Shalom Baer Gee/MDN From left, Minot Park Board President Mike Schmitt takes notes and Jeff Bullock, director of the Roosevelt Park Zoo, discusses future plans for the zoo grounds. The Roosevelt Park Zoo will be affected by the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project and will have to move some facilities to make room for flood walls.

Roosevelt Park Zoo will have to reorganize its grounds to make way for the Mouse River Enhanced Flood Protection Project (MREFPP) in coming years.

Zoo staff, the Minot Park Board, and Ackerman-Estvold, a Minot engineering firm, met at the zoo on Tuesday to discuss plans to address the exhibits that will be affected by the flood walls that are planned to be put in place on the north and south sides of the Souris River near the zoo.

The south wall will extend through the employee parking lot and displace some parking and the current trash and recycling containers. It will also eliminate some exhibits entirely and others in part. The ruffed lemur exhibit is one that wall will run through entirely, and a portion of the giraffe exhibit and the zebra exhibit also will be affected, as well as the former dik dik exhibit, the outreach animal building, the concession and restroom building, and the bongo/crane exhibit and barn.

“We’ve been working for the last two-and-half, three months, figuring out what the zoo is going to look like with the flood wall,” said Jeff Bullock, director of Roosevelt Park Zoo. “We were able to get some overhead shots from Ackerman-Estvold, and just started out with the basic view of what we need to accomplish.”

One major change that the zoo will see will affect all the existing exhibits on the north side of the river, where the discovery barn, goats, chickens, rabbits, tortoises, wolves, bison, camels, sheep, otter, reindeer, Scottish highland cattle, owls, and eagles are held. The flood wall will run through that area, placing those exhibits in the floodway.

The initial plans discussed on Tuesday show that the zoo would expand its grounds to what is currently Roosevelt Park for exhibit space and facilities since the land on the north side of the river will no longer be used for exhibits, and there will be less space on the south side of the river where the zoo currently sits.

The plans are still in their infancy, though. Ryan Ackerman of Ackerman-Estvold, the engineering company in charge of the flood protection project, said that he estimates construction for the new zoo plans probably won’t begin until 2025. If funding continues as it is, he said, the floodwall in the area by the zoo itself may not go up for another 15 years.

The plans also include a number of improvements and additions, including adding more climate-controlled viewing areas. Bullock, the zoo’s director, said they want to focus on increasing revenue by making the zoo more comfortable for visitors in the winter months. He noted many animals are off exhibit in colder weather, making it difficult for visitors to see them, so he would like to add larger indoor exhibits for animals to occupy.

“Have indoor/outdoor exhibits where people can get out of the weather, warm up, see the animals. Hopefully, it increases the stay times as well as the attendance during the winter months,” Bullock said.

Ackerman said that the Souris River Joint Board, which is overseeing the MREFPP, will “replace like for like,” when it comes to funding construction at the zoo. Any additional changes or additions would have to be funded by the Minot Park Board.

Bullock said he plans to arrange public meetings for community input in March.