The Detroit Zoo director said recently the Royal Oak facility’s existence was top of mind when plans were abandoned to build a nature center in Macomb County.

Haley Murphy, CEO and director of the Detroit Zoological Society, for a second time addressed the zoo’s abandonment of the planned nature center at the March 13 county Board of Commissioners meeting during an update on the zoo’s activities. The zoo announced plans for a nature center in 2018 but announced in December 2022 it was abandoning the project, which was expected to cost up to $30 million.

“If we could have another facility, I would love that. It’s part of our mission,” Murphy told commissioners. “But it’s my job to be economically responsible and not let the whole thing go under.

“Honestly, we couldn’t come out of that pandemic and build a new structure. It wasn’t economically feasible.”

As she stated in a September 2023 appearance in front of the board in the county Administration Building in Mount Clemens, Muprhy said the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic dealt a major blow to the zoo’s bottom line from which it has not fully recovered. Zoo officials are focusing on trying to build back attendance to pre-pandemic levels when it hit 1.4 million visitors, a mark it hasn’t hit since the 2020 shutdown, she said. There were 1.2 million visitors last year as the numbers have been creeping up since the pandemic, she said.

The zoo also was hit with sinkhole on its grounds that requires an $18 million fix.

“So we’re really concentrating on that earned revenue (admission and other generated income) and getting that up without driving away people who can’t afford to come to the zoo,” Murphy said. “There’s a cap at what we can earn because we don’t want to exclude people to the zoo.”

Of the zoo’s $54 million in revenue last year, 51% came from gate receipts and 34% from tax revenue.

The zoo’s general administration price at the gate is $27, $24 for youths and seniors. But discounted tickets can be obtained for tickets purchased online. For instance, the ticket price was $24 Monday but the price for succeeding days the rest of this week fell to $21 and $19, and was $16 for next Monday. Annual passes are also available.

Macomb County property owners have been paying a 0.1 mill to the zoo since 2009.

Murphy, who took over the post in November 2021, initially provided an explanation to the board in September 2023 by noting it would increase programs via the three Huron Clinton Metroparks in the county but provided additional explanation at the recent meeting in response to questions from Democratic commissioners Antoinette Wallace of Mount Clemens and Michael Howard of Warren.

She said officials are targeting efforts on following the zoo’s master strategic plan that includes collaboration with the HCMA, which operates the parks.

“It just made sense to concentrate on finishing that master plan, partnering with HCMA,” she said. “I’m a firm believer in efficiency and collaboration … what could we serve for the county in programs, educational, without robbing Peter to pay Paul, and put all of our resources into a nature center when we could have a much broader reach in Macomb County by a partnership with the biggest park system in Macomb County. … I think that it was then and still (is) now a sound economic decision for the zoo.”

The Macomb HCMA parks are Lake St. Clair, Wolcott Mill and Stony Creek.

The HCMA programs that have been started include:• Zoo and HCMA experts trained teachers in the Great Start Macomb program for children up to 8 years old, which is operated by the Macomb Intermediate School District, to improve their instruction of students on environmental and wildlife topics.

• Over 20,000 pounds of electronic waste was collected last September at an electronic recycling event at Lake St. Clair Metropark in Harrison Township.

• Tree saplings were cultivated in the zoo’s greenhouses for planting at HCMA parks.

Wallace, who represents the area of the county where the nature center would have been located, said after the meeting while she is supportive of the zoo and the programs it is providing in the county, she wished Murphy would have been more explicit in 2023 when she said some type of facility may still be possible in Macomb. Wallace said she didn’t learn until last year the project was not going to happen, adding the way the situation was handled was a “bad look.”

“My problem is that a promise was made and then we were told it will be fulfilled at a later date,” she said.

While she is pleased with various programs offered in the county and is particularly excited about the new upcoming Discovery Trails attraction at the zoo, Wallace believes they could be promoted more so more schools and other facilities could participate in them.

The zoo millage is up for renewal in 2026, and board Chair Joe Sabatini of Macomb Township said commissioners likely will start discussing later this year about whether to place it on the ballot.

The zoo also provides many other services in the county.

Among educational programs for over 153,000 students overall were programs for all first-graders in Warren Consolidated Schools, weekly after-school programs at Chippewa Valley High School in Clinton Township and scholarships for the Zoo Tots and Safari Camp for the Great Start Macomb program.

Murphy said thee are other programs “we are out and about with.”

Other programs include:

• Dream Night for disabled youths to exclusively visit the zoo.

• Families at Turning Point and the Macomb County Emergency Rotating Shelter residents and staff are treated to an exclusive zoo visit.

• A roundtable discussion about nonprofits and the zoo collaborations will take place May 21 at the zoo. The zoo already partners with organizations such as Advancing Macomb, Macomb County Ministerial Alliance, Gi’Anna House, Anton Art Center and Disability Network of Eastern Michigan. Murphy said senior citizens “are a big part of our outreach right now,” she said.

On top of that, services for seniors also “are a big part of our outreach right now,” she said.

Zoo officials “tailor” their programming to senior centers to whatever the those at the individual sites desire. Macomb facilities served include the Macomb Organization for Retiree Enrichment at the Albert Lorenzo Cultural Arts Center at Center Campus of Macomb Community College in Clinton Township, the Pines Senior Living facility in Sterling Heights, and the Rosville/Eastpoint and Shelby Township senior centers, she said.

Senior programming also is held at the Clinton-Macomb Public Library (South) and libraries in Shelby Township and Sterling Heights, according to information provided by the zoo.

Also, Senior Days, which includes free admission for seniors in Macomb, Oakland and Wayne counties, will be held May 28 and Sept. 10.

Discovery Trails

Also part of the zoo’s strategic plan is its new Discovery Trails attraction that is tentatively scheduled to open in 2026 near the members entrance and Ford Education Center. The $20-million project will be on a 7-acre segregated area that will allow hands-on interaction and close-observation with animals. It will include an agricultural component consisting of a farm and animals, she said.

“We’re bringing in goats and chicken,” she said. “We’ve never had, historically, animals that you can touch. … The goal is to build that empathy with animals. You can touch a farm-yard animal or you can watch an ant eater eat or you can see how a bush dog survives in the South American forest.”

Other animals in that new area will be stingrays, bamboo sharks and alpacas, she added, and will also allow the zoo to increase its youth summer-camp capacity.

Its opening, announced last October, was delayed by a sinkhole that is requiring $18 million of underground infrastructure repairs, Murphy said.

“That was an unexpected part of this project, to find so many problems with the underground infrastructure,” she said.

She thanked former board chair Don Brown and county Public Works Commissioners Candice Miller for writing letters in support of the zoo receiving state assistance for the project.

Zoo officials are investigating whether sinkholes could occur in other areas on the property and how to better manage its storm water, she said.

The zoo, operated by the Detroit Zoological Society, opened in 1928 and features over 2,000 animals from over 250 species. Murphy said it is “one of the largest zoos in the country.”