Local sculptors want to build wildlife trail through Morgan
Hill
Two Morgan Hill sculptors have joined forces to take local wildlife appreciation to a new level.
Marlene American and Evelyn Davis are trying to gather enough public interest and support to move forward with a sculpture-lined, interpretive trail along Little Llagas Creek, starting at Community Park and the new indoor recreation center on West Edmundson Avenue and, eventually, through downtown.
Working with WERC, the Wildlife Education Rehabilitation Center, the two women hope to exhibit professional bronze sculptures of local wildlife. If all goes well, nationally known artists will submit designs to a jury of artists and community members who will choose the winners.
To start things off, Davis is offering her bronze sculpture of a bobcat, “Liberty” – one of her success stories – to be installed in 2006 on the trail near the recreation center.
But, while American and Davis are presently a committee of two, American says they welcome others with a love of wild things and art to come along and join them. To make their dream a reality, grants need to be written, the Santa Clara Valley Water District (custodians of the creek) must be negotiated with and the public must be informed and engaged. And they could use some help.
“I can see someday, well into the future when these critters are pushed further and further into extinction, Morgan Hill will be known as a refuge and a place where people can view bobcat, cougar, heron, etc, both in their natural setting (thanks to WERC) and in bronze art form along the Wildlife Sculpture Trail,” Davis said this weekend.
Visitors would pick up a self-guided map at the trail’s beginning, and would learn about the sculptures of various wildlife species found in the area and about the animals themselves.
Davis has often been in the news as a “bobcat mom” – one of a team that tends abandoned bobcat kittens and teaches them skills to survive in the wild. To maintain the kitten’s healthy fear of humans, Davis dresses up in a bobcat suit, avoiding human smell with the application of eucalyptus leaves and bobcat urine.
WERC is nationally famous for developing this program and for successfully releasing several bobcats back into the wild.
American is also working on the official Centennial sculpture, a statute of Hiram Morgan Hill, his wife, Diana, and their daughter, Diane, as they wait for a train during the 1890s. The sculpture will be installed at the Morgan Hill train depot (Depot at East Third Street) during 2006, the town’s centennial year.
To help with Morgan Hill’s Wildlife Sculpture Trail along Little Llagas Creek, call Marlene American, 779-5883 or Evelyn Davis at 778-2149 or E-mail her at
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