Group says proposed nature center will destroy Whittier Narrows habitat

Opponents of a proposed $30-million interpretive center at the Whittier Narrows wildlife sanctuary are ramping up their effort to block the project they fear would destroy a rare expanse of critical habitat in eastern Los Angeles County in order to enhance understanding of the San Gabriel River watershed.

The group Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area issued a five-page "media backgrounder" just weeks away from release of a draft environmental impact report on the proposal to build an 18,230-square-foot "discovery center" equipped with with interactive exhibits including a 7,000-square-foot model of the San Gabriel River featuring flowing water.

The proposed San Gabriel River Discovery Center would also offer an artificial wetlands in the heart of a region that was recently designated an "important bird area" by California Audubon.

The center "would destroy critical habitat, rob our diverse communities of open space, and shift focus away from firsthand experiences of nature," the backgrounder says. "And it would do so using public dollars to take public lands for a project the goals of which could be better served through less destructive and costly means."

The group also argues that the center "flies in the face of recent Southern California museum-building history." It points out, for example, that the Metropolitan Water District in 2007 canceled a lease on its $26-million Center for Water Education in Hemet, and paid nearly $5 million more to cover debt on the project.

Then there is the proposed nature-oriented Children's Museum of Los Angeles at Hansen Dam Recreation Area in the San Fernando Valley, which, the group says, "sits locked behind a chain-link fence, never having opened."

Supporters of the center, however, are looking forward to presenting their case during public hearings on the environmental report. "This type of facility in this type of setting is very important," said Valerie Shatynski, a project analyst with the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority. "The exhibit areas will be designed to help people understand the different parts of the watershed and how they contribute to daily life and the natural world and how conservation fits into that."

In the meantime, visitors to the 70-year-old sanctuary are served by an interpretive center housed in a cramped wood-frame house filled with terrariums and stuffed animals, and surrounded by more than 400 acres of urban forest and brushlands.

For more information, contact Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area at (323) 227-1822, or e-mail: info@naturalareafriends.net.

The Rivers and Mountains Conservancy, which backs the proposed center, can be contacted at (626) 815-1019, or e-mail: http://watershedconservationauthority.org/

-- Louis Sahagun

Photo: Birds skim the surface of the San Gabriel River in Whittier Narrows. Credit: Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times

                

Comments

[Richard Spotts]

The existing Whittier Narrows Nature Center is a rare and precious natural gem. In the mid to late 1960s, I worked there as a volunteer during my junior and senior high school years. It was first run by Audubon and then transferred to the county. This experience changed my life for the better, and I've been concerned about protecting wildlife and the environment ever since. I hope that these proposed improvements will enhance the public educational benefits from this area without diminishing the existing wildlife habitat benefits. This nature sanctuary should continue to serve both public and wildlife needs.

[Marcia Hanscom]

A recent conversation with an LA County official responsible for the Marina next to the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve asked why we couldn't place a proposed observation tower on the Ecological Reserve land and why we were suggesting it be on the already paved Marina area. We explained that these natural wild areas in our midst are RARE and need protection from human intrusion.

It will be a great day when our municipal leaders understand that nature centers are great, but placing them on top of the nature that they are supposed to teach about is not the best idea. Let's find a new location for this nature center - a location that will not destroy the habitat that is happening there for wild species which we have few of in our cities. For wild nature in the city ~

[Marcia Hanscom]

EDITED FOR BETTER GRAMMAR IN FIRST SENTENCE!
~~~
In a recent conversation with an LA County official responsible for the Marina next to the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, this official asked why we couldn't place a proposed observation tower on the Ecological Reserve land and why we were suggesting it be on the already paved Marina area. We explained that these natural wild areas in our midst are RARE and need protection from human intrusion.

It will be a great day when our municipal leaders understand that nature centers are great, but placing them on top of the nature that they are supposed to teach about is not the best idea. Let's find a new location for this nature center - a location that will not destroy the habitat that is happening there for wild species which we have few of in our cities. For wild nature in the city ~

[teresa Young]

I would like to see agencies that have 'Conservancy' in their name, actually conserve. However, they use lots of tax money (Prop 84 http://bondaccountability.resources.ca.gov/p84.aspx and Prop 40 ) to destroy nature.

Proposition 84 was to provide..."The Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2006 (Proposition 84) authorizes $5.388 billion in general obligation bonds to fund safe drinking water, water quality and supply, flood control, waterway and natural resource protection, water pollution and contamination control, state and local park improvements, public access to natural resources, and water conservation efforts."

Do you see anywhere in the Document where it says a California State Agency is allowed to take out OPEN SPACE for the water companies to sell their products? I don't. But that is what the Discovery Museum is all about.

The RIvers and Mountains CONSERVANCY, has the POWER to divvy out BILLIONS of $$$ and is planning to RIP up OPEN SPACE for yet another failed water museum - see MWD's Hemet Water Museum...and the other Children's Museum in the Hasen Dam (the water agencies are part of funding of the project - wouldn't ya know?). (Read this PDF https://www.bellflower.org/docs/item14-h.pdf)

And while we fight this massive destruction of OPEN SPACE which, the surrounding communities VOTED TO PROTECT (Prop 84)... the folks who are taking such GOOD CARE of the bird sanctuary - THE Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation (which MANAGES the Sanctuary for the Army Corps of Engineers -ha!) Russ Guiney, the Vice President, LA Co. Dept. of Parks & Recreation who is on the BOARD TO DESTROY THE SANCTUARY.... (see the PDF discoverycenterauthority.org/about/about.html ) has been doing some REALLY stupid stuff....

Check out how well Parks and Recreation gets rid of the TERRIBLE WEEDS that plague the Whittier Narrows Nature Center .....

see http://naturalareafriends.blogspot.com/ ..... "What's that STUFF!"

[Robert Dale]

Save Whittier Narrows Nature Center
It will take money, people and lawyers to stop the proposed Whittier Narrows
"Discovery" Center. I'm interested in the Environmental Impact Report, (EIR),
process. It can be stopped and should be stopped. Over-development is a problem in California, saving the best of what is left is crucial to making this place livable. Stopping the El Toro Airport and the 241 Toll Road through San Mateo Campground in San Clemente are big wins for a sustainable future. This must also be done!