We envision a society where people value learning and share with one another their understanding of local and regional ecosystems.

• we provide action-oriented opportunities for people to learn about the multitude of wonders in their yards, parks, forests, fields, and streams.
• we advance knowledge through place-based action, exploration-based education, scientific inquiry, and high quality publication.
• we ensure the spread of ecological principles through partnerships with plant nurseries, education institutions, county and state natural heritage groups, private landowners, and many other public and private entities.
• we strive to inspire people to think deeply and critically by helping them see the patterns that frequently hide right before there eyes.
• we believe that a rigorous process involving cycles of Inquiry and Discovery is perhaps the most important facet of advancing education and conservation. “Questioning” is the key, which is why we chose the question mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) as our logo.

Center for Urban Habitats (CUH) will be undergoing a gradual transition to  non-profit status under a new name in 2023: Piedmont Discovery Center (PDC). We will continue our current operations under the new name and will reach out to our followers when the transition is official!

We envision creating a world-class facility under that new name with three operational components nestled within a rich botanic garden: Biological Field Station, Design and Restoration Department, and a Species and Systems Propagation and Research Department. These 3 departments accomplish education programming, environmental services, and natural history interpretation. Building on a successful 5 years of growth and impact (as CUH) the organization will continue to accomplish its mission in an increased capacity with a vibrant and engaging place of operations open to public visitation and participation. In doing so PDC will inspire thousands, if not millions, to become stewards of the natural world in our nation’s most lived-in ecoregion : The Piedmont.

The Center’s facilities will be gracefully nestled in a biological landscape and serve as a dynamic and active hub for citizen science, research, education, and interpretation. Visitors will discover trails that run through an exquisitely designed botanic garden and extensive natural habitat restoration areas. They’ll get an intimate look at the full glory of the wildly diverse nature of the Piedmont, and a glimpse of how it could look in the future. The Center will also be a launching point for expeditions and scientific investigations in the region and a repository for the resulting knowledge. All facilities of the Center will be provide interactive, engaging, and dynamic education and interpretive elements. The Center will be an interactive, living, outdoor exhibit bustling with the plants and animals of the Piedmont Ecoregion.

Center for Urban Habitats (CUH) will transition its brand and name to Piedmont Discovery Center (PDC) in order to maximize its effectiveness toward accomplishing its mission while retaining the services that have made it so successful to date. Building on more than 5 years of powerful natural resource research, education, and conservation, the Center will expand to not only reach all parts of the Piedmont region, but also receive the public at a world class grounds and facility that interprets the natural history of the region. The Center has become one of the top education-based environmental services businesses in Virginia and public feedback makes it clear that the capacity for expanding far beyond our current audience is in the Center’s near future. Major priorities for the future include acquiring land, building a state-of-the-art facility, doubling our audience size and education programming, and securing large-scale private funding to support those efforts. The Center currently serves over 50,000 people annually even without a public venue for operations, and will further increase its ability to inspire and educate the public through education programs, environmental services, research, and publishing on our new grounds. We will continue to reach beyond our walls throughout the region with outreach and contracted services, as well as occasional satellite offices and operations. Through the transition of our brand and the affirmation and focus of existing staff rolls and resources, and in concert with a robust fundraising campaign and geographic expansion of services, the Center will secure the resources necessary to support its business development and strategic priorities for future growth.

The Piedmont has over 30 million residents, making it the most populated ecoregion on the continent. We envision being a national leader in community-rooted, place-based, natural resource knowledge building. The primary objective of the Center will be to inspire humans to develop sustainable relationships with the natural world through improved knowledge and inspiration.

Of all the regions of North America, it is the overly populated Piedmont of the east that is in desperate need of awakening. Tens of millions of people live there and suppress a natural world they don’t even know exists. The public has lost a collective awareness of the grand biodiversity of the Piedmont, and therefor there is very little interest and hope. They’ve written the region off as agricultural wasteland with very little ecological value, and yet hiding in millions of small and forgotten places are the whispers of a rich natural world that not only echoes the past, but speaks of a future of wondrous potential. The biologically rich ecosystems that have been suppressed for centuries are not lost. We must make room for them. It is not too late, and now is the time. Let’s make room for the natural wonders of the Piedmont region, even in our yards, parks, and urban lots. Let’s let biodiversity again be a prominent facet of the Piedmont. Let’s take pride in our natural heritage and share it with the world. Let’s inspire future generations of stewards.