Retreat for a Day

Laura James

Anthropology 102

Dr. Leanne Wolf

Nature Center

A nature center is an organization with a visitor center designed to educate people about nature and the local environment. This nature center is the Eaton Canyon nature center, located in the city of Pasadena, California in Los Angeles County. The center relies entirely on donations and volunteers. “The staffs mission is to develop in children and adults an appreciation of nature and to preserve the area for future generations” (ecnca.org). This nature center is free for the entire family.

The Structure

This center is a 7,600 square-foot building and it contains four main places where space is utilized. The information desk, the exhibit containing live animals, the auditorium for classes or entertainment and a nature trail containing indigenous wild flowers. As you can see in the pictures, this is the main entry way. Here, you can see one boys waiting for his friend to come in to see their favorite part of the building; to see the live animals!

The Inside

Right when you walk into the building you will see a square structure containing a replication of the canyon outside. It is a birds eye view of what awaits families who want to explore the wilderness. When you press a button next to a picture on the top of the structure, it emits the sound; such as the roar of a Mountain Lion. Notice the restroom sign on the left and the small donation box with money in it on the right. A visitor can donate in order to help the nature stay running every year and to help make sure that they have a clean restroom after a long drive.

Donation boxRestroom

Information Desk

To the right of the entryway, a worker is leaning on the information desk. This is the first place you go If you are a visitor and have questions about the area or educational events that are being held in the near future. The desk clerk, who had to go into her office, was not in the picture, but when I asked her for information, she gave me all of the information I needed to know. To the right, you can see a hiker with a backpack finding pamphlets containing maps on local hiking trails.

Visitors Center

Behind the worker and above the entryway, you can see the sign for the Visitors Center. This is the place where children love to go and explore the live animals and life sized displays to make their learning experience fun. The main two ways that the space is utilized is the play area and the exhibit. The exhibit includes interactive displays, such as the botton being pressed at the bottom left which lights up the diorama of the bat in a dark cave, above left.

Interactive bottom

When the button is pushed, the bat lights up

Entry way to the visitors center

Play area inside the Visitors Center

In this space, small children can be occupied with the help of their parents by playing with stuffed animal puppets that resemble the natural wildlife in the area or opening a book to read about them. The cubby hole shelves are extra storage space right next to the mobile containers for books, and above that is a bulletin of paper birds left over from a class to educate kids about the wild birds living in the area.

Cubby hole shelves

Bulletin of paper birds.

Stuffed animal/puppets

Mobile book containers

Live Animals

This live animal display is further to the right of the children’s play area. This is where you can get an instant education for the types of animals you may encounter when hiking. The display shows the Western Toad, the Southern Pacific Rattlesnake and the non venomous Coastal Rosy Boa at the bottom right. On the top right, the mother is cautioning her child not to touch the glass after reading the sign, because it will cause the animals to go into stress from their fight or flight response.

Auditorium

On the left of the entrance to the building is the auditorium. It is a place for the community and visitors alike. They have lectures on funding or teaching sessions for students or families. As you can see, citizens are arriving to the event and getting ready to be seated. In the background, you can see the projection screen. Once the event is over, people and staff clean up after themselves to utilize this room for the next event.

Projection screen

Nature Trail

. Just outside the building is their nature reserve that is maintained by the groundskeepers for the public. In the photo you can see the botanical and geological features on the sides of the dirt trail. Local river rocks frame the sides to define a foot path and the beautiful indigenous flowers that bloom during the spring. Here, its obvious that volunteer landscapers and gardeners worked to make a foot path and made sure to spread wild flower seeds to bloom in sunny areas. As you hike the trail, you notice it is teaming with life. From the sounds of birds to the butterfly top right.

River rocks

Wild Flowers

Students at the Nature Center

As the trail winds around the property, there can be outdoor art classes or places for people to sit and relax. It is common to see signs on the trail, such as caution signs about fire ecology or about wildlife and plants. Top left, a student artist and his painting top right. Bottom left, people talking and at bottom right, the sign is placed in plain view, warning against poison oak and rattlesnakes. The landscaping of the nature center was just enough to make it people friendly and to preserve the wilderness around it.

Works Cited

"Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates Home Page." Eaton Canyon Nature Center Associates Home Page. Web. 26 Apr. 2012. <http://www.ecnca.org>.