The Neal Taylor Nature Center has had another successful year of education and fun events! Over 40,000 guests visited the Nature Center in 2023, with additional attendees coming for our seasonal and outdoor events. Thousands of children came in school and summer camp groups, and learned about the ecology and natural history of the Santa Ynez River Valley through our engaging scavenger hunt. We would like to thank each and every one of you who visited the Nature Center, attended our events, and made donations in 2023!

Speaking of scavenger hunts, our Camp Hosts have created multiple new ones for people to enjoy. There are now two brand new scavenger hunts for ages 3+, as well as a second scavenger hunt for ages 7+! If your child visited the Nature Center in a field trip, and you want to come back, we can give them a new scavenger hunt with different questions. If they complete the scavenger hunt, we have very special prizes! We gave out hundreds of stuffed animal neck pillow prizes during 2023. Make sure you stop by for the scavenger hunt before we run out of neck pillows!

We also launched our brand new website back in August, featuring descriptions of our exhibits, a brand new program calendar, and so much more. Please take some time to navigate our new webpages after your read this post.

Torrential record-breaking rains filled the lake to 100% capacity, which attracted boaters and anglers from far and wide. The 26th Annual Fish Derby in April brought in anglers from all over the country for a weekend of fishing, camping, crafting, and raffling. Melissa Vickers, age 39 from Ventura took home the $599 prize for heaviest trout caught at 8.52 lbs and 26 inches. Rob Murrin, from Santa Barbara, caught the heaviest Bass at 1.84 lbs. Kaylan Brown, age 14 from Pharump, Nevada, took home the prizes for all 3 heaviest fish caught by a girl! To see a list of all of this year’s winners and prizes, visit:

https://www.troutderby.org/winners

As Spring came to a close, the Summer kicked off with the return of our “Going Batty” program. This popular program brought in campers every Saturday evening to view in awe as the California Myotis bats dropped from their boxes. The bats are healthy and happy in their homes in our Native Garden, with our latest count adding up to almost 400 bats. Some evenings we had almost 200 people attend “Going Batty,” and our total combined attendance over the summer was in the thousands.

Autumn kicked off with our Food 4 Thought lecture series about the fascinating world of crows, magpies and jays in the Santa Ynez Valley. Our annual Halloween event, Creepy Creatures, was also a huge success. During the event we educated children about bats, spiders, and snakes, helping to debunk several of the myths about these important and integral contributors to our local ecosystems. The event also featured a special Aerial performance from Elevated Dreams Aerial & Dance Studio.