‘Kids and Nature’ Program Gets Children Thinking About Environmental Issues

Remember the kind of stuff you did in kindergarten? Probably you ate graham crackers, played in the sandbox, built houses with blocks. What you probably didn’t do was learn about environmental issues or global ecology or marine life. You probably thought acid rain was a kind of Brand X shampoo and recycling was riding your bike for a second time.

But the kids who attend kindergarten at the Turtle Rock Nature Center in Irvine know about these things, or will at the end of nine months. Every school year, 48 kindergarten-age children come to the center to take advantage of a natural habitat concentrated into five acres, a small nature and wildlife preserve on the edge of the Turtle Rock residential neighborhood.

In two-hour morning and afternoon sessions, two separate groups of children attend classes, held both indoors and outdoors, and learn about the natural world around them.

The “Kids and Nature” program, offered since 1985, takes up mornings and early afternoons at the center, while afternoons are reserved for public visits. From 2 to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and noon to 5 p.m. on weekends, Scout troops, clubs, community groups, bird watchers and the occasional Turtle Rock neighbor can drop in for a stroll through the dense woods of the center or along the stream or the duck pond.

It is a concentrated habitat, a sort of oasis for plants and animals.

“This place stands out as a kind of island,” said Doug Willick, a staff worker at the center. “It’s what you call a migrant trap, a real haven particularly for migratory birds.”

More than 150 species of birds may make a stop at the center every year, said Willick, and springtime is the best time of year to see them. Warblers, flycatchers, orioles, tanagers, grosbeaks and other non-native birds have been seen roosting in the old pines and willows, and in the sycamores and alders along the creek, he said.

Because of its relatively small size, the center at times appears nearly overgrown with plant life. On a walk along the nature trail, adult visitors are obliged to duck their heads several times to pass under limbs and branches overgrowing the path. And one cannot walk more than a few feet without hearing the scuttling of a squirrel, chipmunk or lizard in the undergrowth.

There are more or less permanent residents of the center, as well. Willick pointed out a pair of adult great horned owls nesting in a pine. A pair of ducks that live on the pond recently hatched eight new ducklings.

The classrooms and static displays, as well as some of the animal cages and terrariums, are contained in what formerly was a paddock at the cattle headquarters on the old Irvine ranch. While the interior is modern, the exterior walls are original, as are the paddock stall doors, which still look as if a horse might peer out at any moment.

The center, which has been operated by the Irvine Community Services Department since 1979, also cares for a limited number of animals that are either injured or for some reason cannot be returned to the wild. The menagerie includes two raccoons (one declawed by a previous owner, the other defanged), and crows with injured wings. Also kept for study are rabbits, a California desert tortoise, tropical birds, nonpoisonous snakes and a newt.

While all these may be visited by anyone, it is the kindergarten children who learn to know the center best.

“We’ve gotten a lot of positive response from the parents,” said Cathy Tucker, one of two credentialed teachers on the eight-person center staff. “We’re really interested in finding out how many of the children remember what they learn here and continue to be interested in (nature and the environment).”

TURTLE ROCK NATURE CENTER AT A GLANCE

What: A 5-acre nature and animal preserve, with classroom facilities and static displays.

Where: 1 Sunnyhill, Irvine.

Hours: Open for free from 2 to 5 p.m. Monday-Thursday, noon-5 p.m. weekends. Closed Friday.

Programs: “Kids and Nature,” a nine-month kindergarten curriculum with two-hour sessions offered either mornings or afternoons. Three-day-a-week and five-day-a-week class options. Fee, $7 per day. Open to children from throughout the county (transportation to center provided from nearby Bonita Canyon or Turtle Rock elementary schools). Enrollment limited to 24 children in morning session and 24 in afternoon session. Pre-registration for fall sessions (first-come basis) begins the first Monday in May. Summer school sessions for kindergartners and first-graders, as well as a second program for second- and third-graders, are offered.

Information: (714) 854-8151