U.S. Senator Richard Shelby and other elected officials and community leaders will be present at Ruffner Mountain Nature Center next Monday, November 26 at 2 p.m. for a groundbreaking ceremony celebrating the center’s new Tree Top Visitor Center and Education Pavillion.

Shelby will be an honored guest at the event as he was instrumental in securing federal grants to help fund the $4.5 million dollar project. The balance of funding is coming from a combination of city, county, private and corporate sources.

A portion of the funding for the new center comes from the Three Parks Initiative, a combined campaign jointly managed by the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham and Region 2020 to raise money for Railroad Reservation Park, Red Mountain Park and Ruffner Mountain Nature Center and to support the vision of Birmingham as a national leader in green space.