Nurture Nature Center

Nurture Nature Center (NNC) is a nonprofit center located in the city of Easton, Pennsylvania in the Lehigh Valley, immediately adjacent to northern New Jersey that focuses on engaging the public in dialogue about a broad-range of environmental issues to promote science learning, critical thinking and decision-making. NNC has been especially active in the area of flood risk preparedness in the Delaware River Watershed and the Atlantic coastal plain and beyond. The work that the Center has done on public engagement as well as its work on flood risk preparedness has been disseminated nationwide. NNC has also been involved in educating the public about the availability and benefits of local foods.
Areas of Work
Public Dialogue and Exhibits
NNC has fostered dialogue on environmental issues in a variety of ways. It began by conducting a series of participatory public forums in the surrounding communities under a grant from the National Science Foundation. Later, in 2011, the Center opened its doors to the public and began to offer a variety of programs.
Central to NNC’s offerings is its most important exhibit, Science on a Sphere which was developed by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and was installed at NNC with the help of an environmental literacy grant from that agency. SOS is a six-foot suspended globe that can display a wide variety of programs, including dramatic depictions of the paths of actual hurricanes and tsunamis, and dynamic models of other events and trends such as population growth, solar flares, constellations, sea turtle migrations and land use development. The Center uses the exhibit as a springboard for engaging the public in dialogue about topics that concern them. NNC’s SOS is currently one of over just a hundred SOS locations worldwide.
NNC also hosts many other activities designed to foster public dialogue on environmental risk topics of local and regional concerns. In addition to forums and exhibits, the outreach includes speaking events, art shows, documentary films, workshops and focus groups, on a wide range of topics such as flooding and weather, urban gardens, local foods, fracking, solar energy, pesticide use, nature photography and nature journaling.
Flood Preparedness and Education
A primary focus of NNC’s work since inception has been flood risks and how to prepare for them. NNC’s first flood-related project was a “Flood Safety Education and Awareness Campaign” in the Delaware River Basin, an area that had suffered repeated flooding during the period 2004-06. The campaign, which was funded by a grant from NOAA and conducted in partnership with the National Weather Service, resulted in the development of a variety of flood education materials that can be replicated by communities nationwide, including coloring books, refrigerator magnets and instructional DVDs, along with an award-winning film by Easton's Emmy-winning illustrator Maciek Albrecht.
NNC has also produced a program for Science on a Sphere, named “Rising Waters” which is currently available through NOAA’s SOS network on SOS spheres across the world and can also be accessed in script form by the public. “Rising Waters” is designed to help audiences understand the connections between climate and flooding. In June 2013, Nurture Nature Center won a national media/outreach award from the Association of State Floodplain Managers for its “Rising Waters” program.
NNC maintains a website on flood education and education videos.
Local Food
NNC has also been active in encouraging the development of a local food economy and educating the public about the benefits of buying local foods. Its work has included programs to help local farmers sell to wholesale markets and programs to encourage teach school children the benefits of healthy local foods. NNC also puts out a local food guide for the Lehigh Valley region and in 2014 completed a comprehensive assessment of the Lehigh Valley Food Economy, which evaluated food access issues and made recommendations for how to improve fresh food access in food deserts and generally throughout the valley. The report was prepared for the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission in connection with its "Envision Lehigh Valley" initiative.
Studies and Publications
NNC has produced a guidebook for other museums and science centers across the country about how to host forums on local environmental risk topics, entitled “Risks to Resiliency” which is available to the public. The guidebook explains how environmental risk topics that the community is already concerned about can be used to promote science learning and community resiliency. In 2014, NNC was awarded a federal grant to further expand its methods for engaging communities in dialogue. The work under the grant is intended not only to advance NNC’s work locally and regionally, but also to provide additional models for other communities, supplementing the information that was provided in “Risks to Resiliency”.
NNC has also conducted studies on communicating with the public about flood risks, drawing on a body of social science work about public hazards preparedness. NNC’s first study on this topic, “Flood Risk and Uncertainty: Assessing the National Weather Service’s Flood Forecast and Warning Tools” was funded by NOAA and was designed to provide guidance to the National Weather Service about how people understand and use NWS flood forecast and warning tools and, and how those tools could be improved to better motivate flood preparedness and warning response. The project supports NOAA’s new Weather-Ready Nation initiative, designed to help the nation become better equipped to prepare for and respond to weather events.
The second study by NNC on this topic is funded under NOAA Sea Grant’s Coastal Storm Awareness Program and is designated “They Had the Facts, Why Didn’t They Act?: Understanding and Improving Public Response to NWS Coastal Flood Forecasts.” This research is designed to develop recommendations about communication techniques that could help the public and emergency management officials better understand the intensity and possible effects of coastal storms, thereby improving the likelihood that residents respond appropriately.
Organizational Information
The Nurture Nature Center is housed in an historic building in downtown Easton dating from 1914. The Center’s programs, exhibits and other work are a joint project of two nonprofits, the Nurture Nature Foundation (“NNF”) and Nurture Nature Center, Inc. (NNC, Inc.) NNF was founded in 1991 by Theodore W. Kheel and operates out of New York. It supports a number of environmental causes, but in recent years has devoted significant resources to the Center, including providing the physical facility itself. NNC, Inc. is a Pennsylvania nonprofit that was founded in 2007 to provide a local base for action. NNC, Inc. devotes its work solely to the Center. The Nurture Nature Center has received a number of federal awards that have also helped advance its work. It received support from NOAA for its flood education campaign, its SOS exhibit, and its flood forecast and coastal awareness research studies; from the National Science Foundation for its forum work and its Risk to Resiliency model; from the Institute of Museum and Library Studies to further advance its work on community engagement; and from the Department of Agriculture for its local foods programs, all discussed above. State and local sources have also contributed to the Center’s work.

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