Sharing his garden

Alicia Robinson

Sometimes in life, you have to take time to stop and smell the bay

laurel.

Environmental Nature Center founder Robert House did just that

Thursday while giving a tour of the nature preserve that he founded

in 1972.

The 3.5-acre native plant garden next to Newport Harbor High

School features habitats recreating 14 of the 28 ecosystems that can

be found in California. House led the visitors who came for the tour

through the center’s desert, which boasts palm trees and cactuses; a

freshwater marsh; a stream environment; and even a redwood forest

area.

House’s monthly tours were canceled over the summer to make way

for children’s nature camps but will resume full-force in January.

The center is always open to the public and offers school programs

during much of the year.

Once an unused gully that House described as “raw land,” the

center has become an educational haven seen by thousands of students

each year. Its redwood trees, 4 feet high when planted in the

center’s early days, now stand more than 100 feet tall. House said

160 species of birds have been identified in the center’s various

habitats and three rare bird species have been sighted there in the

last month.

The nature center’s success is due largely to House, a high school

biology teacher for 39 years and a fountain of knowledge about the

many plants and trees that grow at the center.

“We had no idea if these plants were going to survive or not when

we first planted them,” House said. “But they have. It’s an

experiment, you might say.”

Taking conservation a step farther, House recycled materials in

building the center. When he learned Newport Harbor High School was

digging a hole for a swimming pool, he made sure the center would get

the dirt.

He salvaged rocks unearthed by developers. He got a company to

donate the old telephone poles that screen the center’s grounds from

the high school athletic fields.

And when it was too expensive to hire landscapers to create the

garden, House enlisted high school students to pull weeds, plant

trees and create walking trails.

While his breadth of knowledge and easy manner make him seem like

a natural, House didn’t set out to be a teacher. After college he

worked for the park service in Yosemite National Park, but he wanted

to do more to promote conservation.

“I worked in the wilderness and saw the value of the wilderness

and wanted to let other people learn about it so they could protect

it and appreciate it,” he said.

And House seems to have done just that.

“I thought it was wonderful,” said Sally Felling, a first-time

nature center visitor who attended Thursday’s tour. “I am definitely

going to come back.”

The center now has three full-time employees and is expanding some

of its plant habitats. A butterfly house will be built at the center

in 2004 and a new building to house the center’s offices, museum and

small gift shop is planned for the future.

“[House’s] vision is still in place today from when he started the

facility over 30 years ago,” said Bo Glover, executive director of

the center.

Because so many students visit the center to learn, Glover said,

“his legacy will live on for a long, long time.”

House is just happy to share his garden with the public.

“Seeing is believing, and reading about this in a book and seeing

all the pictures is not the same as experiencing it,” he said.

Since it’s too expensive for schools to take students to all of

the state’s various plant habitats, House said, “we bring nature to

them.”

In January, House will be honored for his efforts with a

conservation award presented by the Newport Beach chapter of the

Daughters of the American Revolution.

The next tour of the Environmental Nature Center, 1601 16th St.,

will be at noon on Jan. 15. For more information, call (949)

645-8489.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She can be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.