Eva Butler

Growing up on her grandparents’ farm in southeastern Massachusetts, Eva played in the same woods that her mother had enjoyed as a child. Her reverence for its spring-fed stream full of native brook trout spawned a desire in Eva to explore the life that flourishes in clean streams and vernal pools.  

“When a kid falls asleep at night to a chorus of spring peepers, wood frogs, and whippoorwills, it is hard to imagine life without them,” she says. That is why she devotes so much of her life to finding ways to introduce others to the joys of nature.

With the support of many people, Eva founded Sacramento Splash because she believes that children deserve the chance to connect with nature where they live and employ the tools of science to explore it.

She knows she was lucky to have had natural places to play and teachers and mentors who encouraged her pursuit of science. Recognizing that many urban children lack opportunities to understand and value nature, she is motivated to preserve natural places and make them available for exploration and scientific investigation by Sacramento’s children.