BENJAMIN ZACK, Standard-Examiner file photo

OGDEN — The Ogden Nature Center and its board of directors began the year by establishing new leadership, hiring Laura Hayes Western as executive director in January.

And while she’s still relatively new in the role, the Davis County resident already feels as though she’s living the proverbial dream.

“I mean, I just wake up every morning and I wake up so happy,” Western told the Standard-Examiner. “The gates go open at the Ogden Nature Center and I look around and think, ‘This is so cool.’ There are birds and bugs and deer and cool projects we’re doing, and the farmhouse that was built in 1872. It just is cool.”

Western replaced interim Director Don Hickman, bringing with her a wealth of experience in the operation and development of nonprofits. She recently had served as executive director and senior vice president for the American Heart Association in Utah and Idaho.

“I think what I bring to the table is that big vision,” Western said. “Taking that big picture, overlaying it to a smaller organization and helping them really grow and be efficient in different ways.”

Photo supplied, Ogden Nature Center

The Ogden Nature Center — home to a 152-acre nature preserve, just a few minutes from downtown Ogden — was founded in 1975 as Utah’s first nature center. It has become a fixture of the local community; something that has struck a chord with Western.

The institution of a capital campaign to help with the facility’s maintenance is among her first big projects as executive director. Western also name-checked the Dumke Picnic Grove as an area of the nature center slated to enter a new phase of development.

Although her eyes are focused on building its future, Western also has designs on honoring and preserving the nature center’s past as its semicentennial anniversary approaches.

“What we want to do is draw attention back to the founders and the people that love the nature center,” she said. “When I look at people that come here, it just isn’t the kids that come here. There are seniors that walk through here every day, that have been here for years, that volunteer here.”

Western noted that nearly 10,000 hours of volunteer work were logged at the nature center last year.

Even as she has entered a new realm from a career standpoint, Western’s own appreciation for nature is deeply rooted.

“I think my dad really instilled in both my brother and I to really love the environment, care for the environment,” she said. “We all had a responsibility to the environment.”

It’s Western’s hope that the nature center can continue to educate others and foster a similar respect and admiration for our natural world.

“We want to connect people to nature all the time,” she said. “We have Wild Wednesdays, which families can come to. We have tai chi, we have forest bathing, we have craft projects. … There’s always something for everybody, every single week, and lots of days that they can choose from.”

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