Turtle Mural and Wildlife Signs

The Lake Erie Islands Nature and Wildlife Center is committed to promoting conservation of and education about the flora, fauna, and lands of the Lake Erie Islands ecosystem. We are extremely excited after having a record-breaking year in 2021 and that visitors were thrilled with the building addition and new displays. But we’re not done yet! We are eager to continue the upgrades and refurbishment of the Nature and Wildlife Center to ensure a fun and educational experience for all of our visitors.

In this campaign, we are looking to raise money for a mural around our indoor turtle pond as well as new updated signs for our wildlife displays. Last year, the amazing local artist did a beautiful mural around our large mammal display, and she can’t wait to do one around our turtle pond! The mural will tie in the landscape from the pond to create a three-dimensional looking wetland habitat, complete with several native birds common to our islands including a great blue heron, green heron, kingfisher, egret, and more! She might even sneak a few reptiles or amphibians in there. Here’s the turtle pond where she will paint this amazing new mural:

Our mural artist, Janet Stearns, is an incredibly talented artist with deep ties to Middle Bass Island. Her family has been on Middle Bass for many generations; her great great grandfather even captained the steamship City of Cleveland! Janet started painting when she was 12 years old and attended Cooper School of Art, then Hiram College. She has continued her art throughout her life, completing several wall murals as well as painting landscapes, dog portraits, birds, ducks, cars, trains, and boats. Janet’s love of nature drives her passion for painting. She is especially inspired by Lake Erie, expressing “The lake is ever-changing and I never tire of the inspirations it gives me.” Her amazing work can also be seen at the Fishbowl on Put-in-Bay, and the Middle Bass General Store. Here is the mural she painted last year for our large mammal display:

Our wildlife displays consist of over 100 species of birds and mammals, some of which are more than 30 years old! The identification signs are the same that were originally installed when the museum was built in the 90s. Since then, some of the species names have been changed. We also noticed a few that are incorrectly labeled, since new subspecies have been discovered. We are first a foremost a center of education and we are determined to update the signs to the current species, as well as including the scientific name for each species (which is currently absent). We plan to have the signs made by a local company from recycled materials to align with our sustainability initiatives. This will significantly add to our ability to educate our visitors on the amazing wildlife mounts on display.