Celebrate Tucker

Stewardship & Expanding Environmental Education

1. ENC Acquires Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary, 2021

ENC acquired the 12-acre Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in July 2021, becoming the owner and steward of a property that had been shuttered and closed to all public activity and largely inactive during the pandemic, except for local community members who helped water the property. The immediate goal was to stabilize the site, reopen it for environmental education and public enjoyment, address deferred maintenance and stewardship needs, and preserve Tucker’s distinctive character and history.

2. Reopening the Sanctuary to the Community

When ENC took ownership, the property had been boarded up and largely inactive for several years. ENC reopened Tucker for public visitation and gradually expanded its use for school programs, camps, family programs, birding, nature walks and community events. Public weekend hours were established, along with additional member access during the week.

3. Restoration of the Historic Tucker Residence

ENC undertook work on the historic residence after assuming stewardship, restoring features including the original board-and-batten exterior and picture window while adapting the building for education, historical interpretation and organizational use. The residence continues to be an important part of Tucker’s history and identity.

4. Museum and Visitor Experience Refresh

The museum and visitor areas were refreshed to better interpret the wildlife and natural history of the canyon. Aging, outdated and deteriorated displays were removed or replaced, and the Nature Store was expanded with books, educational materials, nature-related gifts and other merchandise that supports ENC’s nonprofit mission.

5. Moving Environmental Education Outdoors

ENC has intentionally shifted the emphasis of Tucker education from indoor displays and constructed experiences toward direct engagement with the sanctuary itself. Rather than recreating nature inside a building, programs increasingly use Tucker’s oak woodland, riparian habitat, chaparral, stream, native plant communities and wildlife as the classroom.

6. Major Growth in School Field Trips

Tucker dramatically expanded ENC’s capacity to provide outdoor science education. In 2025–26 alone, more than 6,000 children participated in school field trips at Tucker, including 2,658 students from Title I schools whose programs were supported by scholarships. Summer camps have also been offered at Tucker since 2023, with eight weeks of camp now offered each summer.

7. Expanded Camps and Youth Programs

Tucker has become a regular location for seasonal and summer nature camps, giving children an immersive, week-long wilderness experience. Tucker Summer Nature Camp alone served 78 campers in summer 2026.

8. Early Childhood and Family Nature Programs

ENC initiated early childhood programming at Tucker, including recurring Mini Naturalist programs for children ages 1–3 and their caregivers, offered weekly in month-long sessions, as well as monthly Stories by the Stream programs with seasonal topics and themes. These experiences combine storytelling, wildlife exploration, seasonal natural phenomena, crafts and direct outdoor discovery.

9. Birding and Wildlife Programming

In addition to regular visitation by birders, Tucker’s oak woodland, riparian, chaparral and other habitats have become the setting for recurring Earlybird Sundays and other birding and wildlife experiences. Programming has included bird identification, wildlife observation, tracking, bird language and other natural-history topics.

10. Broader Adult and Community Programming

Programming has expanded well beyond school field trips. Programs have included nature bathing, native plant uses walks, mushroom walks, wildlife programs, birding walks and other experiences designed to connect adults and families with the canyon.

11. Community Events

ENC has expanded community programming at Tucker, including Earth Day events focused on pollinators such as hummingbirds and butterflies, and on amphibians such as frogs and toads as indicator species. Native plants, animal ambassadors and other educational elements have helped visitors explore the connections among wildlife, habitat and native plants.

Accessibility & Visitor Infrastructure

12. ADA-Accessible Restrooms

ENC reconfigured the existing restrooms to improve ADA accessibility. Doors were replaced, interior layouts were adjusted, and lattice partitions that obstructed wheelchair access to the entrances were removed, making the facilities usable by a broader range of visitors and program participants.

13. Accessible Bird Observation Platform

A not to code and unsafe ramp was removed and replaced with an ADA-accessible observation platform adjacent to the historic bird observation platform off the Tucker Residence. The new platform allows people with mobility limitations to experience one of Tucker’s signature wildlife-viewing areas.

14. Mountain Trike ePush

A Mountain Trike ePush all-terrain wheelchair was obtained for dedicated use at Tucker, providing visitors with mobility limitations greater access to the sanctuary’s natural trails and terrain. It expands access to areas that a conventional wheelchair could not easily reach while allowing Tucker’s trails to retain their natural character.

15. Trail, Pathway and Storm Improvements

Ongoing stewardship has included trail and pathway maintenance, repairs following storm damage, drainage work, vegetation management for emergency access, erosion repair and other improvements necessary to safely operate a canyon property.

16. Ephemeral Stream Rock Wall

ENC constructed a naturalistic rock retaining wall along the ephemeral stream to stabilize the bank and address erosion while preserving the character of the watercourse. The stonework provides a durable solution suited to the canyon setting and allows seasonal stormwater to continue moving through the site. Like many of Tucker’s infrastructure improvements, the project was designed to solve a practical stewardship need without making the sanctuary feel more built.

17. Chaparral Loop Trail Improvements

ENC made substantial improvements to the Chaparral Loop Trail, accessed from the Harding Truck Trail. Deteriorated and rotten wooden steps, many of them rounded and unsafe, were completely removed and replaced. Significant erosion was repaired, the trail surface was improved, and new steps were installed in difficult sections. The result is a much safer and more manageable hike to the shaded teaching area on the hill while retaining the experience of traveling through Tucker’s chaparral habitat.

Habitat Restoration & Ecological Stewardship

18. Restoration of Tucker’s Native Plant Communities

After a careful inventory of Tucker’s vegetation, ENC identified extensive nonnative and overgrown vegetation, including plants that increased fuel loads and provided limited habitat value. Long-term planning began to rehabilitate the landscape and its plant communities so they would be more attractive to visitors and more beneficial to local wildlife, especially birds, by providing appropriate food and shelter. The ongoing effort replaces invasive and inappropriate nonnative vegetation with plants representative of the canyon’s native communities, strengthening functioning habitat while allowing the landscape itself to become part of the educational experience.

19. Invasive Species Removal

ENC staff and volunteers have undertaken continuing removal of invasive plants, including substantial work on mustard, sow thistle and other species capable of spreading from Tucker into the surrounding Cleveland National Forest and nearby County-managed lands. This work helps reduce the spread of invasive plants beyond Tucker’s boundaries as well as within the sanctuary.

20. Chaparral Restoration and Aleppo Pine Removal

One of ENC’s earliest major habitat projects after acquiring Tucker was the removal of nonnative Aleppo pines from the chaparral area and restoration of the site with appropriate native vegetation. In addition to altering the character of the native chaparral plant community, Aleppo pines can create significant fuel loads and are a concern in fire-prone landscapes. Their removal improved the ecological integrity of the chaparral while supporting responsible vegetation management in the canyon.

21. Acjachemen Meadow & Pollinator Habitat

ENC has transformed the meadow into an Acjachemen Meadow and pollinator habitat, inspired by plant communities in the Cleveland National Forest where Indigenous people traditionally gathered plant materials for basketry and other uses.

The meadow includes locally appropriate native species with cultural significance while also providing habitat for native bees, butterflies and other pollinators. A dry creek bed has been incorporated into the landscape, helping evoke the seasonal hydrology of Southern California while adding habitat and educational value.

Additional planting is planned for fall 2026 as the meadow continues to develop. The goal is for the area to function simultaneously as habitat, a beautiful native meadow and a place where visitors can begin to understand the long relationship between people and the plants of the Santa Ana Mountains.

22. Santiago Peak Mountain Garden

When a large nonnative olive tree fell, ENC incurred several thousand dollars in removal and cleanup costs. The resulting sunny opening, however, presented an opportunity to create an entirely new educational landscape.

That area is now being developed as the Santiago Peak Mountain Garden, inspired by the rocky, higher-elevation plant communities of the Santa Ana Mountains. Some of the stone being incorporated into the garden is Santiago Peak Volcanic stone sourced from the Santa Ana Mountains/Peninsular Range, creating a direct geological connection between the garden and the mountains it interprets.

The garden will combine substantial boulders and smaller stone, decomposed granite and mineral substrate with locally appropriate, low-growing native plants associated with the Santa Ana Mountains. Its purpose is to give students and visitors a living outdoor classroom for exploring how geology, soils, elevation, exposure, drought and water shape the native plant communities of the Santa Ana Mountains.

23. Sanctuary-Wide Irrigation System Replacement

ENC is currently replacing Tucker’s aging, failing and leaking irrigation system throughout the sanctuary. The new system will improve water efficiency and reliability while supporting native habitat restoration, teaching gardens and the long-term health of the landscape.

24. Hummingbird Garden at the Historic Residence

To enhance the feeding of the hummingbirds first established by the Tucker family, an enhanced hummingbird garden has been established to provide the birds with native food sources in combination with the sugar water. The garden is located directly in front of the historic Tucker Residence, where visitors have traditionally watched hummingbirds visiting feeders.

Its location is intentional. The garden allows visitors to see that hummingbirds do not depend on feeders alone and that California native plants provide nectar, insects, shelter and other resources naturally. By placing native hummingbird plants alongside an area already associated with hummingbird viewing, ENC can demonstrate a simple but important conservation message: one of the best ways people can support hummingbirds is by planting the plants with which they evolved.

25. Bird Box Monitoring and Management

Beginning in spring 2022, ENC worked with OC Habitats to monitor Tucker’s extensive bird box installations. The project evaluated individual boxes and produced recommendations to retain, relocate, repair or remove them based on habitat and wildlife needs. ENC continues to monitor the remaining boxes for occupancy, nesting activity and maintenance needs so they can continue to provide appropriate nesting habitat.

26. Fire Resilience and Vegetation Management

Management of vegetation, defensible space, emergency access and accumulated plant material has become part of the routine stewardship of Tucker, reflecting the realities of operating a wildlife sanctuary in Modjeska Canyon.

Removing Structures and Returning Space to Nature

27. Removal of Wildlife Cages & Creation of an Oak Woodland Teaching Area

Large obsolete steel bird cages remaining from an earlier era of Tucker were removed with assistance from the California Native Horticultural Foundation. ENC’s philosophy is that Tucker should function as a natural sanctuary rather than a zoo, with wildlife experienced primarily in habitat rather than displayed in cages.

Rather than replacing the structures with more built environment, the area will be restored as oak woodland and become an additional outdoor teaching station. The goal is deliberately naturalistic: groups will be able to gather among the oaks using rocks, logs and, when needed, a simple canvas tarp.

The teaching area will allow students to investigate the oak woodland itself, including its plants, leaf litter, insects, birds and other wildlife, while returning a heavily altered portion of the sanctuary to native habitat.

28. Reduction of Unnecessary Human-Made Structures

Some older structures have been removed where they no longer serve the site’s ecological, educational, accessibility or safety needs. The broader goal is to reduce visual intrusions and allow visitors, particularly children, to experience Tucker as a natural landscape.

29. Amphitheater Canopy Replacement

When ENC took possession of Tucker, the existing amphitheater canopy was nonfunctioning and dilapidated, with warped metal supports that posed a potential safety concern. ENC replaced the aging shade structure with a new, attractive canopy, improving the comfort, aesthetics and usability of an existing educational space used for classes, presentations, gatherings and environmental education.

30. Nature Center Entry Awning

ENC added a new awning at the entrance to the Nature Center, creating a more welcoming and functional arrival area for school groups, families and other visitors. The covered space provides much-needed shade and weather protection where groups naturally gather before entering the building or heading out into the sanctuary, while complementing Tucker’s rustic canyon setting.

Native Horticulture & the California Native Horticultural Foundation

31. California Native Horticultural Foundation (CNHF) Headquarters at Tucker

In 2026, ENC entered into a formal partnership with the newly established CNHF, founded by longtime native horticulturist Mike Evans following the closure of Tree of Life Nursery. CNHF established its headquarters at Tucker, bringing decades of native horticultural knowledge back into the canyon.

32. Modjeska Native Plant Nursery

A nursery is being developed not as a conventional retail facility but as an educational facility supporting propagation demonstrations, workshops, volunteers, professional development, workforce development and habitat restoration. Propagation has increasingly become part of Tucker’s stewardship work, allowing native plants to be grown for habitat enhancement, educational use and future projects.

The CNHF/ENC partnership creates opportunities for interns, volunteers and emerging horticulturists to learn propagation, native landscape management, restoration and other practical skills, making Tucker not just a demonstration site but a training ground for future environmental professionals.

33. Returning Native Plants and Specialty Soil to the Community

Following the closure of Tree of Life Nursery, the canyon and surrounding communities lost an important local source of California native plants. Plant sales through the Tucker partnership will help fill that gap while generating mission-supporting revenue for the two nonprofits and encouraging native habitat creation throughout the community.

The nursery will also make specialty soil available to the community for native plant growing and planting needs. Tree of Life was well known for its specialized soil mix, and access to appropriate growing media remains important to successful native plant horticulture.

History & Interpretation

34. People of the Canyons Gallery & Historical Interpretation

The People of the Canyons Gallery is already taking shape inside the historic Tucker Residence. A substantial collection of artifacts is now on display, although the full interpretive exhibits have not yet been developed. When staffing permits, visitors during public or member hours can be invited into the residence to view the collection.

Future plans include photographs, historic maps, interpretive timelines and other materials that will provide greater context for the artifacts and tell a more complete story of the people who have lived in, worked in and cared for these canyons. An especially valuable part of understanding the sanctuary’s history has been the opportunity to speak directly with Benjamin Richards Tucker, a descendant of Benjamin and Dorothy Tucker. Those conversations have added family knowledge, memories and context that cannot be recovered simply by reading historical records.

ENC has also uncovered a growing collection of historic photographs, documents and other source material related to Tucker and the surrounding canyon. As that material is organized and documented, the goal is to make much more of it available through ENC’s website so Tucker’s history can be shared beyond what can physically be displayed in the residence.

Tucker is both a natural and cultural landscape. ENC is working to preserve and interpret the human stories associated with the property, including the legacy of Benjamin and Dorothy Tucker, the Indigenous history of the Santa Ana Mountains, the history of Modjeska Canyon and the generations of people who have cared for and learned from this landscape.

Tucker occupies land associated with Helena Modjeska’s former estate, where Theodore Payne worked as a gardener in the 1890s and developed his early interest in California native plants. The return of native plant propagation and education to the canyon gives the CNHF partnership an unusually meaningful historical connection.

35. Retaining Historically Significant Plantings

Although the large prickly pear along the road is nonnative and some needed to be removed for the current project, portions are being retained because of their historical association with the property. The remaining plants will be actively managed and allowed to regenerate while preserving this piece of Tucker’s landscape history. Other nonnative plants retained as part of the Theodore Payne/Tucker legacy include olive trees, pomegranates and additional historically significant plantings.

Current Frontage Project

36. Permanent Retaining Solution

The current project replaces deteriorating sandbags along the roadside embankment that were never intended to serve as a permanent retaining system. Like the sandbags they replace, the new segmental concrete masonry retaining structure stabilizes the soil while allowing for drainage, but provides a far more durable, long-term solution.

37. Replacing an Existing Six-Foot Fence

ENC is not introducing a six-foot barrier where none previously existed. The Modjeska Canyon Road frontage has had a six-foot chain-link fence for many years. ENC is replacing the aging and visually intrusive chain-link fence with an attractive six-foot Trex composite fence made predominantly from recycled and reclaimed materials, a material ENC has previously used at both of its Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum-certified facilities.

From inside the Sanctuary, the existing chain-link fence provides direct views of parked vehicles, passing cars and trucks, and people entering and exiting vehicles along Modjeska Canyon Road. The purpose of using a more visually screening design for the replacement fence is largely to block the view out, not to block the community’s view in. Reducing these visual distractions will create a more immersive natural setting for children and other visitors using Tucker for environmental education.

Wildlife Movement

The replacement fence does not create a new barrier to wildlife movement. A six-foot fence has existed along the Modjeska Canyon Road frontage for many years, so wildlife already encounters a fence in this location. Tucker remains connected to surrounding habitat through the creek corridor and adjoining properties, just as it is today, and the replacement fence does not change those existing points of access.

In fact, ENC does not want to encourage wildlife to move toward or cross Modjeska Canyon Road. Maintaining access to adjoining habitat while discouraging animals from moving toward a roadway and vehicle traffic is consistent with the Sanctuary’s role as wildlife habitat. The Trex boards are installed with spacing between them for airflow, and because of the natural grade of the site, small openings will occur beneath portions of the fence, allowing small wildlife to pass.

Why Trex Was Selected

The choice of Trex composite was intentional and consistent with ENC’s longstanding approach to sustainable design and construction. ENC has considerable experience evaluating building materials through the development of two Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Platinum-certified facilities, and Trex has been successfully used at both under the guidance of a LEED Accredited Professional.

Trex composite is manufactured from approximately 95% recycled and reclaimed materials, primarily reclaimed wood fiber and recycled polyethylene film. Rather than relying on virgin lumber, the product gives a long service life to materials that would otherwise enter the waste stream. For Tucker, Trex also provides practical advantages over conventional wood in an outdoor setting. It is durable, resistant to rot and insects, and does not require the repeated sanding, staining, painting or sealing associated with maintaining a traditional wood fence. Selecting a long-lived, low-maintenance material made predominantly from recycled and reclaimed content was consistent with ENC’s experience and sustainability priorities.

The Bigger Story

Since ENC acquired Tucker Wildlife Sanctuary in 2021 and became its steward, Tucker has evolved from a property that had been largely abandoned into a revitalized, active and successful wildlife sanctuary serving increasing numbers of environmental education participants while benefiting from increasingly sophisticated habitat stewardship.

The individual projects are different, but the direction is remarkably consistent:

Fewer unnecessary structures. More native habitat. More learning outdoors. Greater accessibility. More children experiencing nature. Stronger native horticulture. Better stewardship of the canyon. And a deeper understanding of the people, plants, wildlife and history that make Tucker distinctive.

That stewardship also means protecting and deepening our understanding of the Tucker legacy. We are restoring and caring for the historic residence, preserving artifacts and historic materials, learning directly from the Tucker family, and continuing to uncover the stories that connect Benjamin and Dorothy Tucker to this remarkable place. As we learn more, we are committed to preserving and sharing that history so it remains an integral part of Tucker’s future.

ENC’s goal is to allow Tucker to become more fully Tucker: a place where its history is honored, its habitat is cared for, and the character of Modjeska Canyon itself is the experience and the classroom.