Why sacrifice the Natural Area for a regional museum when the region's chockablock with 'em?

The San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority likes to argue that the communities around Whittier Narrows are underserved in the areas of environmental education.

How accurate is that claim?

The SRGDCA is planning a 25-mile service radius around the discovery center, so I decided to figure out what other nature, science and education-focused museums lie within 25 miles of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area. (Or, to look at it another way, what museums include Whittier Narrows in their own 25-mile service range.)

As I noted in the first post to this blog, the Aquarium of the Pacific and its new permanent watershed exhibit and education program, "Our Watersheds: Pathway to the Pacific," are within 25 miles of Whittier Narrows. (See accompanying graphic.)

The aquarium's "It all flows to me" program--available as a field trip or a mobile education offering--leads students "on a journey through their watershed from the mountains to the coastal ocean. . . . By exploring the link between watersheds, ground water and pollution, students will learn how they are part of the water cycle and discover how they can change their environment for the better."

All that without spending $30 million dollars, destroying wildlife habitat or robbing the community of its public parkland.

But what other museums can be found within 25 miles of South El Monte, Whittier, Montebello and the other communities around Whittier Narrows? Here's the list I was able to assemble:

• California Science Center, Los Angeles
• Los Angeles County Natural History Museum, Los Angeles
• Discovery Science Center, Santa Ana
• Kidspace Children's Museum, Pasadena
• Children's Museum at La Habra

And the Cabrillo Marine Aquarium is almost exactly 25 miles away.

Add to the above list the mobile water education program offered to many of the cities near Whittier Narrows through a partnership between Golden State Water Company and the Discovery Science Center, and its becomes clear that we who depend on the Natural Area for its outdoor education and recreation offerings already have access to a wonderful variety of museums focused on nature, science and kids.

The Natural Area offers the community what these other facilities cannot: firsthand experiences of the natural world; free access to the only wildlife sanctuary on the San Gabriel River; opportunities for low-impact recreation that entire families can take part in, from the youngest child to the beloved abuelita.

Why the Discovery Center Authority is blind to the jewel already in the community's possession is beyond me.

Food (and water) for thought

How many permanent watershed exhibits does an area need?

The San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority (DCA) envisions a 25-mile service radius for the science museum it’s proposing to build on the Whittier Narrows Natural Area. That means most of the communities from the San Gabriel Mountains southwest to the Pacific Ocean—including all the communities in the vicinity of Whittier Narrows—would be served by two museums with large-scale exhibits focused on the exact same topic.

If you received the most recent issue of the Auto Club’s Westways magazine, you may have seen the brief piece on the Aquarium of the Pacific’s new exhibit and classroom, “Our Watersheds: Pathway to the Pacific.”

Robin Jones reports that in the exhibit, “water cascades from the canopy overhead onto a model of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel watersheds. Plants native to the watersheds fill the garden beds around the exhibit.” Jones continues, saying that “Our Watersheds” offers tips for home water conservation and discusses solutions to the water-supply problem.

The aquarium and the exhibit, which opened in November of last year, are tremendous regional and community resources. And if you extend a 25-mile service radius from the aquarium (as the DCA would for the discovery center), you see that Pico Rivera, South El Monte, Whittier and all the other communities around Whittier Narrows are already within the service range of a large, permanent watershed-focused museum exhibit. (See the accompanying graphic.)

The aquarium’s president and CEO says the primary goal of the exhibit “is to motivate visitors to improve the quality of life for people and the environment by making sustainable choices for the future of our local watersheds.”

The Discovery Center Authority might want to consider the possibility that a redundant and massive science museum that requires the destruction of critical plant and wildlife habitat and robs the community of open space doesn't quite qualify as a sustainable choice.