(Cedar City, UT) - After years of planning and hard work, the Southwest Wildlife Foundation will receive a permanent steel pedestrian bridge Friday, July 13, 2012 for the foundation’s Nature Park. The project began as a concept to replace a cable and plank suspension bridge at a cost of $25,000. After many delays and engineering challenges overcome with the help of Watson Engineering, a 96-foot by six-foot, free span, steel structure is set for delivery Friday morning by Construction Steel to the 23-acre Nature Park and wildlife rescue facility on south side of Coal Creek in Cedar Canyon off SR-14. Visitors will find parking available near the foundation sign.

Southwest Wildlife Foundation founder Martin Tyner said the Friday delivery of the new permanent steel walking bridge may be the longest steel structure ever driven down Cedar City’s Main Street. He expressed appreciation to the many special people and organizations which have made the Nature Park pedestrian bridge a reality with their contributions.

Tyner said the George S. & Delores Dore Eccles Foundation donated $10,000 to the construction of the bridge in their on going partnership, the Iron County Commission $7,500 and the Cedar City Council $7,500 which made the new pedestrian bridge become a reality. Lonnie Wolff and many bicyclists in the Cedar City club donated money for the bridge in name of Clair Jensen who loved the wildlife of Utah and was a close friend of the foundation, Tyner said. Additional partners who have made the project possible include Blackburn Construction who constructed the footings for the new bridge.

Tyner said the foundation is planning a Nature Park Visitors Center on the 23-acre historical site of the Southern Utah Power Company built in 1952 donated to the foundation in 2000 by Rocky Mountain Power. He said Coal Creek flows through the center of the property that includes a waterfall built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), a public work relief program that operated from 1933 to 1942 in the United States for unemployed, unmarried men from relief families.

The Southwest Nature Park is located off SR-14 in Cedar Canyon dedicated to providing a personal learning experience with native wildlife, plants and natural history. Tyner said his next project is to build a visitors center and natural history museum with picnic areas and scenic educational walking paths at the wildlife rescue facility and sanctuary.

For further information, go to Southwest Wildlife Foundation.