEINWC your charity to give back with every purchase!), or sponsoring a yearly expense. For other ways to help, click here. If you would like to donate online, you can do so through PayPal using a PayPal account or credit card.
About Us
The Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center was formed by a collaboration between the Lake Erie Islands chapter of the Black Swamp Conservancy and the Lake Erie Islands Historical Society. In 2012 we became an independent non-profit organization.
Along with being in the middle of the walleye capital of the world, the islands are home to hundreds of species of birds and are the only place in the country where the federally threatened Lake Erie Watersnake can be found.
Utilizing our unique location we aim to provide a one of a kind ecological/educational experience for the 700,000+ visitors that come to South Bass Island each summer.
Want to receive information on the LEINWC by email? Simply fill out the form below and you'll be added to our contact list.
Want to receive information on the LEINWC by email? Simply fill out the form below and you'll be added to our contact list.
How to Help
Our Mission
The mission of the Lake Erie Islands Nature & Wildlife Center is to promote conservation of & education about the flora, fauna, and lands of the Lake Erie Islands ecosystem. We work hard to support and promote this mission with everything we do. Please see above or click How to Help for more information on how you can help us continue to realize our mission.
Contact
(419) 285-3037
255 Meechen Rd., Put-in-Bay, OH 43456
For detailed information on how to get to the island, visit the Put-in-Bay Chamber of Commerce website. For ferry information and schedules, visit the Miller Ferry and Jet Express websites.
