COSUMNES

project date: 2012 | by susan jurasz

One of the last remaining undammed rivers of significance in California is the Cosumnes River. It stretches unbridled from high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains across the vast interior plains to San Francisco Bay. Sandhill Cranes are a common sight here in the fall and spring, while songbirds and waterfowl are year-round residents. The Nature Conservancy, with other partners, is working to preserve and restore the rich riparian area and flood plains.

Mounted to the wrap-around deck outside the visitor center is the longest outdoor exhibit Sea Reach has ever designed and fabricated - it is forty-feet-long! As you walk the length of the exhibit, you see the Preserve changing through the seasons. The temperature rises and falls, it rains, then gets sunny, and then rains again; the community of plants flourish and die, and birds and mammals roam in and out. Each month is represented by forty-inches in a continuum of forty-feet. Sea Reach also designed, fabricated, and installed the visitor center and boardwalk exhibits.