That year, the Board of Directors decided that a new, highly visible focus on education was needed, and that the best way to reach more people, adults and children, was to build a center in an easily accessible place that also had a wide variety of habitat - including fields, forests, wetlands and rocky shore - to present a lively cross-section of the state's biodiversity.

Ten years after its official opening in July 10, 2000, Audubon's Environmental Education Center remains a state-of-the-art natural history museum and aquarium offering many environmental wonders to explore.

It features interactive exhibits of local habitats, mirroring the creatures and ecology one might encounter as they explore outside. Visitors peer inside a 33-foot, life-sized Right Whale and learn about its unique history as well as the dangers it faces today. Families discover colorful and thriving sea life in a living tide pool. Birders with binoculars and field guide in hand witness the glory of spring migration. Summer campers pull seine nets through the water and discover life at the shore. Children climb off their bikes and search for turtles and frogs in the brackish marsh adjacent to the bike path, and nature enthusiasts of all ages regularly walk the winding trails and boardwalk to Narragansett Bay.

Moreover, there is a plethora of educational programs to choose from, such as weekend events, after school programs, summer camps, and adult lectures. The Center is also a frequent destination for school field trips, as well as a place for home-schoolers to enhance their education.

There is no question that the Center is a living, breathing testament to Audubon's philosophy that conservation begins with education.