Did you know? Pumpkins are a type of squash! 80% of the entire U.S. pumpkin supply is available in the month of October! The heaviest pumpkins can weigh around 2,000 pounds! —————————————————————————————————————- Fall in love with our Pumpkin Patch at the 42nd annual Fall Faire! Pumpkins of all shapes and sizes will be available for sale. Come take a family photo in our cute pumpkin patch while you are shopping! Proceeds benefit the ENC’s environmental education programs. Come get your pumpkins, and support a great cause! Also, if you become an ENC member at Fall Faire, you get a free pumpkin! The Fall Faire will take place on Sunday, October 16 from 10:00am to 3:00 pm. Admission to this event is free. More information can…

It’s that time of the year again! On September 22 at 5:30pm, the Environmental Nature Center will be hosting its annual Taste of Twilight! This dinner event is for ENC members and their families. Guests are invited to enjoy hands-on nature activities along the trails and a complimentary dinner. The Shadybrook Band will play live music into the night, and the evening will end with s’mores and storytelling around the campfire! “This is my favorite ENC event, I love the family-friendly atmosphere! We are so thankful for our members and this community,” said Bo Glover, ENC Executive Director. Join us as we enjoy a special nature-filled night with family, friends, and our community! We hope to see you there! To register for the event, go…

On June 29 the ENC Adult Speaker Series will feature Author and Storyteller Chris Epting. Chris is the author of 26 books including Roadside Baseball, James Dean Died Here and Vanishing Orange County. He is also an award-winning journalist and contributor to such publications as the Los Angeles Times and Westways magazine. Chris will discuss his latest book, Teddy Roosevelt in California. In 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt embarked on his first visit to California. Before leaving, he reached out to naturalist John Muir with a special favor: to act as the president’s tour guide in Yosemite. Join Chris for a presentation on how that fateful three-day trip helped to shape the destiny of Yosemite and the National Park system. 6-7 pm open house with appetizers, wine and…

Are you a foody? Do you enjoy mouth-watering cuisines that have you asking for seconds? If so, Orange County is the right place to be. With such a diverse population, the county offers a variety of dishes from all across the globe to satisfy your cravings. Luckily, the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach, Ca. has you covered. The ENC is hosting Savor OC, an event where various restaurants from Orange County come down to showcase their delicious cuisines to the public. The event will take place during ENC’s 11th Annual Spring Faire and Butterfly house Opening. You can enjoy some cool treats from Rita’s Ice Custard Happiness as you stroll around ENC’s marvelous grounds. Maybe you’ll be craving something healthy for lunch. Well Jan’s…

  A picture is worth a thousand words. Sandra Biziaux Scherson lives, breathes, eats, and sleeps photography. Nature and wildlife are her favorite subjects, and the world around her is her inspiration. Henri Carier-Bresson, the master of candid photography, once said, “To photograph is to hold one’s breath, when all faculties converge to capture fleeting reality. It’s at that precise moment that mastering an image becomes a great physical and intellectual joy.” Photography is more than just clicking a button and snapping a picture. Sandrine Biziaux Scherson has been mastering photography for years. “However detailed a photograph, it remains mysterious. So much goes into making an image happen at a particular instant, for the photographer to shoot at the right angle, at the right time,…

  Move aside space exploration, there’s a new frontier for humans to explore and that’s the dark abyss of the deep blue sea. But there is a reason why the deep sea has been largely unexplored. Dive down 650 feet and you will notice that light starts fading rapidly. Dive deeper and the temperature drops and pressure rises. At 13,000 feet the temperature hovers around freezing, and you’re wandering in pitch-black darkness. The conditions are extremely dangerous and a leak or an engine malfunction at depths where the pressure is 1,000 times the norm can turn catastrophic for man or machine alike. Though it is an arduous challenge, there is one person in particular, who isn’t afraid of such a daunting feat. Avid explorer and…

Spring is nature’s way of saying “lets party!” With March approaching and Spring right around the corner the Environmental Nature Center is excited to kick off the new month and season with some exciting upcoming events. To dive into the month of March, the ENC will be presenting our Adult Speaker Series featuring local resident and Newport Harbor High School alumnus Chris Welsh, chief pilot for Deep Sub LLC. Deep Sub LLC operates a deep diving submersible and mothership capable of going to depths of 36,000 feet. This event will be held on March 2, 2016 at 6:00 pm at the Environmental Nature Center. At the event Welsh will discuss the sub’s design, dive locations, planned exploration, and scientific goals. He will also share his company’s objective…

Formed by a fiery planetary explosion roughly 400 billion years ago, the moon has been a beacon of light and comfort since the dawn of humankind. It has been everything from a God to a compass, and it is the only cosmic body human beings have visited. So come on out to the Environmental Nature Center in Newport Beach on February 22 at 6 p.m. for our annual Full Moon Walk (Michael Jackson fans may notice the play on words used here)! Join ENC naturalist Leslie Helliwell to learn some fascinating facts about the Full Moon and the mysterious legends that earthlings have associated with it since ancient times. This program is for humans age 6 and up.  Cost is $6 per participant and $5…

Everyone has personal goals and ambitions. Whether it be materialistic goals like owning a bigger house or physical goals like losing those stubborn extra pounds of weight that you put on during the holidays, everyone has a particular set of goals that they live by and feel will make their lives better. While personal ambitions are great and can bring instant gratification, it usually pales in comparison to the rewarding satisfaction one feels during the humble act of community service. As the beloved Hollywood actress and renowned humanitarian Audrey Hepburn once said, “ You have two hands. One to help yourself and the other to help others.” Besides feeling the instant satisfaction of making an integral difference in someone’s life or in a community, a…

The Environmental Nature Center will one last Drum Circle this Summer on August 27, 7 – 8 pm (for families). Community members are invited to join facilitator Laurene Keane who will be providing drums for those who don’t have one. Cocoa will be provided, but bring your own reusable mug. $6 per person. $5 for members. Register at encenter.org “Our Circle is a fun entry-level learning experience that is accessible to anyone who wants to participate,” said ENC Outreach Coordinator Sama Wareh. “Drum Circle participants express themselves collectively by using percussion to create a musical song together while having a great time. Dancers are welcome too!” As the sun is setting, gather around the campfire. Surround yourself with trees and living things, and listen to the sounds…

Sitting on the dock in Catalina Island and watching bioluminescence follow our fingertips in the water, the girl scouts and I bonded over nature, art, and science. They had taken me along on their Catalina trip to lead Traveling Naturalist Programs for them. Little did I know that this bond would extend beyond that trip. While hanging out on that warm June night, the scouts and I sat in a circle to talk about ideas they could do for silver award projects. Most of the other girls had already accomplished theirs and 2 girls had yet to come up with something. We exchanged all sorts of ideas, including getting coffee shops to start recycling their grounds and actually getting the customers to take those grounds…

We live in the age of hard workers; many of us conduct our weekday labor with stress as we support our families and ourselves. At the end of the week, many of us deserve a bit of spiritual rejuvenation while being surrounded by nature, and there’s no better way to achieve that than with some morning meditation at the Environmental Nature Center! Meditation has proven to be a great way to cleanse spiritual ailments, explore our surroundings, and reclaim our individual selves that we tend to misplace during the hustle and bustle of daily life. It offers a chance for us to ground ourselves and be present in the now. Join us with special guest Vicki James, an amazing meditation practitioner with six years of…