Plans for New Broomfield Butterfly Pavilion Begin to Unfold

Groundbreaking Planned for 2024

By Missy Ruzicka

June is pollinator month. Celebrate by getting excited about what’s coming to Broomfield when the new Butterfly Pavilion comes to town. The Butterfly Pavilion is the only stand-alone invertebrate zoo in the entire world and they are working tirelessly on the global conservation of our ever-important invertebrates.

Over the past 25 years if you’ve ever been to the Butterfly Pavilion you know that every volunteer and staff member has a passion for teaching about invertebrates and how crucial they are to our existence. Invertebrates make up 97% of all animal species on earth and perform vital functions as pollinators, decomposers, predators, and prey. What better way to learn about these fascinating creatures than to get a hands-on experience! When the Butterfly Pavilion moves to Broomfield it will have so many new and different ways to explore the habitats of our invertebrate friends.

Jennifer Quermann, Director of Marketing, and Janet McFarland Burlile, VP of Donor Relations, both took time out of their busy schedules to talk to me about all the incredible plans for the New Butterfly Pavilion. Back in 2016, there was discussion about how to expand and reach more people, and leaders quickly realized they were growing out of their 30,000 square foot Westminster home. In 2017 the City of Broomfield approached with a proposal of land, partnership, and a $13 million budget to move the Butterfly Pavilion to a new one-of-a-kind community at I-25 and HWY 7. Real estate developer McWhinney donated 3.5 acres of land for the Butterfly Pavilion’s new home and now is working to develop a 1,200-acre multi-use community combining science and environmental conservation, along with commercial development, that will be a pollinator friendly habitat, creating a new model of community development and landscapes.

The New Butterfly Pavilion is planned to be a beautiful 81,000 square foot facility with three unique biomes for guests to explore the habitats that are crucial to our invertebrate friends. The Tropical biome will be similar to the current Wings of the Tropics, but the new one will be five stories high giving room for a natural canopy and a chance to see those who live high in that canopy with a treehouse viewing area. The new Ocean biome will be on the first floor with a much larger version of the current touch tanks, and in a separate tank they are even adding new species like jellyfish. The Desert biome will be the new home of the muchloved Rosie the Tarantula and her friends, surrounded by natural desert plants that make their habitats perfect.

Unique features will be public research labs in each biome which will encourage guests to help in the research along with ‘discovery portals’ found in each biome; examples of the portals would be exploring a cave or checking out the underside of logs to see who lives in there.

Along with new biomes there will also be state of the art virtual reality conservation from Wild Life Protection Solutions so visitors can experience what it is like to be a dung beetle, swimming with Octopuses or pollinating with bees. Scientists from all over the world, along with university students and faculty, will be invited to the new expanded lab spaces to collaborate on invertebrate research. An example of what they are working on is breeding dragonflies and Colorado fireflies from egg to maturity to increase their populations. Along with new research space and classrooms, there will be special event spaces and a Café that will lead out to a park filled with trails and paths for recreation.

Around the outside of the new Butterfly Pavilion there will be a Colorado Terrace with native plants and animals. And a dragonfly terrace will provide a place where scientists will make the perfect habitats for those increased dragonfly populations. The state-of-the-art facility in Broomfield will engage, inspire, and provide the tools humans need to come together to save invertebrates and therefore take one step towards saving the world.

Celebrate National Pollinators by using the QR code to donate to the New Broomfield Butterfly Pavilion with a planned ground breaking in 2024 and a grand opening in 2025!