Celebrate the Earth Year-Round at Alviso Adobe Community Park

Imagine a quiet place overlooking a valley, where the wind whispers across the ridge and birds sing in the trees. Pink and purple wildflowers are bright in the spring sun, and ancient live oaks shelter benches and pathways.

This natural refuge exists at Pleasanton's Alviso Adobe Community Park, where care and respect for the earth is always on the calendar.

"For me, Earth Day is every day," said City Naturalist Eric Nicholas . "Teaching stewardship of the planet to this generation is an honor. Kids are born aware of the need to love the earth."

Nicholas shares his knowledge in interactive outdoor programs with visitors ranging from school groups to scout troops, high school volunteers, and families.

Alviso Adobe Community Park, which opened in October 2008, is a recent addition to Pleasanton's cultural treasures. Located on Foothill Road, the 7-acre park includes educational buildings, a small amphitheater, native gardens, and magnificent views across Pleasanton.

 The site was historically a part of Ohlone culture, Mexican ranchos, and Meadowlark Dairy farming. Francisco Alviso's Adobe, built in 1854 and now fully restored, gives the park its name.

Nicholas, the City Naturalist since 2007, runs a wide variety of programs to explore each period of the park's history, but his background gives him a special passion for those that focus on nature. Born in Livermore and raised on a small Union City farm, Nicholas is following in the footsteps of his ancestors, who have been naturalists and explorers for hundreds of years.

By age thirteen Nicholas had the skills to build a wooden kayak and take it down the Russian River, with nothing but a backpack full of supplies and a couple of  friends.

Nicholas later put his sense of adventure and well-honed survival skills to work during his ten years as a professional river-rafting guide, interpreting the wildlife along the river banks. In subsequent travels through the Southwest, he stayed on Indian reservations and learned about ancient ways from Apache, Miwok, or Pomo tribal elders.

"I wanted to know how they lived in the different habitats that surrounded them," said Nicholas. "I wanted to know about what they called the 'woodlore.'"

Nicholas remained on each reservation for a few months and then took his knowledge into the wild. He lived alone in the desert, in the mountains, or along the coast, recording observations in nature before returning to the elders for more lessons.

Nicholas hopes to pass those lessons on to a new generation of nature learners. Nicholas's Adobe Pioneers school programs, with multiple themes, are held twice a day at the park. The Young Explorers program includes school visits, assemblies, or field trips to forests and creeks.

Nicholas also runs the Ridge Runner Camps in spring and summer, and leads explorers of all ages in environmental projects at the Adobe or on hikes along Pleasanton's trails.

Participants are taught about the ways in which the Ohlone people were able to shape the environment to their advantage, with only a minimal impact on the earth. The Ohlone used controlled burns in the forests to clear away old undergrowth, releasing nutrients into the soil and allowing new plants to grow.  The Ohlone also used a technique called "coppiching," pruning plants and trees into long straight branches perfect for making baskets, tools, or arrows.

The Ohlone managed their environment so well that without the tiny traces of evidence left behind in fragments of stone, shell, antler, and bone, says Nicholas,

"You wouldn't even know they were here," he said.

This Earth Day, Nicholas will share his message in a talk called "Sustainability: Then and Now," hosted by Pleasanton's Museum on Main . The talk on April 22, will be held at 7 p.m. at the Lynnewood United Methodist Church, 4444 Black Avenue (tickets $3.00 students and teachers with ID, $5.00 seniors and Museum members, $10.00 non-members.)