Facilities
Directions: From Sacramento take I-80 east to Dry Creek Road Exit. Exit at Dry Creek and cross over the freeway. At the stop sign, turn left. Go one block. At the stop sign, take a right on Christian Valley Road. Follow Christian Valley Road for four miles until it dead ends at the California Conservation Corps. Placer Nature Center's Driveway is just inside the gate on your left. Park in the visitor parking and follow the trail at the top of the parking lot to our Exhibit Halls and Gardens.
- "Our Changing Land" Exhibit Hall – filled with interactive exhibits and natural and cultural history displays tracing the history of our land from 70 million years ago.
- WaterShed Learning Center – Guide a drop of water through wild and urban landscapes; learn to be a Stream-Keeper
- Energy Choices Exhibit
- Discovery Room – View a living bee hive in a workroom for-hands on science
- Nature Trail – Miles of trail trace a route through varied Foothill ecosystems.
- Pond and picnic areas – Observe wildlife and contemplate nature's beauty
- Native American Village – Experience the life of the Nisenan people
- History Garden – Explore Placer County's agricultural and cultural history through plants
WaterShed Learning Center
The land that water flows across or under on its way to a stream, river or lake is your watershed. Everyone lives in a watershed and is part of a watershed community of animals, birds, fish, plants and soil. The health of our watershed is vital for human health, productive farming, economic vigor and environmental quality. As human population grows, the impacts on our watersheds also grow. Everything we do in our watershed affects the soil, water, air, plants and animals. Working together we can keep our watershed healthy. As visitors explore the WaterShed Learning Center, they learn things they can do protect and enhance their watershed and the natural resources living within it.
Our engaging and unique Learning Center "illuminates" the complex issues affecting watershed health and each person's connection to watershed sustainability and links a healthy watershed to the social and economic health of the community.
WaterShed Learning Center presents unique, interactive and educational programs for preschool through grade 8 students that defines a watershed and engages students in exploration of water environments, the dynamics of water and conservation strategies. Our watershed education programs also travel off-site to schools in the region.
A Unique Collaboration
The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and Placer County Water Agency (PCWA)
share Placer Nature Center's belief that our environment links everyone
and everything and underpins our economy. The Bureau and PCWA share
a commitment to provide students and the community an opportunity to
explore the concept of watershed and the interconnections between watershed
health and human health.
There is no place on Earth, no matter how long settled or how built-up
with human structures, that is not a combination of the natural world
and the built world. The WaterShed Learning Center is designed to help
us see these connections, grasp the world around us and shape the way
we see our world and ourselves.
A school field trip to the WaterShed Learning Center includes guided exploration of interactive exhibits in the WaterShed, hands-on science activities that require group work, problem solving skills and critical thinking, and a nature hike where students see, feel and touch nature. Placer Nature Center also delivers watershed education to schools through our Environmental Science Travels Program – "Waterworks".
Grant funds from the Bureau and PCWA support key elements of the WaterShed Learning Center, including the scale model of the American River Watershed, interactive exhibits on display in the WaterShed and the water conservation demonstration pond. This collaboration not only helps children become better educated, it also helps them become better citizens by addressing real community issues. It nurtures community involvement and active citizenship – the backbone of our democratic government.
What happens around the world to support a day in the life of a North American is surprising, dramatic, even disturbing. It doesn't have to be this way. But, today, consumption on the North American scale is only possible because of the chains of production that reach all over the planet. Consumption adds up to stresses on our world that are greater than the world can withstand. For the products we consume, most of the production and most of its impacts are hidden from view – in rural hinderlands, fenced off industrial sites and far-off nations. Most of the stuff we use has a secret life that imposes major impacts on our world.
The first step in solving any problem is recognizing it. You can soon visit Placer Nature Center to learn to look at things in your life in a new way and learn about the secret lives of the things you use every day. Placer Nature Center is doing its part to fuel a quiet revolution in our way of life – by teaching visitors about our energy choices, about different technologies, more balanced lifestyles, greener infrastructure and better laws.
Just life a jigsaw puzzle – all the pieces are there to reduce our impact on the earth. Placer Nature Center's new Energy Choices exhibit, funded by the Governors Office of State and Consumer Services will show the way to putting the jigsaw together – literally!
We have copies of a wonderful book on consumption called Stuff: the Secret Lives of Everyday Things created by the Northwest Environment Watch. Loaner copies are available to educators and concerned citizens anywhere in the County. For information on our new exhibit or to get a copy of Stuff, call us at (530) 878-6053 or send an e-mail to: nancy@placernaturecenter.org
