Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary — Attraction in Green Bay

I'm not sure you could find a better place in the Green Bay area to take in such a broad range of the Natural World as you can at the Wildlife Sanctuary. My parents took me there as a child, I volunteered there as a teen, my family helped rehabilitate small animals there in years past and now that I'm over 50 with an 11 year old of my own I spend a lot of time there each year.

The facilities are great no matter what you are looking for. There are ponds to fish in, a couple of nature centers to learn fun new things in(one is being expanded now in fact), trails to wander at your leisure and as many ducks and geese to feed that your arm will be tired long before you get to them all.

Other things to do might include taking in the building that simulates night, so you can see all the creatures that come out after we are usually asleep each night. You can also sign up to help with their animal rehabilitation team while you're there, it really does make a difference. Just have a wander around and take in the wonderful diversity of animal life to be found here in Wisconsin, much of which is on display at the Sanctuary.

For those of you who dislike perfectly healthy animals being kept in cages and put on display just so humans can see them, you can be easy in your mind at the Sanctuary. Most of their animals have unfortunately been injured in some way and can't live in the wild any longer. Luckily for them they have found a good home at the Sanctuary and will be cared for until the end of their days, all the while being animal ambassadors to our Green Bay community.

My favorite exhibit is, has been and always will be the various birds of prey that they have to view. Not many places can you get up close to a bird like the Peregrine Falcon, which can reach speeds up to 240 mph in a dive, and observe it safely.

Spring has it's baby ducks and geese tottering around the grounds, Summer is full of feeding to fatten up and Fall has it's wonderfully mysterious migrations to take in and that's just the life-cycle of the ducks and geese. See you at the...

I am a conservationist and work in water quality monitoring.

This isn't a park as much as a monument to environmental mismanagement.

We stopped for a picnic and were immediately surrounded by 20 aggressive geese and 100 aggressive goslings. We sat on top of the picnic table to protect our children. Geese approached us and hissed repeatedly. We watched goslings limping and dirty run for food. Adult geese attacked each other and attacked goslings. Something I've never seen before.

Soon we found the cause: the "park" sells corn for people to feed the geese. "Corn is best. Corn is available for purchase at the observation center". - a sign glibly claims. Corn isn't what geese should be eating, but it's cheep. So the park can make more money selling it to visitors.

The effects of this funding strategy are visible everywhere. The ground and water are covered in goose feces. Aggressive geese charge at children and adults. The pond water is green, no doubt from the massive amount of goose fecal matter. Vegetation is missing from much of the park. And sick, hungry and dirty geese and goslings are limping towards you for a French fry.

It was sad and disgusting.

Don't feed wild animals or they won't be...

I had always bypassed Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary on my way to the amusement park. I"m so glad we stopped at the wildlife sanctuary this time. It is much more developed than I had even hoped. There are several large buildings and outside hiking trails. The buildings house many well-developed educational displays. There are many live animals to see and possibly pet. There are also many mounts and skeletons and other educational displays. The displays are creative. For instance, a dark tunnel slide takes children into an area that is like a beaver den and has mounts of things that would be found in a pond and in a beaver den. There aren't as many exotic animals as you would find at a zoo. But there are many local birds, reptiles and mammals. I was particularly impressed with the birds of prey. We enjoyed the release of rehabilitated animals on Green Bay Children's Day 2017. If you're headed to Bay Beach don't miss this part. It is top-quality,...