Help Us Restore This Critical Habitat for Birds

Orange Audubon Nature Center at the Apopka Birding Park

Opening 2026

Orange Audubon is actively fundraising prior to beginning work on a nature center and birding park at the entrance to the popular Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive on the north shore of the lake. The 69.5 site was a flowers nursery purchased by the St. Johns River Water Management District as part of the Lake Apopka restoration and later surplused to the City of Apopka because it is an upland site, not necessary for the restoration.

Upland sites have become rare in our area as one by one they have been developed with housing or commercial development. Upland sites are home to gopher tortoises and many different types of resident, overwintering and migratory birds.

The habitat restoration project and long-term lease agreement with the City of Apopka was announced in March 2024 by the City.

Orange Audubon will convert an former truck repair building on Lust Road into a low-carbon, sustainability-focused educational visitor’s center, with surrounding restored native plant habitat, birdwatching observation sites, and walking trails. The park will be open to the public for nature observation to the extent possible and will complement the adjacent Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive.

The architectural firm Little Diversified Architectural Consulting (Little) has completed design of a state-of- the art energy-efficient building renovation of the old truck shop. Originally 2400 square feet, it will be expanded to 3400 square feet with a bird viewing annex looking out to a native landscape and water feature. The building, which will cost approximately $2 million, has been designed and is already through permitting with the City of Apopka.

In May 2025, the design was recognized by the American Institute of Architects (AIA) Orlando Chapter at their awards gala. Little’s design brought home the only award among 18 entries in the Unbuilt Category, AIA’s Award of Merit. The building will be beautiful, highly visited since it is at the entrance to the extremely popular Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive and should be a wonderful amenity to the area.

When will construction on the nature center start? Orange Audubon needs to bring in more funding for both the building and operations prior to breaking ground. Can you help?

We need your help with volunteer manpower, ideas, and funding. To volunteer, please email volunteer@orangeaudubonfl.org or fill out a form on our Get Involved page.

Donations that are needed, that have naming rights, are:

• $350,000 for Birding Observatory/Annex with direct views into the east bird habitats
• $250,000 for flexible educational classroom and meeting space
• $100,000 for the solar array (or individual panels -$500 each)
• $100,000 for exterior birding porches
• $45,000 for educational displays
• $20,000 for fencing
• $10,000 for water cisterns
• $2,500 for a water feature
• Donations are also needed for:
  • Native plants
  • Bird feeding stations
  • A chimney swift tower
  • Bat houses
  • Purple Martin house
  • Raptor poles
  • Benches
  • Bird blinds
  • Gardening/mowing tools

Your tax-deductable donation will be properly acknowledged and prominently recognized on our donor tree (see far right corner in rendering below), in our OASis newsletter, here on this website, with special events and in all ways we can show Orange Audubon’s appreciation to the companies, foundations and individuals that will make this project possible.

We would love to show you our detailed plans and discuss your interest. Please email info@orangeaudubonfl.org or call 407-637-2525 to begin the conversation.

Thank you!