MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU) — A series of new additions to Marshfield’s popular Wildwood Zoo is being planned, and Parks and Rec. Director Justin Casperson says a fundraising campaign is underway for a new Welcome Center with ADA accessible restrooms, and an expansive new natural-habitat cougar exhibit.
“We don’t really have adequate restrooms for the facility,” Casperson explained, “and our cougars are in a relatively small area, on concrete all the time. They don’t ever leave the concrete so they’re always on the concrete.”
That Welcome Center will also be home to a small reptile display, and a custom-built educational exhibit on groundwater. According to Casperson, “Water’s a huge issue and we thought, it’d be great to bring more kids down there and try to educate them more on water quality.”
Including the almost $200,000 water display, the project is expected to have a total price tag of around $700,000. “The actual project itself – minus the water display – is about $500,000,” Capserson said. “And that’s to do the building, and do the cougar exhibit itself. That’s about a 50-50 split between the city and private donations.”
The city will kick-in $250,000 for the project, while both the city’s Utility Commission and Wastewater Utility recently pledged $50,000 each for the project, with the remaining costs to be covered through the private fundraising campaign.
The Floyd Hamus family, who was instrumental in the construction of the zoo’s Kodiak bear exhibit, has been identified as one of the major private donors who have already contributed to the new cougar exhibit.
City planners are hoping to see those new additions to the zoo completed by the late summer of 2019.
