Forty years ago, the Burr Oak Woods Nature Center opened in the Kansas City suburb of Blue Springs, the first nature center provided in the state by the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC). 
 
Now, MDC invites the generations of people who have enjoyed Burr Oak Woods to celebrate with a free Conservation Carnival at the nature center from 2 to 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 1.
 
Visitors will find special conservation exhibits, nature crafts and games, food trucks, and children’s activities. They will see special exhibits of equipment used by MDC staff to manage the natural habitats that support native plants, fish, forests, and wildlife. Visitors can talk with staff about conservation practices on public and private lands. They can also try their hand at outdoor skills such as archery or throwing the atlatl with coaching from MDC staff and volunteers. One of MDC’s new K9 agents will also be on hand.
 
The activities will celebrate nature and the thousands of people who have enjoyed seeing live snakes and turtles, or learned how to fish, or spotted wild turkeys while hiking on the trails. People who came to the nature center as children with family or in a school group are now bringing their children and grandchildren to Burr Oak Woods. School teachers who came as youths are now bringing their students.