New Napa River Ecological Center to be built in American Canyon
Groundbreaking on the new Napa River Ecological Center is anticipated for spring in American Canyon, about 10 years after the creation of the organization that has spearheaded the project.
About 75 percent of the $9 million to pay for the transformation of the city’s former corporation yard into the new environmental education center on Wetlands Edge has been raised, according to Janelle Sellick, executive director of American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation.
“We’re shooting for a spring groundbreaking,” Sellick said at the American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation’s 10th anniversary celebration on Sunday. The event took place at the former corporation yard, a two-story, 5,000-square-foot building near Napa River’s wetlands.
The American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation recently received its building permit for the future Napa River Ecology Center, Sellick said. Construction is expected to take about nine months.
The foundation continues to raise money for center, its main endeavor. Its ongoing fundraiser is a “mosaic project” where donors pay $500 to $10,000 to inscribe their names on tiles that will be displayed in a mural at the future Napa River Ecological Center.
The American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation now uses the main building at the former corporation yard. The city’s corporation yard, trucks and all, has moved to the former Napa Junction Elementary School campus on Napa Junction Road.
The American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation’s first accomplishment was in December 2015 when the volunteers installed a water fountain at Wetlands Edge’s trailhead.
Napa County Supervisor Belia Ramos on Sunday recalled the group’s other projects, including park benches and outdoor exercise equipment near Wetlands Edge Park.
Sellick enlisted Ramos’ help to prepare the group’s nonprofit status application, noting that Ramos was a lawyer.
In 2024, the city signed lease agreement with the nonprofit organization for the soon-to-be former corporation yard, a site of about 3 acres, to develop the future indoor/outdoor environmental education center.
On Sunday, Ramos asked the attendees gathered at the corporation yard to raise a glass and toast Sellick and all of those who have worked on the Napa River Ecology Center project.
“I am so honored to have been the incorporator of something that is going to last beyond our lifetimes,” Ramos said. “And what a gift that we have given to the next generation.”
Posters on the wall of the first floor of the former corporation yard building showed the evolution of the American Canyon Community and Parks Foundation since 2015.
In 2016, the nonprofit organized its first annual fundraiser at the cement and basalt plant ruins at Watson Ranch.
Other activities over the years have included hikes, wildlife education series, the annual Reindeer Run along Wetlands Edge, Lego projects, and after-school art, music, chess and nature classes.
The building is leased for $1 a year under an agreement signed in February 2024 between the city of American Canyon and the foundation. The lease is for 50 years. The foundation also has the option for two 25-year extensions at $1 each, Sellick said.
