Housed within an old Spanish Colonial Revival house, Sycamore Nature Center aims to educate children and adults on local flora and fauna.
By Michael Aushenker / Special to The Malibu Times
A reporter stood nose-to-nose with Lucinda, a fierce-looking mountain lion.
The nine-foot-long, 110-pound cougar flashed her fangs, seemingly ready to pounce. She looked as if she could easily maul this lifelong city boy who never camped a day in his life and considers crossing Pacific Coast Highway to Ralphs a hike.
Luckily, Lucinda is no longer alive. This beautifully mounted specimen, the result of taxidermy, is among the animals brought to life at the recently re-opened Sycamore Nature Center.
“She’s a 10-year-old mountain lion found at the side of the road,” said Julie Tapie, who runs the center with husband Harold Tapie.
Located at the cusp of Point Mugu State Park, Sycamore Nature Center reopened in May in a century-old adobe house.
“In the 1960s, they gave [the house] over to the CalTrans supervisor,” Tapie explained. “The State of California bought it in 1980 and opened up the Sycamore Center. It closed down in 2004 and reopened in May of 2011.”
The idea was to convert the Spanish Revival home into a Malibu museum that would house specimens of flora and fauna native to the area. Alongside Lucinda stood stuffed owls, badgers, bobcats, quail, falcons, a weasel, and rocks, fossils and turtle shells.
“We had a real passion to re-open for the kids, and because of the [lack of] funding they haven’t been able to do anything, so we brought in some volunteers,” Tapie said.
The center hopes to raise $100,000 to stay open year-round. California State Park Ranger Marie Lindsey said they need a plan for preserving the site, making repairs, and planning and budgeting specific projects. The museum welcomes monetary donations and area artifacts and photos.
The center’s goal of spreading awareness about the natural world is already bearing fruit. Four Canadian scientists from Biodiversity Institute of Ontario (BIO) visited the recently reopened center last Friday, speaking before two dozen wide-eyed parents and children. The BIO team, under the leadership of scientist Jay Cossey, traveled all the way from the Toronto area on a scientific trek that also includes research stops in Florida, Texas and Arizona.
On the center’s front porch, BIO team member Grace Bennon showed off a shortcut to attracting nocturnal bug samples overnight with a funnel, a light, and some ethanol.
“All the bugs can see this even from really far away trapped in the jar…and we get to sleep all night,” she said.
Bennon also demonstrated an aspirator: a manually blown tube that sucks up insects for capture and study.
Fellow BIO team member Liam Dickson upped the wow factor by holding up a jar of tiny, pale scorpions. “We caught these in Arizona,” Dickson said. “There are about five or six in here. They’re sand-colored so they blend right in.”
The predatory arthropods from Dead Horse Ranch State Park were entrapped at night.
“Scorpions actually glow under a black light,” Dickson said, as he produced a UV flashlight and illuminated the jar’s contents, bedazzling child and parent alike.
“Wow, that’s amazing!” squealed an impressed mother.
“There’s a chemical in the jar that knocks the bugs out,” Dickson explained. “We take them at the end of the day, we put them on pins.”
“The tarantulas I catch just climb into my shoe!” exclaimed a grinning blond boy.
The BIO team made similar trips across Canada and New England in 2008 and 2009, respectively, collecting samples. Their ultimate goal is to input all of their findings into a master computer as part of what Cossey short-hands “DNA bar coding.”
“We’re creating this digital database of life on Earth,” he said. “It’s an international project with 25 countries participating worldwide.”
Cossey explained that scientists are 10 to 15 years away from possessing a hand-held gizmo that can instantly identify an insect or insect part. Parked outside of the Nature Center was their ride, “a little mobile field unit,” as Cossey called it. The BIO Bus, a flamboyant RV bearing giant graphics of butterflies and the institute’s website, www.biodiversity.ca, is a mobile collection vehicle advancing their molecular analysis of specimens. The BIO Bus made similar trips across Canada in 2008 and New England in 2009.
Taking it all in, Tapie smiled as children hung on Dickson’s every word. This, she said, is what the nature center is all about.
“My hope and my vision for this place is to keep it open, keep it for the kids,” she said, “and have programs with rangers and the Chumash people. But I can’t do it without funding. I can’t do it without volunteers. Anyone who wants to come volunteer, I would love that!”
No BIO Bus required.
For more information on donating artifacts and/or volunteering to support the Sycamore Nature Center, contact Ranger Marie Lindsey at (805) 488-1827, ext. 106, or email SMMNHA@Malibuinterp.com. Donations can be sent to: SMMNHA, c/o State Parks, 9000 W. PCH, Malibu, CA 90265