11-11-10 CN&R article

Published in the Chico News & Review
November 11, 2010

Fully developed: Renowned nature photographer returns to his roots with butterfly exhibit at Chico Creek Nature Center

By CHRISTINE G.K. LaPADO - Staff Writer

“It’s an educational exhibit, not just an art exhibit,” said Jon Aull, education coordinator at the Chico Creek Nature Center. Aull was speaking recently as he walked from butterfly photo to striking butterfly photo in the Nature Center’s current, ongoing exhibit of the photography of renowned bird and butterfly photographer John Hendrickson.

He lingered on a colorful close-up of the yellow-and-black California Dogface butterfly, which actually resembles a pansy more than it does a dog.

“This is our state butterfly,” Aull pointed out, “but it has largely disappeared from our area.” The Dogface’s “host plant”—the plant on which the Dogface larva (caterpillar) feeds—is the false indigo, “which has disappeared [from the Chico area], so we no longer have that butterfly,” he said.

Aull indicated which butterflies were poisonous (who knew such a thing existed?)—such as the blue, black and orange Pipevine Swallowtail. Folks who have walked or biked through Bidwell Park will be familiar with the orange-spotted, black Pipevine, having likely dodged (or run over) countless of them as the caterpillars cross trails on their way to finding a good spot to become a chrysalis.

Aull said he asked Hendrickson to pick his favorites from “his incredible wealth of pictures” for the current show, adding, “Most of these [butterflies] you can see in Bidwell Park.”

The Nature Center has a special connection with Hendrickson—whose work has been shown at many museums around the country as well as on the pages of widely read publications such as National Geographic and Newsweek, and the various versions of the prestigious Audubon Society calendar. The 60-year-old happens to be a graduate of Chico State, where he got a master’s in environmental education and field biology. He is also one of the founders of the original Bidwell Nature Center, precursor to the Chico Creek Nature Center.

“I photographed that one at my house,” said Hendrickson when I brought up the California Dogface. The friendly, chatty Hendrickson was talking by phone from his home in the far-flung little Butte County community of Clipper Mills. His property, which sits at 3,600 feet, is “covered with native plants that attract butterflies. I have taken a zillion butterfly pictures on my property.”

Hendrickson found out recently that his photography was selected for not only the front cover of the Audubon Society’s 2012 butterfly calendar, but for seven of the 12 months as well, “which is just unheard of. You’re very lucky to have one, or two. It’s very exciting to me.”

Hendrickson’s interest in butterflies began when he was 3 and—encouraged by an entomologist neighbor in his hometown of Orinda, Calif.—started collecting them. “I was really, really into butterflies as a very small child,” he said. “I was incredibly possessed. I couldn’t believe how beautiful they were.”

When he was 12, however, Hendrickson had a change of heart: “I looked down [at my butterfly collection] and realized I didn’t want to catch them anymore.”

At about the age of 20, Hendrickson started photographing birds. “I set butterflies aside for about 20 years,” he recalled, “and then I started to photograph them. And all of a sudden that childhood passion was relit.”

Hendrickson, who is currently at work on a book about California butterflies, said it’s his combination of “beautiful equipment” and his intimate knowledge of the habits of butterflies and caterpillars—such as the fact that “some species only fly for 10 days at a specific time”—that allows him to get the incredible shots he does.

“I don’t think that the photographs and the [accompanying] words can do the job,” he added, of the Nature Center show. “I hope they will motivate people to get outside to get reconnected or further the connection they have to nature. There’s no substitute for getting out in it.”

Preview: Butterflies—The Photography of John Hendrickson now showing (indefinitely) at the Chico Creek Nature Center. Opening reception/artist talk Saturday, Nov. 14, noon.

Chico Creek Nature Center: 1968 E. Eighth St., Chico, CA
(530) 891-4571, www.bidwellpark.org

11-10 North State Parent article

Published in the North State Parent
November 2010

Feathered Friends: A Chico Creek Nature Center Preschool Program

Birds are all around us; we wake up with the sounds of songbirds' greetings the morning, and go to sleep to the honking of geese as they go to feed at night. The hundreds of birds we can find in the North State range from the prehistoric pterodactyl-looking Great Blue Heron to the buzzy Anna's Hummingbird, not much bigger than a dragonfly. Because of the myriad of shapes, sizes and colors of birds, and their relative disregard of people, birds are a great way for even the youngest learners to learn scientific observation skills while enjoying the great Northern California outdoors, or even while looking out a window into the backyard.

Through the Preschool Programs at the Chico Creek Nature Center, parents, grandparents and preschoolers are offered the chance to learn about and experience nature while participating in a fun, quality program. Spending time with your children in nature is a great way to bond. Taking time to learn about the place in which we live makes the richness of our daily experience that much deeper.

Naturalist Chelsea Ferrone will be teaching the Feathered Friends program in November. She says she enjoys the enthusiasm that preschoolers bring to the Center: "It's really great to see their faces light up when they have that light bulb moment of realizing how a little piece of the world works, or they see something they've never seen before."

Each of the Center's Preschool Programs has a theme that is explored through visual aids and hands-on learning, including a craft that reinforces that theme. Every program takes advantage of the great resource just outside the Nature Center: Bidwell Park, one of the country's largest municipal parks. Whether going for a walk in the native plant garden to look for butterflies, the redwood forest to look for evidence of owls, explore the Center's pond for dragonflies and tadpoles, or take a walk to the waters of Big Chico Creek to look for beavers, there is always something happening in the Park.

Each program offers a close animal encounter, where children get to feel the scales of a snake, the shell of a tortoise, or the soft fur of a rabbit.

Bidwell Park is a great resource in the North State community. As the information and interpretive center for the park, the Chico Creek Nature Center is a great place to start. The Living Animal Museum houses non-releasable animals, including injured and imprinted animals. Many of the animals are found in the wild locally, so it's a greater chance to get closer to these animals than we could in the wild. Among the animal residents on view at the museum are: a Red-tailed Hawk, an Acorn Woodpecker, a Desert Tortoise, an American Bullfrog, Pacific Tree Frogs, a Chilean Rose Tarantula, a California Newt, a Western Rattlesnake, a Western Pond Turtle, and more.

While visiting the Center, check out the new exhibit hall, which hosts exhibits on various aspects of Bidwell Park. While designed for visitors of all ages, with exhibits on geology, Native American history, trees, medicinal plants, owls, and bugs, there are a few things especially for younger kids, such a our touch area and binoculars for use around the center.

Preschool workshops are for children ages 3-5 years old. The cost is $10 per child. Space is limited to 15 children. Children must be accompanied by a parent or guardian during the program. Please go to the Kids' Corner at bidwellpark.org or call (530) 891-4671 for registration information.

Preschool Program: Feathered Friends
Wednesday, November 17th & Wednesday January 19th from 10-11am
Chico Creek Nature Center, 1968 E. 8th St. Chico, CA

Jon Aull is the Education Coordinator for the Chico Creek Nature Center & has been doing environmental education in Bidwell Park for ten years.

11-15-10 The Orion article

Published in The Orion
November 15, 2010

Photographer draws inspiration from butterflies

By LAUREN BEAVEN - Staff Writer

Summer isn't in sight, but the Chico Creek Nature Center is still bright with the colors of Butte County's native butterflies.

The center currently features a small photo exhibit of local butterflies by award-winning photographer and Chico State alumnus John Hendrickson. Chico community members of all ages gathered Saturday at the center for a reception and talk with Hendrickson.

"If you went out on a day in June in Bidwell Park, I guarantee you we could find every one of these butterflies," Hendrickson said.

Photo: Nature photographer and Chico State graduate John Hendrickson shows his work with buterflies at the Chico Creek Nature Center Saturday. His photos have been featured in Newsweek, National Geographic and National Wildlife.

But the vibrant colors and pristine lighting of the butterflies in Hendrickson's photos aren't easily captured, he said.

"If I can work with one that's brand new and beautiful, it's going to be a really nice specimen," Hendrickson said.

To achieve this, he takes a walk through Bidwell Park in the early summer, he said. At the right time, the roads are crowded with caterpillars searching for a place to form a chrysalis, many of which can't make it across the hot asphalt or fall victim to cars, bikes or unwary walkers.

Hendrickson and his wife have taken to rescuing the caterpillars and giving them a temporary home, he said.

"You just have to wait, sometimes as little as 10 days, and out pops this perfect butterfly," Hendrickson said. "They're spectacularly eye-catching."

Once he's taken the perfect picture, Hendrickson and his wife return the butterflies to where they found the caterpillars, he said.

"As a photographer, I'm really working for them," he said. "I'm an ambassador for them and I want people to see how gorgeous they are."

Hendrickson has a long history with the center and has always been interested and involved in nature and its preservation, said Tom Haithcock, executive director of the center. Hendrickson's photography has been published in National Geographic, Sierra Club, Newsweek, Audubon and National Wildlife and has been shown in more than 60 major museums in the U.S.

"At this point in my life, I don't love butterflies more than I love a million other things," Hendrickson said of his love for nature photography. "It's an occupation that, the older I get and the more I do, the more I believe in it and know that it is needed."

Hendrickson's photos are surrounded by wildlife in the center's Living Animal Museum. His photographs of the monarch butterfly's journey from caterpillar to flight sit directly above a live rattlesnake and across the room from a rabbit.

The small children at Saturday's reception peered with fascination at the animals while the adults, such as Butte College freshman Theresa Harris, enjoyed the colorful photography.

"There are just so many types of butterflies that you wouldn't see every day, and to see them captured so beautifully, it's just really nice," Harris said.

Though Harris spends a lot of time in Bidwell Park, she wishes she could see more butterflies up close like this, she said.

The butterfly photography will most likely remain in the center for the next six months, and there is no charge for admission, Haithcock said. The center is open from 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

"Nature is free," Hendrickson said. "Once you develop a basic relationship with it, it brings you all kinds of joy. If you ever have an intimate encounter with a butterfly and you really get to look at it, you're probably going to remember that."

6-21-08 The Chico Beat article

Published in the Chico Beat
June 21, 2008

The Chico Creek Nature Center's New Facility

Photo: Chico Creek Nature Center

Tom Haithcock is nervous. The director of the Chico Creek Nature Center is answering questions about the new building recently completed next to the old facility near Cedar Grove in Bidwell Park. The building's very existence is the unlikely result of a collaboration among a diverse group of private, public and governmental entities-an effort that has Chico written all over it.

Haithcock's unease comes from concern that he may neglect someone or some organization whose efforts have helped bring the project to this point in time-the city, the contractor, the sub-contractors, various government agencies, the citizens and organizations who've made generous donations to the cause.

"This is an excellent example of what public, private and non-profits can do to construct a facility for the public good," he said during a follow-up phone call three weeks after an initial interview.

"I just want to get this right and not leave anybody out," he explained. "I want to make sure we fulfill the promises we've made to all those people who have stuck their necks out as part of this effort."

The new center, which has been in the works for the past seven years, will serve as an interpretive center for park visitors and as a teaching lab for area kids. The old center, which sits less than a hundred feet to the south of the new facility, was built in 1991 and can no longer accommodate the park's ever-increasing use or the expanding programs the center offers.

The center is an independent nonprofit organization created by the Altacal Audubon Society in 1982. Under the society's auspices, the center developed into an attraction unique to Chico, serving both the community and park visitors.

In 1996 the center broke away from the Audubon Society and formed a separate entity that operates as a natural-history museum as well as an educational, information and visitors' center.

Its popularity has forced the need for a new building.

In some ways, the old center serves as a reminder to Haithcock, who's served as the director since 2002, of how high one of his predecessors, Janeece Webb, set the bar. She shepherded the original center's funding, which ironically turned into a seven-year project. Webb died two years ago, but not before contributing her efforts to this latest cause.

"She was paid $7.50 an hour for 15 hours a week," Haithcock said, "though she actually put in 50 hours a week and gave up her teacher's retirement income so she could continue to work here."

That's some pressure.

But consider: In this day of widespread corporate sponsorships-think AT&T Park, Qualcomm Stadium, Hooker Oak's Nextel Field (well it could happen)-the completion of the $800,000-plus project using a combination of grants, donations, fundraisers, bond-measure money and a loan from the city, is nothing short of remarkable.

Funding includes a $185,000 city loan, $200,000 via a state bond that came out of Prop. 40, the Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks and Coastal Protection Act, and at least $100,000 in donations from the private sector, including individual donors and other non-profits like Altacal, the Soroptomists and Friends of Bidwell Park.

"It is so nice we didn't have to change our name or modify our program to satisfy some major source of funding," Haithcock said.

The center still needs money to fill its exhibition center ($140,000) as well as equipment for its laboratory ($35,000 to $40,000). The exhibits will be funded in part by a matching grant of $98,000 from the Institute of Museums and Library Services of Washington D.C.

One of the last time we spoke to Haithcock for this story, he was sitting in his office waiting the arrival of load of pathway bricks whose individual sales ($100 to $350 each) had raised an astonishing $45,000 toward the cause.

Dennis Beardsley, the city's park administrator, said he was quite impressed with the effort to secure funding for a new center.

"They did a wonderful job of raising the money," Beardsley said. "They raised money, borrowed money, found sources of money; it was incredible."

Born in Evanston, Ill., and raised in the East Bay city of Alamo, Haithcock, like so many Chicoans, came here to attend Chico State. He received his bachelor's degree in Instructional Technology Department in the early 1980s, returned in 1989 to teach and has stayed ever since.

About 15 years ago he made the transition to the public nonprofit sector and was named the nature center's director in 2002, after three years as the center's program services director.

Under Haithcock's leadership, the center was able to pull get out of a seven-year budget deficit.

"It was funny," he recalled. "We looked around after we got the go-ahead for this project, and said, 'Well, here we are back in the red.' We had a balanced budget for about six months."

Though he's reluctant to admit it, Haithcock has pretty much spearheaded this project and he'll wince with a pang of genuine modesty when he reads this sentence.

The original center was designed by Chico architect Gene McFarren more than 25 years ago and part of his vision included the additional building, though time and circumstance have prevented a faithful rendering of McFarren's original plan.

"It had to be modified to adjust for funding sources, requirements and needs for the nature center as we see it today," Haithcock explained. "Not to mention the state has criteria over what it will fund."

The present project really began, in conception at least, in 2000 when under then-director Judy White, the staff began looking for possible funding sources for a new facility. By 2001 they began writing for grants and raising money.

The effort cleared a major hurdle when a Planning Commission subcommittee, including now Chico Vice-Mayor Ann Schwab and Mary Shriber, recommended the nature center be prioritized for receiving Prop 40 money. The planning commission voted 7-0 to recommend that plan to the city council, which in turn gave the idea a unanimous yes vote.

When it comes to Bidwell Park, the clashing political ideologies of local politicians become pretty much muted.

The center has made a pledge to the city to ask for no more operational support for construction of the new facility, and has continued to honor that promise, which may well explain why the nature center was one of the few community organizations granted its full request for annual city funding this year.

With the building complete and set for public opening early next spring, now comes the hard part, Haithcock said: Outfitting the exhibition hall and the laboratory with appropriate attributes.

"The idea is to help future visitors and program participants more fully appreciate the complex splendor of the park with the hope that they will take better care of it," he said.

Haithcock is not the only major (and modest) player at work here. Local architect Dave Schleiger designed the new building, with its tall walls, sharp roof angels and an expanse of glass offering an impressive view of the Bidwell Park's native beauty.

And it's safe to say with all the time he put in on the project he lost money, if you consider he could have been working on more conventional projects instead of this one. (Schleiger won't comment on the record about the sacrifices he made toward the center's creation.)

Photo: Dave Schleiger and Tom Haithcock

The structure itself stands unobtrusively among the park's majestic trees, which in some cases stand so close, their branches nearly drape down and touch the building. (Care was taken to remove as few trees as possible to accommodate the new center, as doing so would pretty much defeat the very purpose of the building-celebrating the beauty of nature.

The building is basically six rooms and a corridor connecting them. There is the spacious exhibition hall with a vaulted ceiling and a huge window. It is named in honor of Howard Tucker, a Paradise firefighter, nature lover former member of the Nature Center.

The nature lab is named for Kristie Priano, a teen who spent many hours volunteering at the nature center before her life was tragically cut short six years ago. 

Then there are two offices, two restrooms and the corridor. There is also a storage area connected to one side of the building to house the items once stored in a nearby barn that burned down a few years ago, ironically on Haithcock's birthday.

"I got a call just after midnight and answered it thinking it was some birthday well wisher. Instead it was the Chico PD."

The exhibition hall with its wood floor (made from environmentally sensitive bamboo), high ceiling and 400-square-foot window-the idea is to invite people out of the center and into the park, which is the reason the center exists, Schleiger explained-though still empty, has a very natural ambiance. Visitors to the center will not feel separated or removed from the environment that surrounds them.

On the other hand, with its high ceiling and wooden floor, the space has the feel of a junior high basketball court.

Because of how the building is angled and canopy of nearby trees direct sunlight never enters the building. The room is bright, but never harshly so.

Schleiger, who also designed Chico's Transit Center at the corner of Second and Salem streets, described in a short report, the background and process that led to the finished product. Budget limitations have kept him from realizing the full vision, at least for now.

(Note how the ever-modest architect, refers to himself in the third person.)

The site for the new building was chosen to physically link the existing Center to Cedar Grove and the main circulation routes through the Park, since the new Center would become the place to which tourists would be directed to learn about the Park before setting out to explore it.

The architect, always mindful of building orientation for energy consciousness, visualized the long axis of the new building running east and west to provide a major south-facing expanse of roof for solar panels. Its axial line lies at about 45 degrees to the long axis of the original building and the two closest corners of the buildings are some 60 feet apart. This distance and the axial angle set up the spatial flow towards Cedar Grove. In the conceptual studies the two buildings are linked by a covered walkway. Budget limitations will make that important functional element, as well as solar hot water and photovoltaic panels on the new roof, future items.

The form of the new building itself grew out of the desire to have a very large area of south-facing roof for solar and a large voluminous exhibit space facing north through floor-to-ceiling glass towards the park that it is intended to display and elaborate on. The architect rotated the building just slightly clockwise so that the 400+ square feet of north facing picture window glass in the exhibit hall will never catch even the most extreme mid-summer late afternoon sun.

The big spatial volumes of both the exhibit hall and the nature lab were created by the way the building roof structure is done. The north wall of the building is 25 feet high while the south wall is just 10 feet high. The architect took a standard scissor roof truss and turned it upside down so that over these two main spaces the ceiling starts out flat at ten feet high for the first third of the rooms' widths then soars upward at a 45 degree angle to land on the top of the high north wall.

All of the new building exterior materials, colors, and detailing match the character of the existing building...

Schleiger, who has been a licensed architect since 1970, is tall, lanky, ruddy-cheeked and doesn't rush his speech. His voice is sort of a low growl. He says he is not exactly sure how he got involved in the project, or at least doesn't recall the exact circumstances, other than, much like the project itself, his involvement was somewhat serendipitous.

"I do know I couldn't be happier doing something like this," he said. "It is one of the most important things I could do in my life, promote the understanding of nature."

The nature center paid his firm to do preliminary studies, the rest he did without charge, though he paid everyone in his office who worked on the project their regular wages. He also paid the consultants who, he said, worked at a discount-some up to 50 percent.

He said the contractor, Don Azevedo, stretched himself thin to help the center meet its budget.

"Everything was done really well, there were no corners cut, nothing like that," Schleiger said.

(Azevedo's bid came in more than $100,000 below the next lowest bid.)

Haithcock, continuing his effort to spread his appreciation to all involved, said the job would not have been possible without Azevedo's dedication to the project, profit be damned.

"He told me that this is the kind of project he would do for free, once he'd retired," Haithcock said. "I joked to somebody, 'What should we do? Break his legs?'"

Schleiger, a thoughtful man, takes a philosophical view of the wood, glass and concrete that comprise both the old and new facilities.

"My observation is that this is a very dear building because so many people grew up in Chico learning about nature here," he said, nodding to the original center. "So I wanted to make sure that everything that we did (to the new structure) looked like and was sympathetic to that building."

Describing it further, in particular the exhibit hall, Schleiger explained what they were after with the design.

"We wanted people to be looking at the exhibit and then look out the window and see what it is about."

Haithcock, hearing this, stepped in and added that the director of a park center in Portland put it this way: "The center provides an invitation to leave and head out into nature. That is what it really is. It is not a museum; the park is the museum."

Park visitors should be able to experience that welcome invitation beginning early next spring.

2-1-07 Chico ER article

Chico Enterprise Record
February 1, 2007

Nature center hopes second time is the charm

By LAURA URSENY - Staff Writer

Chico Creek Nature Center may be up against a wall when it comes to putting up its new walls.

The project to build a new classroom and lab areas at the center is facing a construction deadline of March 2008 because of the Proposition 12 park facilities funding being used. The project is going out to bid within a few weeks.

But bidding is a worry for nature center director Tom Haithcock.

This will be the second time the center asks for the project's price, after a failed attempt last year during which the bids were as much as $200,000 over budget.

"It was in excess of the worst-case scenario."

Haithcock hopes this is a better time of year to be getting bids, and hopes there's more interest from the construction industry in working with the nonprofit.

The nature center isn't looking for a handout, but would like a hand in making the project work. Haithcock hopes the building industry might find ways to make the budget work.

Since the disappointing bid process, the center has revamped the classroom design to save money, and hopefully open the door for a better bid.

"When we realized we were in excess of the budget, we took a three-pronged approach — raising more money, rebidding and redesigning the expensive aspects out of it."

Erased from the plan were a raised design, leaving the classroom at ground level, and landscaping.

However, storage space had to be added when the center lost a barn to fire last fall that was used for supplies and other items. A 500-square-foot storage area was added to the 2,000-square-foot design, which has been approved by the city.

Haithcock believes construction could start inside two months if the right bid comes in. It could be finished in six months. "Because of this window, this could be our final opportunity to send this project out to bid."

Haithcock said the expansion has been in the works for nearly seven years.

After failing in the bid process, the center went to work raising more money, bringing in between $12,000 and $15,000 more.

The center has amassed more than $600,000 for the project, including private donations and a $185,000 low-interest city loan. Because of the government money involved, prevailing wage must be paid, Haithcock noted.

2-7-07 Chico ER Editorial - Hit!

Chico Enterprise Record
Editorial Section
February 10, 2007

From Hits and Misses:

HIT — The Chico Creek Nature Center has been called an educational treasure, and rightly so, considering how much this community learns from the museum and its programs.

Not only is it known throughout Northern California, its reputation reaches through the state, ranging from acknowledgments from private foundations through grants to coverage in Sunset magazine.

For years, the center has been trying to expand. It has found its East Eighth Street facility near the old deer pens just too small. Responding to demand, the center wants a new classroom and other space. For whatever reasons, it is having a tough time making budget and bottom line meet.

Behind the current center is a legacy of giving, guided by the late Janeece Webb, who died last year. Webb was able to turn an original $50,000 grant into the $100,000-plus museum because of the community's willingness to step up with money and donations of labor.

We hope the private sector can again offer the assistance that this great treasure needs.

3-2-07 Chico Beat Tom

Published in the Chico Beat, March 2, 2007

Tom’s 5 Cents

The City of Chico is blessed with the natural wonders that surround our great community. Bidwell Park is often referred to as Chico’s “crown jewel.” This legacy of our founding family personifies for many what makes Chico the special place it is. Now essential to the Bidwell Park experience and located in the park, the Chico Creek Nature Center has provided interpretive and educational programs and much more for the park and our community for over 25 years. It is an independently operated non-profit organization, founded by caring citizens like you and me.

The Chico Creek Nature Center has embarked on an ambitious endeavor to expand their facilities and services. They’ve made great progress toward their goal but now they need our help. Please join me in sponsoring a brick to be placed on the new walkway of their expanded facility. This is an exceptionally good way to support a very important park of Bidwell Park’s great presence and bright future. For details, call the Chico Creek Nature Center, at 891-4671 or visit the website bidwellpark.org to learn how to purchase a brick.

Tom Nickell, Chico City Council