Bringing life to a ‘desert’

Jimmy Stroup

Working as planner, project manager and even fundraiser, Marty Colver

has taken the desert section of the nature displays at the

Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach to a whole new level.

That work earned him the ENC Volunteer of the Year award on June

9.

“It’s a great honor, it really is,” said Colver, 44. “I’m not the

type of person that likes awards or seeks awards or things like that.

I really appreciate being recognized for the work.”

“He used to come in and have his lunch here,” said Lori Whelan,

program director at ENC. “One day, he just walked into [Executive

Director Bo Glover’s] office and said, ‘Hey, I have this great

idea.’”

That was more than two years ago. Since then, Colver has

remaindered several tons of rock from the desert and replaced it at

the ENC on 16th Street.

“He came to me with the idea of bringing in native desert rock and

redoing the entire desert with additional native, Sonoran plant

species,” Glover said. “Its really created for us a fantastic

addition to our outdoor classroom to teach about the desert species

and the rock, as well.”

Colver got the idea after seeing the lackluster condition of the

ENC’s previous desert display.

“It was just poor,” Colver said. “It was just something that was

here, but it had been here a long time, and it was old, and it had

kind of gotten tired.”

When asked how much time and energy he’d spent restoring and

remaking the desert, Colver simply shook his head and smiled.

“A lot,” he said.

Because of Colver’s hard work retaining the authenticity of the

desert environment, the ENC will host a presentation by Allan

Schoenherr, author of “A Natural History of California.” The

Fullerton College professor will use Colver’s desert as a visual

backdrop for his lecture there Oct. 22.

“It’s important to have a vision, but he’s also willing to do the

backbreaking work to get things done, as well,” Glover said.

Colver’s work at the ENC has become more and more valuable as time

has gone on, and Glover doesn’t look forward to him finishing the

desert project.

“He’s not done. I won’t let him be done. He needs to keep working

out there,” Glover said.

To see what Marty Colver and the ENC have done, head down to 1601

16th St., which is open 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Mondays through Fridays, and

8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturdays.