Ogden Nature Center celebrating 50 years at annual Earth Day event
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- Children participate in an activity at Ogden Nature Center in an undated photo.
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- Christina Myers and granddaughter Amelia Nelson, left, pose for an undated photo alongside Ogden Nature Center Education Director Sarah Lambson, middle, and Executive Director Laura Hayes Western, right, following the preserve’s “Fly with the Flock Fun Run.”
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- An undated photo of an evening event at Ogden Nature Center.
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- Summer camp students cross through the grasslands at the Ogden Nature Center on Monday, July 17, 2017.
OGDEN — Ogden Nature Center, located at 966 W. 12th St., will mark both its 50th anniversary and Earth Day with a dual celebration on April 26 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. The free event will be held rain or shine; attendees are advised to bike, bus or carpool where possible.
Among the activities open to attendees will be a variety of vendor booths, educational and earth-friendly exhibitors, crafts, green goods, food trucks, multicultural dancers — including Oaxaca en Utah — and submissions from the nature preserve’s annual birdhouse and Earth Day art poster contests. Ogden Mayor Ben Nadolski is expected to be among the special guests and presenters on hand for the event.
Free desserts will also be given while supplies last.
While people of all ages and backgrounds will undoubtedly attend the celebration, Ogden Nature Center Director Laura Hayes Western told the Standard-Examiner that children may get the most out of their experiences there.
“One of my favorite things is seeing little kids come here and the wonder in their eyes,” Western said. “They’re very excited to be here, as are their families. So, they keep coming back. And most of our families don’t just come once; they come several times a year … That has been amazing to get to know people who came as children and, when they had children, they came back — or their grandparents were here as young people and came back.”
Christina Myers, who now chairs the Ogden Nature Center board, has been bringing children — and grandchildren — to the 152-acre preserve for nearly four decades. The Ljungby, Sweden, native arrived in the Beehive State in 1982, and as she raised her family, the Nature Center allowed her to share a deeply rooted passion for nature with the next generation.
“In Sweden, we have a concept that we call the Allemansrätten — it’s kind of the general public’s right to access both public and privately-owned land, lakes and the rivers for recreation and exercise. It’s kind of the right to roam. … I grew up with that,” Myers told the Standard-Examiner. “When I came to Utah, I was very, very excited to see that we have a nature preserve here that has that very same belief and that very same concept where you coexist with nature and with the animals and their habitats. So, as we raised our children in this area, we would come up to the Nature Center.”
As Myers sees it, reconnecting with nature can play a large role in combating the myriad pressures people face in the modern world while also helping them find common ground.
“To come out and to be in undisturbed nature with the animals in their habitat, it just rejuvenates you, and it inspires you and it connects you with nature in such a wonderful way,” Myers said. “And there’s no barrier there between languages or cultures. It’s such a good defense against the daily stresses and the social demands that we have upon us to have more harmony in our lives. It’s a neutral place where everyone can be together and enjoy and be invigorated and inspired in nature.”
The Ogden Nature Center grounds are also entrenched in the local lore, having been utilized originally by Native tribes and later settled by Miles Goodyear — the fur trader who built Fort Buenaventura. Over the ensuing years, stewardship of the land changed hands from Capt. James Brown to the William Hodson family down to the U.S. Department of Defense and, eventually, Ogden City and its Nature Center.
“You can’t really find anywhere in Utah that kind of has that interesting and varied history,” Western said.
For more information, go to https://www.ogdennaturecenter.org/.
