North State business gives $1.1 million to help rebuild Whiskeytown Environmental School
Whiskeytown National Recreation Area’s Environmental School got a $1.1 million donation boost toward restoring its burned campus.
On Thursday, Sierra Pacific Foundation gave $750,000 to the park toward its efforts to rebuild the school’s sleeping cabins and $350,000 to the Shasta County Office of Education to help pay for future students to participate in the school’s science programs, according to a statement sent from SCOE.
“When fully operational, WES reaches 90% of the children in Shasta County,” said WES Community President Melinda Kashuba in the statement.
Supporters of the school, operated by SCOE and the National Park Service, still have some financial distance to cover before they can bankroll the complete rebuild, which could cost as much as $15 million, according to SCOE.
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Thus far, fundraising efforts garnered “$2.28 million of the estimated $4.5 million needed to rebuild student housing," according to the statement. Camp supporters also raised $2.21 million toward the "$10.5 million needed for other portions of the rebuild, including the amphitheater, new safety/administration building (and) infrastructure,” the statement said.
Formerly called NEED Camp, Whiskeytown and SCOE created the outdoor science camp in 1970.
Since then, five decades of students, from kindergarten to sixth grade, visited WES. Every year, the camp hosted five-day, four-night visits for fifth and sixth graders at schools throughout the county.
The camp hosted “more than 134,000 students since its inception,” SCOE reported.
Then, in July 2018, the Carr Fire burned through Whiskeytown National Recreation Area, including the school's campus. The blaze destroyed seven of the cabins and damaged other WES buildings.
More: Whiskeytown camp school marks 50 years, finds reason for hope after catastrophic fire
In 2020, the park and SCOE unveiled rebuilding plans, including a new cafeteria, new bathrooms and replacements for burned cabins.
“We’re going to keep a lot of the same look — whitewashed cabins dotted around the meadow. But they’re going to be modernized,” Kashuba said in 2020.
As of 2023, Whiskeytown hosts half-day field labs, but “no children have experienced the residential environmental education program at WES since 2018,” according to SCOE.
Jessica Skropanic is a features reporter for the Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. She covers science, arts, social issues and news stories. Follow her on Twitter @RS_JSkropanic and on Facebook. Join Jessica in the Get Out! Nor Cal recreation Facebook group. To support and sustain this work, please subscribe today. Thank you.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Park Service, SCOE gets $1.1 million for WES rebuild after Carr Fire
