“She was at the forefront of (that movement), and that’s why the (nature) center is named (after) her.” Effie’s early years “She worked with other like-minded citizens in the county and the county Board of Supervisors to get this property along the American River, from the confluence with the Sacramento River up to the Folsom Dam, preserved as the American River Parkway. “(Yeaw) heard back in the 1960s that this property was due to be developed and she was horrified,” she said. She got permission from the Deterding family, which at that time owned this property.” That property was then known as Deterding Woods.Įscobar added that Yeaw was also an activist for the preservation of today’s 23-mile American River Parkway. “She used to bring them down for nature study classes. “She used to bring her schoolchildren down to the area around the American River, which is now Effie Yeaw Nature Center in Ancil Hoffman Park,” she said. While speaking to this publication at Carmichael’s Effie Yeaw Nature Center last week, Marilyn Escobar said that many visitors of this popular environmental and cultural education facility are not familiar with the story of Effie Yeaw, the person.Įscobar, a longtime volunteer at the center, noted that Yeaw was a local elementary school teacher who worked to instill an appreciation of nature in her students. Pictured with Yeaw are, left to right, Jana Treon, Louis Heinrich Jr.

Photo courtesy of Effie Yeaw Nature CenterĮffie Yeaw gives local schoolchildren an up-close view of a mockingbird at Deterding Woods in 1962, the year she retired from teaching.

Effie yeaw nature center