The Dallas County Conservation Department recently presented its facility-wide master plan during a Board of Supervisors meeting.

Director Curt Cable says the plan looks at some of the department’s larger parks, including Kuehn Conservation Area, Voas Nature Area and Forest Park. 

“It kind of lays out these projects that we should complete over the next 20 to 30 years. Everything in the master plan is things to aspire to. There’s a lot in there, we have over $12 million worth of projects in that.”

Cable details that one of the major projects the department is looking to tackle in 2026 is a fundraising campaign for a conservation center. He explains that this will be a building that will support environmental education at the Kuehn Conservation Area, located north of Earlham and between Adel and Redfield.

“It’s one of our areas that we have roughly over 4,000 kids that come out there each year, just from the various school districts around the county. It’s a really neat area and to have this type of facility where we can go when the weather does get bad, we can bring them into a three-season room where they’ll be able to shelter for a little bit before we get them back outside, because our philosophy is we want them outside.”

Cable adds that the conservation center will be a large project and he is looking forward to launching the fundraising campaign to see where it can go this year.