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But the main building could use some care. It’s badly worn, in need of a new roof and carpeting and infrastructure improvements, officials said.

Betsy Taylor, a naturalist for Brookside Nature Center in Wheaton, holds programs at Maydale because she said it provides a mix of habitats.

‘‘You’ve got your meadows, you’ve got your fields, you’ve got ponds, you’ve got streams and you’ve got woods,” she said.

But for the past several years, Taylor and her guests have had to use portable toilets and suffer through the heat because they don’t have access to the building, she said.

The building’s maintenance was dropped from county care in the early 1990s because of budget cuts.

A nonprofit community group called the Friends of Maydale stepped in to maintain the grounds. The group has been the primary caretaker since then, said President Marvin Raufi, by bringing in Boy Scouts and other volunteers to clear brush, patch holes in the nature center’s roof and do other chores.

But Raufi said the nonprofit doesn’t have the funds to renovate the building, which he estimated would cost around $100,000.

‘‘Whatever improvements have been done was through Friends of Maydale and volunteers,” he said.

Raufi said Friends of Maydale has had several meetings with two other organizations involved with Maydale — Montgomery County Public Schools and Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission — to discuss how to improve the park.

But in a tight county budget year, the organizations say they can’t afford to give the center the attention it deserves.

MCPS used to hold field trips at Maydale for students in kindergarten through third grade. The center offered younger children the chance to get outdoors and experience what they were taught in the classroom, said Mark Granger, a teacher with the outdoor education program.

‘‘It actually delivers the curriculum. Without Maydale being there, the chances of kids in that community actually experiencing things like beavers and trout ... is a lot less,” he said.

However, since April, the trips were moved to temporary buildings in MCPS’s own Lathrop E. Smith Environmental Center in Rockville because the one at Maydale is so badly deteriorated, said Laurie Bricker, the outdoor education supervisor for MCPS.

While the system would like to use Maydale again, the school system has other buildings to invest in, said Joe Lavorgna, the director of the department of facilities management for MCPS.

‘‘It would be nice, but given the financial situation, everybody’s looking closely at where our money is going to be spent,” he said.

Park and Planning officially holds the title to the land.

Michelle Grace, with Park and Planning’s property management, said Park and Planning looked into renovating the building in a June 2007 assessment of all the parks in the area, but that doing something in the near future isn’t feasible.

‘‘We know the condition of the building is not terrific,” she said. ‘‘We’re trying to figure out what’s next, given we don’t have a whole lot of money.”

Park and Planning has paid attention to maintaining the actual park, said Ken Barnes, a resident of Good Hope Estates in Burtonsville and frequent user of Maydale.

He said the Parks Department was responsive to citizens’ concerns that the trails needed clearing and trees needed protection from hungry beavers.

Whether or not there’s a usable building, Taylor and Barnes said they will continue to enjoy Maydale.

‘‘It’s a beautiful place,” Barnes said. ‘‘If you just need some quiet time, you can go down there.”