Effie Yeaw Nature Center supporters pause at the trailhead entering the center’s 100-acre preserve. Volunteers and staffers include Peggy Kennedy left), Sue Schoneman, Dan Crosbie, Cliff Feldheim, Leo Winternetz, Eric Ross, Rachael Cowan, Greg Dewey and Christina Preston. Photo by Susan Maxwell Skinner

CARMICHAEL, CA (MPG) – Effie Yeaw lived on Palm Drive, Carmichael. She kept a pet raccoon and taught Sunday school at her Presbyterian church.

After a long life of conservation advocacy, the teacher died in 1970. Six years later, her name distinguished what would become one of Sacramento County’s most treasured nature resources. The Effie Yeaw Nature Center is located in Ancil Hoffman Park and welcomes almost 100 thousand visitors annually.

Among Carmichael’s early conservationists, Effie Yeaw gave her name to the beloved nature study resource in Ancil Hoffman Park. Photo courtesy of Effie Yeaw Nature Center

Many are greater Sacramento school children, experiencing rare opportunities to interact with nature and learn about the area’s original Maidu population.

The center’s educational programs are subsidized with unrelenting fundraising by the American River Natural History Association. Community donations -- and helpful dispensations from Sacramento County – keep the center and its park open.

On this former American River flood plain, centuries-old oaks intertwine with trees established by recent planting programs. Deer, coyote, marsupials, reptiles and scores of bird species live under American River Parkway protection.

“This is a protected nature study area,” reads a sign at the preserve entrance. “Take only memories. Leave only footprints.”

The Nature Center is also a resource for Native American studies. Pictured are descendants of the Carmichael area’s original Maidu inhabitants. Photo by Susan Maxwell Skinner

Below the sign, a mounted foot brush encourages visitors to scrub outside world contamination from their soles.

“It’s a place of wonder in our community,” ARNHA President Greg Dewey told supporters at the center’s recent Bird and Breakfast fundraiser. “And with the community’s support, we'll have many more years of wonder ahead.”

Learn about the nature center at www.effieyeawnature.org.