September 29, 2025

Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center staff and Columbus State students, in conjunction with Columbus Water Works, will provide family-focused activities, food and entertainment from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 11. This event is free and open to the public.

Throughout the day, visitors can meet representatives from various local organizations dedicated to environmental conservation, enjoy face painting and bouncy houses, and interact with native and exotic wildlife.  Chilidogs and ice cream will also be available.

“Oxbow Meadows offers programs from the birds to the bees and from the gators to the turtles — and likely everything in between,” said Dr. Michael Dentzau, a professor and the center’s executive director. “For three decades, our mission has been educating, inspiring and empowering all people by engaging them with nature and the environment.”

On-site programs throughout the year highlight all that the center has to offer visitors, including its Natural History Discovery Center, indoor and outdoor exhibits featuring living reptiles and fish, a stream habitat that supports a variety of plants and animals, a pollinator garden, bee hives, environmental art, a classroom and an auditorium.

Dentzau credits the university’s many donors with helping those spaces grow and flourish during the last 12 years he has served as director. Most notably, those include the 2.5-mile Walt and Frank Chambers Birding Trail that opened in October 2023, a recirculating pond for young scientists to explore pond life close up, an outdoor habitat for rescued gopher tortoises, an interactive “Discovery Forest” children’s play area, a team-building low elements course, and a research-grade weather station.

Many of the center’s staff, including Dentzau, also teach in various university disciplines—ranging from their areas of scientific expertise to teacher education programs that prepare future K-12 educators. In that regard, he said, Oxbow Meadows provides current Columbus State students with field-based experiences—sharing what they learn in the classroom with the center’s younger visitors who represent the next generation of ecologists, biologists, botanists and zoologists.

“Oxbow Meadows is as much a classroom for our college students preparing for careers in their respective science and education fields as it is for the curious youth visitors who participate in our programs,” Dentzau said. “As we help to reinforce what they learn in their degree programs, they’re in turn inspiring an entirely new group following in their inquisitive footsteps.”

About Oxbow Meadows

Columbus State University’s Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center is dedicated to educating, inspiring and engaging people about and with nature and the environment. It offers a view of the ecoregion of west central Georgia and the Chattahoochee Valley by providing access to samples of the area’s rich plant and animal communities. Located at the southern end of the Columbus Riverwalk, it is just blocks from U.S. Army Fort Benning and the National Infantry Museum, and integrated with Columbus’ Dragonfly Trails Network.

Established in 1995 as a collaboration among Columbus Water Works, Columbus State University, and the City of Columbus, the center offers exhibits, displays, and nature trails, as well as formal and informal programs about the ecology and natural history of the region. Interpretive and hands-on programming is provided by its professional educational staff, contributing faculty, student assistants, and volunteers.

Oxbow Meadows is open to visitors Tuesday through Saturday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. General admission to Oxbow Meadows outside of specific programs is always free.

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Main image: Collage of photos showing the exterior of the Oxbow Meadows Environmental Learning Center, its alligator exhibit and its gopher turtle exhibit

Media contact: Michael Tullier, APR, Executive Director of Strategic Communication + Marketing, 706.507.8729, mtullier@columbusstate.edu