On a sunny Sunday afternoon four years ago, Paul and Debbi Brainerd walked a pristine piece of land on the south end of Bainbridge Island and discovered what they wanted to do with the next chapter of their lives.

That lazy stroll through thick forest, meandering streams and undeveloped waterfront was inspiration for the Puget Sound Environmental Learning Center — now nearing completion — and the acquisition of 255 acres of land from Port Blakely Tree Farms.

“We found out that there was a tremendous need for a center like this,” says Debbi Brainerd, co-founder and board president of PSELC.

Debbi’s husband, Paul, founded Aldus Corp. in 1984 and coined the term “desktop publishing.” His Pioneer Square-based company and its innovative PageMaker software revolutionized the way creative professionals performed page layout and design functions on a personal computer and helped ignite the new information economy.

The bespectacled and soft-spoken former entrepreneur sold his interest in Aldus in 1994 when the Seattle-based company merged with Adobe Systems Inc. He and his wife have since embarked on a career in philanthropy.

The Environmental Learning Center is one of many projects — albeit the largest and most complex — the Brainerds are now pursuing. PSELC is aimed at providing young people &Mac247; specifically fourth graders &Mac247; with a deeper understanding of the natural environment and the value it provides to our physical, economic and emotional well being. It will do so by providing ecologically based educational programs centered on Puget Sound’s intertwined natural and cultural histories.

“Our primary focus is on hands-on learning experiencing in an outdoor setting for school-aged children and those who touch their lives,” says Debbi Brainerd.

Scientific inquiry, technology and the arts are the tools the center will use to help participants develop a deeper understanding of the relationships between biological and cultural diversity.

At a recent Bainbridge Island Chamber of Commerce Luncheon at the new center, the Brainerd’s wowed a crowd of more 100 business people with a presentation focusing on PSELC’s history, sustainable elements and construction, followed by a walking tour of the grounds and numerous buildings now in their final phase of completion.

“It really has some biological diversity to it,” Paul Brainerd says of the property, which includes 67 acres of wetlands and abuts the proposed Port Blakely State Park. “It has cat tail marshes and bogs, deep ravines and wild life. There’s a great history and place here.”

Indeed, the area in and around the PSELC was once home to the Port Blakely Mill Co., which in its heyday in the late 18th century was the largest timber mill in the world. In fact, the center’s Great Hall is adorned with a 92-foot-long, 2-foot by 2-foot beam that was originally cut and milled at the site and returned home after spending most of its life in a Montana mine.

The Brainerds have taken great pains to ensure that PSELC — at a price tag of $32 million — maintains its environmental and ecological integrity — from the forest floor to building’s ceiling tiles.

The construction project, the largest ever on Bainbridge Island — requires only six acres of the 255 acres the Brainerd’s purchased in 1998. Another six acres have been leveled to create so-called “solar meadows” to allow more sunlight and daylight into the buildings.

The supporting beams and much of the wood used in construction was milled from trees that were cut down on the site. Recycled building products, salvaged wood, photovoltaic roof panels, sustainable flooring, counter tops made from unusual composites such as soybean/sunflower seeds are commonplace throughout the buildings.

Low energy computers and monitors for instructional and administrative uses will consume one-third of the energy of most common desktop computers at PSELC. An integrated phone, data, and video network with a fiber optic backbone between buildings will save six miles of cooper wire over traditional wiring techniques.

The center will include a tertiary sewage treatment plant and feature a whole array of energy saving demonstrations, using wind, micro-hydro and photovoltaic.

Before the Brainerds began construction, Debbi Brainerd interviewed more than 250 school kids to get their input on how such a facility to look and feel. The Brainerd’s also communicated with more than 3,000 people on Bainbridge Island alone.

“It’s truly been a community effort,” Debbi Brainerd says. “It’s truly come from the community.”

The new facility will hire a professional staff of 24 employees — many from Bainbridge Island — and run an operating budget of about $3 million a year.

While PSELC plans to hold its official grand opening this fall, it already is conducting small classes and workshops. From April to June of this year, 800-plus students and teachers from Kitsap and King counties will attend a four-day residential pilot program for four-fifth-and six grade students and their teachers, who will have the opportunity to take part in professional development workshops while their students learn about the outdoors.

“The idea is to connect kids with nature through experiential learning in a non biased way,” Paul Brainerd says. “We’ll hire people who are the best in the U.S. to run it.”

During the school year, the center will provide a specialized four-day outdoor educational experience to students in Kitsap County and the greater Seattle area, and provide scholarships to low-income families and those with special needs. Custom day and overnight programs will also be available for other grade levels, as well as summer programs, teaching internships for university graduate students, continuing education programs for classroom teachers, and weekend programs for adults and families.

The complexes main building will include a library and technology center, laboratory and science room, creative arts studio, forest and ecology room and meeting area. An adjoining lodge will have accommodations to handle between 60 and 90 students, teachers and chaperones nightly, while dormitory housing will be provided for graduate students.

“Our goal is to create an energy-efficient, water conserving, environmentally sound, and handicapped-accessible facility,” Paul Brainerd says. “As an educational center we will provide unbiased information that will allow students the opportunity to form their own opinions around difficult resource management questions.”

The center’s curriculum will focus on studying the forest, wetland and aquatic ecosystems and their inhabitants, along with presenting information about the cultural history of the Puget Sound area.

To date, the organization has raised more than $41.5 million of its $52 million campaign goal. The Brainerd themselves have contributed $10 million to PSELC’s endowment.

“There’s all kinds of ways you can help,” says Debbi Brainerd. For more information on PSELC’s call (206) 441—2769 or point your browser to www.pselc.org.

(Kevin Dwyer is a Bainbridge Island free—lance writer).