Napa River Ecology Center hosts a tour of its future site
Last Thursday, the American Canyon Parks Foundation invited locals to tour at the future site of the Napa River Ecology Center. Visitors had a chance to see where the 5,000 square foot ecology center will eventually stand at the edge of the wetlands.
The first campaign to build the ecology center took off in 2020. The inspiration came when the American Canyon Parks Foundation realized that in their community, there was an unsatisfied demand for hands-on environmental education. Before 2020, they had offered classes and workshops to engage the community with nature at a smaller facility, but they soon realized they were going to need more space.
“This center will be the only (one) of its kind in the county,” said Janelle Sellick, executive director of the American Canyon Parks Foundation. “As it stands right now, there’s really no infrastructure for education centers along the wetlands.”
By building the ecology center, the group will have the potential to quadruple their current capacity, according to Sellick. Once they have more space, they will be able to serve more schools and students throughout the county and the rest of the North Bay.
To build the center, the Parks Foundation has raised $5 million from federal, state and local city funds. A lot of that funding is thanks to American Canyon’s City Council and U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, both of whom made serious efforts to get the project off the ground.
Even with the group’s fundraising success, the project still has a way to go. According to Sellick, the project will still need to secure additional funding to be completed by a tentative 2027 deadline. As of now, the group is finalizing their building permits for the property and wrapping up a report for the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) to meet federal environmental regulations, which is required for federal funding. After that, construction is the project’s final step.
Once realized, the site will be a lot more than a pretty place to visit. Using the center’s space, student visitors from nearby school districts will be able to learn about the watershed and wetlands through hands-on programs in a way that can’t be done in a regular classroom.
But the mission isn’t just about education; it’s also about the wetlands themselves. In conjunction with the city’s Wetlands Restoration Project, the new center will provide infrastructure for projects including the restoration of native plant species and raising parts of the Bay Trail to mitigate flood risk.
In a three-pronged plan, the center has the potential to be a place to educate, to protect nature and to connect the community with the local ecosystems.
“Five years down the line, I’d love to see the center open (to) serve the community seven days a week,” said Sellick. “We hope it’s a place where kids can come to be inspired to connect with nature, learn to love it, and then turn around and protect it.”
