Gabrieleno Indians oppose Whittier Narrows water museum/meeting hall project — Los Angeles Times

In a widely reported development in the story of the controversial water museum proposed for the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, the Gabrieleno Band of Mission Indians announced their opposition to the project Thursday at the threatened wildlife sanctuary.

“It's one thing for a child to push a button and see a picture of nature. But there is nothing like walking along a trail here, seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching nature all around you.” — Lucy Pedregon, Gabrieleno Indian and educator.

Click here to read the story that appeared in the Los Angeles Times on Friday. The story was also reported in the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, on the architecture website la.curbed.com, and in numerous locations on the Internet and blogosphere.

The tribal representatives and others who spoke at the event all communicated the message that the project — a $22 million taxpayer-funded water museum and meeting hall called the San Gabriel River Discovery Center — would be inappropriate development for an important area of remaining open space and a historic center of Gabrieleno culture; would destroy rare habitat, plants and wildlife; and threatens to disturb ancestral remains and artifacts.

Members of the tribe, the original Native American inhabitants of the Los Angeles basin, questioned the rationale for the project and its cost in natural, historical and cultural resources.

“It's one thing for a child to push a button and see a picture of nature,” said Lucy Pedregon, a Gabrieleno and a media aide in the Hacienda-La Puente school district. “But there is nothing like walking along a trail here, seeing, smelling, hearing, and touching nature all around you.”

The Gabrielenos also offered an alternative vision for the Whittier Narrows wildlife sanctuary and its nature center, including renovation of the existing facilities and inclusion of Native American history and artifacts, improvements to interpretive displays along nature trails, and a monthly volunteer program focused on sharing Native American culture with the community.

Renovation of existing interpretive centers or the adaptive reuse of other buildings has been successfully achieved at a number of locations in Southern California, including the National Park Service’s Scorpion Ranch Visitor Center on Santa Cruz Island, Los Angeles County’s Placerita Canyon Nature Center and Haramokngna cultural center high in the Angeles National Forest.

The Gabrieleno vision would use this sustainable, historically and environmentally focused approach to develop a rich cultural resource in the heart of urban east Los Angeles County.

Friends' petition invites community to add its voice to campaign to save Whittier Narrows Natural Area

We’ve started a petition to help the community tell officials that we want the Whittier Narrows Natural Area and Nature Center preserved today and for future generations, not sacrificed to make way for a government and water agency water museum and meeting hall.

To go to the petition, including its background information, or preamble, you can click here or click on the link below. You can also go directly to the signature page by clicking on the "Sign our Petition" counter at the right.

By signing today, you help to send a clear message that our tax dollars, our public lands and our children's access to firsthand experiences of nature are not to be sacrificed in a misguided attempt to build an unsustainable $22 million water agency marketing tool.

As part of the petition, we offer our vision for truly community-focused, fiscally responsible and environmentally appropriate improvements at our community’s wildlife sanctuary:

• Restoration of habitat and improvement of trails and interpretive displays
• Eco-friendly renovation of the nature center
• Historical landmark status for the entire Whittier Narrows Recreation Area, as recommended in a federal historic resources survey of Whittier Narrows.

With your help, we can prevent the terrible waste and failure that has plagued water museum projects, and project like them, from claiming the Whittier Narrows Natural Area as yet another victim. Please sign today, and please ask your friends, family and others to sign too.

Together we can save the Whittier Narrows Natural Area.

Find our petition at http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/save-whittier-narrows-natural-area.html

Sierra Club refuses to endorse Discovery Center

In a serious blow to the controversial San Gabriel River Discovery Center, the local chapter of the Sierra Club in May refused to endorse the proposed water museum and meeting center that threatens important community and environmental resources in east Los Angeles County .

One Sierra Club member said the center appeared to be a monument to water districts and county agencies. Another said the project would “destroy the atmosphere of local community — something that is as rare and valuable as remnant habitat.”

The executive committee (board of directors) of the Angeles Chapter opted instead for neutrality toward the $22 million taxpayer-funded project proposed for the Whittier Narrows Natural Area.

The significance of the Sierra Club move cannot be overstated. The local chapter has been involved in the project since 1999. For the organization to turn around now and refuse to give its blessing — after presentations by Belinda Faustinos, director of the Discovery Center Authority, and Russ Guiney, director of Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation — is an important indication of the serious, unanswered questions that surround the project and the joint powers authority attempting to build it over the opposition of the community.

In discussions leading up to the chapter decision, local Sierra Club leaders questioned the wisdom of the project. One member said the center appeared to be a monument to water districts and county agencies. Another said the project would “destroy the atmosphere of local community — something that is as rare and valuable as remnant habitat.”

Project opponents within the Sierra Club and outside it (the latter including Bill Robinson, a director at one of the authority’s member water districts) made the case that too many grave doubts exist regarding the authority’s goals and priorities, the questionable environmental ethics and educational need for the Discovery Center , and the project’s financial viability.

For more information on our efforts to protect the natural area, please visit our website at http://www.naturalareafriends.net/.
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Photo: John Muir (Library of Congress)

RMC's 'edifice complex' siphoning millions of public dollars from conservation mission in SG Valley

Remember the movie Contact? Remember when, after the destruction of the first spaceship, billionaire S. R. Hadden reveals to scientist Eleanor Arroway that a second spaceship had been secretly built?

"First rule in government spending," Hadden says. "Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?" But such spendthrift ways don't appear ambitious enough for the RMC.

"First rule in government spending," Hadden says. "Why build one when you can have two at twice the price?"

Well, it appears the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy saw Contact and decided even Hadden's spendthrift ways weren't ambitious enough: within only two or three miles of each other, the RMC wants built not one, not two, but three interpretive centers -- and all, one can assume, to be built with our tax dollars.

The Friends published a press release recently connecting the dots on the RMC's intentions. And although it might sound absurd, it's all true.

The RMC and its partners want the San Gabriel River Discovery Center at the Whittier Narrows Natural Area. They want the "Duck Farm on the San Gabriel River" less than three miles up the river from the natural area. And they want a Whittier Narrows "welcome center" on Rosemead Boulevard, again only a couple of miles from the site of the Discovery Center.

Friends board member Gloria Valladolid called the plan “indefensible and obscene” when placed in the context of the budget cuts that are eviscerating state, county and local services.

Spending $30 million on a "watershed education facility" (the Discovery Center) and who knows how much more on the Duck Farm and Whittier Narrows welcome center seems especially scandalous -- Can it get worse? you ask -- when you learn that the RMC simply gave itself $3 million for the Discovery Center without vetting the grant through its competitive grant process.

The RMC spends tens of thousands of dollars -- maybe into six figures -- developing its grant guidelines and then simply ignores those guidelines, doesn't even bother with a grant application, and writes itself a big, juicy check for what can only be considered a pet project.

It all reminds me of a line from another movie:

"It's good to be the king."

Agency ignores community, ok's unpopular project

Ignoring the growing chorus of opposition to the proposed Discovery Center, the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and its partners voted to bulldoze wildlife habitat and an existing nature center and replace them with a project few people actually want.

But the project still needs county board of supervisors approval and -- the real challenge -- to scrape together $30 million for construction.

The project has about $10 million committed to it, and authority board member Sam Pedroza said at last week's meeting that fundraising difficulties could derail the project. Of course, he said the same thing to the Los Angeles Times a year and a half ago when the authority had raised only -- $10 million.

"Was the center planned to be built 'regardless' of what the actual citizens in the region want? Was the request for public comment simply (and cynically) an effort to make people believe they actually have a say-so about such things?"

If you're interested in a recap of the meeting at which this took place, please see the Pasadena Star-News story, "Officials OK new river center at Whittier Narrows site."

The story gives a good sense of the opposition that was expressed at the Jan. 21 meeting, but it doesn't place it into the context of the opposition that's been building for some time. (Have a look at the reader comments for an idea of the growing anger over the waste of the public's money.)

If you take last week's meeting and the public hearings on the project's draft environmental impact report last summer, this is who you see lining up against the project:

- Numerous residents of the local communities that are the ostensible beneficiaries of the project
- Local members of environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club and Aububon Society
- Latinos ranging from high school and college students to professionals and retirees
- Numerous educators, including a past vice-president of Rio Hondo College

But who supports the project? you ask. A very small, very narrow slice of society, to judge from the handful of voices speaking in favor of the project at the same hearings and meeting. And few, if any, of these drawn from the communities of the Whittier Narrows area.

But none of this seems to matter to the RMC and the water districts that apparently can't wait to take advantage of the marketing and meeting-space opportunities the outsized building promises.

It makes one wonder if the environmental review process was undertaken in good faith, or as one observer of this matter asked: "Was the center planned to be built 'regardless' of what the actual citizens in the region want? Was the request for public comment simply (and cynically) an effort to make people believe they actually have a say-so about such things?"

The project must be serving someone's interests. But whoever that someone is, it's clearly not the community.

Former state legislator, co-author of RMC-founding legislation to speak at Whittier Narrows on Sunday

Interested in learning how the San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy--also known as the RMC--got its start? Join the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area this Sunday for a presentation by former California Assemblymember and co-author of the founding legislation, Sally Havice.

Havice, a professor of English at Cerritos College, will give her presentation at 2 p.m. during the Friends monthly meeting in the picnic area of the Whittier Narrows Nature Center, 1000 N. Durfee Ave., South El Monte, 91733. The meeting begins at 1 p.m.

This should be a truly illuminating talk. The RMC is, in my opinion, the man behind the curtain you're not supposed to notice. But this state agency is the driving force behind the unpopular San Gabriel River Discovery Center project, attempts to take 30 - 40 more acres at the natural area for "future potential development," and a potentially anti-water conservation proposal that would alter a canal (and the land around it) that runs across the entire wildlife sanctuary.

I'm interested to learn what was the original vision behind the RMC back in the late 1990s.

The Los Angeles Times did a good job chronicling the process that led to the birth of the RMC. Here are links to Times and other coverage:

- A conservancy for an urban river, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 16, 1999
- Changing a river's course, Los Angeles Times, Oct. 3, 1999
- Ideas flow for a river conservancy, Los Angeles Times, April 4, 1999
- Conservancy coalition idea in the works, LA Weekly, Dec. 28, 1998

That process seems to give credence to Otto von Bismarck's view that "Laws are like sausages--it is better not to see them being made."

I have no doubt that Havice and co-author Hilda Solis had the best of intentions when they set out to create a state conservancy for the San Gabriel River. My hope is that Sunday's conversation will help shed some light on how we went from a focus on conservation a decade ago to the RMC's bulldozers-and-buildings approach today.

What a contrast! The Discovery Center Authority and Native Habitat Preservation Authority

In the course of some recent research I happened upon some Whittier Daily News Stories on the Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Restoration Authority and its activities and projects.

The contrast between its habitat restoration focus and the bulldozers-and-buildings focus of the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority is truly striking.

The newspaper's Mike Sprague wrote on Nov. 21 that about a dozen preservation authority volunteers "helped clear non-native plants in the Whittier hills and put in some that are indigenous to the area."

"This was the first restoration day of what is expected to take place every other month, said Shannon Lucas, ecologist for Puente Hills Landfill Native Habitat Preservation Authority."

(An ecologist! The preservation authority has an ecologist. Perhaps if the Discovery Center Authority spent less on lawyers and public relations consultants it might be able to afford an ecologist too.)

I also happened upon a story (sorry, no link) from June 1, 2006, in which Sprague writes about the dedication of a "$1.2 million wildlife underpass that creates a critical link between the Whittier Narrows nature area and the Cleveland National Forest 31 miles away."

The underpass, 12 years in the making, really got going when "preservation authority officials obtained funding for the project through the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Caltrans."

Contrast this preservation-and-restoration focus with the development focus of the Discovery Center Authority.

Whereas the preservation authority is working to connect and to improve the wildlife corridor, the proposed Discovery Center--and the other development projects to which it opens the door at the Whittier Narrows Natural Area--threatens to impede wildlife movement.

But it shouldn't come as a surprise that the environment, habitat and wildlife are not the priority for the Discovery Center Authority--the focus of the agency is the construction of a building, after all.

Whittier Narrows Master Plan meeting Wednesday

A meeting to solicit comments from the public on a new master plan for the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area is scheduled to take place Wednesday from 2 - 4 p.m. in Pico Rivera.

The location of the meeting is the Pico Rivera Parks and Recreation Department's community room, 6767 Passons Blvd.

The meeting is being called by the Watershed Conservation Authority, a joint powers authority consisting of the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works.

How is bulldozing dozens of mature trees and paving over wildlife habitat in a county Significant Ecological Area to build a meeting center for bureaucrats and a 150-car parking lot in any way compatible with conservation or restoration?

The information I've picked up from the project's Notice of Preparation and from an article in the Whittier Daily News raise a few questions.

First, why is the WCA the lead agency on this rather than the landowner, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers? (USACE's Sepulveda Basin Master Plan is also being revised, but there the corps apparently hasn't ceded control of the planning process.)

Second, why is the Whittier Narrows scoping meeting being held midweek, 2 - 4 p.m.? Is the WCA intentionally trying to suppress public participation? Or is the WCA staff simply disinclined toward weekend or evening meetings? (Again, contrast this with USACE's Saturday, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., meeting regarding Sepulveda Basin.)

And third, why is the Discovery Center being proposed for what is identified in the new master plan as a conservation and restoration zone? (See map above.) How is bulldozing dozens of mature trees and paving over wildlife habitat in a county Significant Ecological Area to build a meeting center for bureaucrats and a 150-car parking lot in any way compatible with conservation or restoration?

The logic stays screwy when you read in the Whittier Daily News that Norma E. Garcia, deputy director for Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, says they "didn't want to intensify the use of Whittier Narrows."

How is doubling annual visitation of the natural area to 120,000 people without first analyzing the potential impacts of such growth anything other than intensifying use of Whittier Narrows?

Perhaps the county and the RMC need to get their story straight.

An expression of gratitude on Thanksgiving

I want to take a moment today to express my gratitude for the opportunity I was given when I learned about the effort to protect the Whittier Narrows Natural Area and Nature Center.

So I'd like to say thank you to . . .

Journalist Louis Sahagun for the 2008 story that alerted me to the threat posed by the San Gabriel River Discovery Center to nature, to the community and to taxpayers.

People like Jim Odling and the other members of the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area who helped to give me and many others a voice on the Discovery Center issue.

Members of the community, who have spoken with great heartfelt eloquence about the importance of the Natural Area to them and to their families over the decades.

The twentysomethings and teenagers who have shown me that protection and preservation of the Natural Area is an issue that crosses generational lines.

The many accomplished and inspiring community and environmental activists who I've met through organizations such as the Nature Center Associates, Audubon Society and Sierra Club.

My family, for their support now and on so many past occasions.

A heartfelt thank you to all of you and to many others. You have given me more than you know.

A bit of tidying at the nature center

On Saturday, members of the Whittier Narrows Nature Center Associates took the bull by the horns and cleaned and tidied the nature center gift shop.

It wasn't spring cleaning, but fall cleaning. Which makes sense since fall and winter are the height of bird activity at Whittier Narrows.

The project was the idea of Associate Jessica Nava, who led the effort that involved about half a dozen volunteers and staff.

There are some very nice items in the gift shop: a good selection of books, some wonderful nature photographs, naturalist equipment for kids, and small items to serve as mementos of a visit to the Whittier Narrows wildlife sanctuary.

There are a number of nature walks offered each month by the Associates, the staff and now the Whittier Area Audubon Society.

Plan a visit or just drop in for some peace among the wildlife.
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More photos at Flickr.com

Rescue Dog Association at the Natural Area

I stopped by the Whittier Narrows Natural Area this morning and found the parking lot full of SUVs, people in khaki and lots of dogs.

Turns out the all-volunteer California Rescue Dog Association, or CARDA, was holding a training session there.

A member told me they had 12 - 14 members present and an equal number of dogs. Lots of German shepherds and Labrador retrievers, if I remember correctly.

He told me they trained their dogs for open area searches, trailing and cadaver searches in various environments and settings.

I asked whether they'd had any involvement in the post-Katrina rescue and recovery efforts, and he said members had traveled to the Gulf area, with one staying out there four weeks.

I mentioned my own interest in the Natural Area, told him there were plans to build a big water museum and conference center.

His reaction?

"There's too much concrete already," he said, "and too little open space.

"That's why kids want to stay indoors and play video games. Their only chance to see nature is when playing with their Wii."
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Photo: California Rescue Dog Association.

Whittier Narrows named best educational hike

The secret's out: the LA Weekly just named the Whittier Narrows Natural Area best educational hike.

The Natural Area appears in the Weekly's current "Best of LA" issue.

Todd Kraining writes that "deep inside the sanctuary, the solitude of the desert can be a liberating experience." But he also says that, "With all the paw prints pressed into the sand around you, you have the feeling of never quite being alone."

Krainin also mentions the transmission towers, power lines and billboards that mark the Natural Area as being part of an urban landscape. Yet, he writes, "this is a quiet, relaxing place, completely free of charge. That much, at least, is the way nature’s supposed to be."

Photo: Preschoolers from the Nueva Maravilla Child Development Center in Los Angeles on a visit to the Whittier Narrows Natural Area on April 1, 2009. (Photo by Lou Orr)

Lots of activities still ahead this month

The Friends calendar of activities has been updated, and there's lots of good stuff still ahead of us this month.

This Sunday is the Friends monthly working meeting. Now that the comment periods have closed on the Discovery Center Authority's draft EIR and the Army Corps of Engineers' environmental assessment, we'll probably be discussing next steps in the campaign.

The meeting is at 1 p.m. in the Whittier Narrows Nature Center picnic area.

Also Sunday is a barbecue hosted by the East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice. EYCEJ is a nonprofit organization "working towards a safe and healthy environment for communities that are disproportionately suffering the negative impacts of industrial pollution."

The barbecue is 3 - 5 p.m. at Bristow Park in Commerce. For more info, visit the EYCEJ website.

And don't forget to visit the Natural Area for community events there. This month there are two nature walks (one morning, one evening) and a trail clean up. More info on these activities can be found on the Friends calendar or by calling the Whittier Narrows Nature Center at (626) 575-5523.

See you at the Natural Area!

A visit to Placerita Canyon

Yesterday, The chair of the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, Jim Odling, and I visited the Placerita Canyon Natural Area and Nature Center in Newhall, Calif.

For me, the visit was a chance to see firsthand the results of a recently completed $2.1 million "eco-friendly" renovation of the nature center that I learned of through a story in The Signal.

My impression of the renovated nature center was that it was neat and clean. I also found it a bit sterile, but that's probably only due to the fact that the staff and volunteers have only been back in the buildings for a couple of months. Give them some time to grow into the place, and I have no doubt it'll soon reflect the character and dedication of everyone there.

The renovation at Placerita Canyon could provide the model for a similar renovation of the Whittier Narrows Nature Center.

Rather than waste tens of millions of tax dollars to give government bureaucrats and water agency officials a conference center--the San Gabriel River Discovery Center--on a wildlife sanctuary, the authority and its supporters could take a truly community-focused approach.

People such as Supervisor Gloria Molina could take the money they've already committed to the project and direct it instead to a renovation of Whittier Narrows facilities, thereby saving the taxpayer and rate payer millions.

An eco-friendly renovation would be the fiscally and environmentally responsible approach. It would also keep the focus at Whittier Narrows where it belongs: on the needs and desires of our diverse community.

The Discovery Center, on the other hand, is a massive gamble with our tax dollars and our parkland--a gamble that, even if it succeeds, would deliver the vast majority of benefits to government agencies and water districts.

Please note: More photos from Placerita Canyon are available on Flickr.

'Things are not as they teach us'

I took a tour today of Los Angeles' Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve.

Partly I looked forward to seeing something new, partly I wanted to compare the Whittier Narrows Natural Area to another wildlife area in Southern California.

I and a couple of other people from the campaign were led on our tour by members of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Committee. The three of us were impressed by the abundance of wildlife, especially birds, we encountered this afternoon.

All three of us are members of the Audubon Society, and as we stopped time and again to view egrets, cormorants, herons, cooper's hawks and ospreys, one of our hosts gently reminded us that we weren't there to "add to our lists" but to tour the reserve.

The comment elicited laughs and smiles.

In the comparison between the Natural Area and the reserve, two things struck me.

First, the reserve showed far better maintenance and far more extensive restoration. This difference must certainly be attributable to the wildlife committee's two decades of work. It must also be attributable to the difference between city funding and county funding for parks and recreation.

Second, the reserve has far less infrastructure than that proposed for the Natural Area in the San Gabriel River Discovery Center project. A parking lot, a storage building, a restroom facility and a small amphitheater (pictured at right)--that's all there is at the reserve.

No $30 million 18,000-square-foot watershed education and conference center. No 150-seat multipurpose meeting room. No artificial wetland to capture runoff from all the other structures. Just lots of restored habitat and wildlife.

And yet even without a discovery center, Los Angeles Audubon, San Fernando Valley Audubon and other groups seem to offer a rich calendar of programs for families, student groups and others at the wildlife reserve.

When I reflect on the story the Discovery Center Authority has created, telling us that environmental education and conservation depend on the discovery center being built, well, it makes me angry.

Effective environmental education probably depends on a lot of things. Access to the outdoors, firsthand experiences of nature, and dedicated professional and volunteer educators are among them.

Construction of a conference center for bureaucrats and water officials is not.

Lincoln on the importance of public opinion

Public opinion matters.

I'm modifying my statement of a few days ago. A bit of reflection and the recollection of a statement by Abraham Lincoln have allowed me to recognize the value of public opinion.

"With public sentiment, nothing can fail," Lincoln said. "Without it, nothing can succeed."

In the matter of the discovery center, this goes at least to the question of the project's credibility.

At two public meetings on the discovery center and its draft environmental impact report, about 30 people spoke, and only two spoke in favor of the project.

Most of the others, from numerous cities in the area, criticized the project or questioned the refusal of the Discovery Center Authority to listen to the community or said simply that they wanted the Natural Area protected and the current nature center preserved.

As I said, this goes to the question of credibility.

The community has told the Discovery Center Authority, in no uncertain terms, what it wants.

Therefore, if the project is truly community focused, it should probably go away and be replaced by a plan to renovate the current nature center.

A renovation of the nature center would be everything the discovery center isn't, including:

• Responsive to the community
  
• Economical
  
• Sustainable

And perhaps above all, renovating the nature center--rather than bulldozing acres of wildlife habitat to build a meeting center for bureaucrats--would be the true act of environmental stewardship.

In the matter of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area and the discovery center, the community knows what it wants.

And the community is right.

Community rejects discovery center -- AGAIN

If you needed proof that the San Gabriel River Discovery Center is museo non grata in the Whittier Narrows area, yesterday's meeting on the project's draft EIR provided an avalanche of proof.

Of 20 people who spoke during the oral comment period, only two said they supported the project. (And there was some question whether one of those two had been a consultant on the discovery center during the previous fiscal year, which ended just a few weeks ago.)

The other comments ran a gamut that included:

• Concerns that taxes would be paying for the project
• Concerns that fees would be introduced
• Concerns about the impact on the habitat and wildlife
• Concerns about the accuracy and adequacy of the EIR

On that last point, for example, a bike trail from the river to the discovery center was mentioned in the project description, but wasn't included anywhere else in the EIR.

With so much opposition to the project, it can be hard to understand why the thing is like the Energizer Bunny. It just keeps going and going and going . . .

Actually, my favorite metaphor for the discovery center is movie zombie. You know, a hollow-eyed creature that's dead but doesn't know it's dead, and just goes about eating brains and wreaking general havoc.

Unfortunately, this isn't the movies. There's a lot at stake.

Tens of millions in public dollars. Community access to the nature located right in our backyard. The opportunity for firsthand experiences of nature. And the habitat and wildlife that gives the Whittier Narrows Natural Area its great value.

But as someone said, this isn't a democratic process.

It doesn't matter that the community you say you're trying to help is telling you--consistently--"We're not convinced" and "We don't want your watershed center" and "Don't waste our tax dollars" and "Why aren't you listening?"

There's something wrong when public servants decide the public doesn't matter.

Final discovery center EIR meeting this Saturday

The second and final public meeting on the San Gabriel River Discovery Center and its draft environmental impact report is scheduled for Saturday, July 18, 2 - 4 p.m., at South El Monte High School in South El Monte.

At the first meeting, held June 24, no speaker from the community supported the discovery center proposal. Most spoke in favor of protecting nature and the Whittier Narrows Nature Center.

The discovery center would destroy important wildlife habitat and the current nature center at Whittier Narrows Natural Area and replace them with what the EIR reveals is little more than a conference center for government bureaucrats and water agency officials.

The discovery center would require at least $30 million for construction alone. The San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority claims it has collected $10 million to date.

The unpopular watershed education center proposal has failed to attract a single private donation or foundation grant. All money contributed has come from public sources--tax dollars, state bonds and water bills.

If you're concerned about bureaucrats wasting your hard-earned tax dollars or about the destruction of nature and parks in your backyard, you should come to Saturday's EIR meeting and let the Discovery Center Authority know.

South El Monte High School is at 1001 N. Durfee Ave. in South El Monte. (Across the street from the Natural Area.)

The EIR public comment period ends Aug. 3.

Central Basin MWD raises price of water, cuts $1M internally -- continues support for Discovery Center

Why is Central Basin Municipal Water District (service area pictured at right) continuing its financial support for the proposed $30 million San Gabriel River Discovery Center at the same time that it's raising rates on its customers and making internal budget cuts?

The revenue report from the Discovery Center Authority's June 18 board report shows that Central Basin contributed $80,000 for fiscal year 2008/2009. And a table on the Discovery Center website shows that Central Basin has contributed at least $750,000 in total to the project.

This year's $80,000 from Central Basin is troubling in light of the water district board of director's approval last month of "a more than 100-percent increase in its surcharge that will be phased in over the next year," which was reported by the Whittier Daily News.

"This is on top of an already approved 21-percent increase . . . from Metropolitan Water District that goes into effect Sept. 1, " writes journalist Mike Sprague.

"We can't understand the justification. The rates are excessive, unsubstantiated and inappropriate." -- Joe Serrano, Santa Fe Springs City Council

Central Basin is one of the four member agencies in the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority, which is trying to build a controversial 18,230-square-foot watershed education and meeting center on the Whittier Narrows Natural Area.

But the rate hikes aren't the end of the story. Apparently, money is so tight at the water district, "officials said they've made $1 million in internal budget cuts."

News of Central Basin's fee increase went over like the proverbial lead balloon with local officials.

The news story quotes Santa Fe Springs Councilman Joe Serrano, among others: "We will have no choice but to raise our rates. We can't understand the justification. The rates are excessive, unsubstantiated and inappropriate."

Unpopular rate hikes, internal budget cuts--but Central Basin continues to throw money at the expensive, unnecessary and environmentally destructive Discovery Center.

Interesting priorities at Central Basin right now.

County nature centers, beaches at three lakes closed Mondays due to budget cuts

The Los Angeles Times reported Saturday that county nature centers, including the Whittier Narrows Nature Center, and county-controlled beaches at three area lakes will be closed on Mondays due to a seven-percent budget cut for parks.

The Natural Area park will still be open to the public on Mondays.

Hugo Maldonado, the county's chief lake lifeguard, told the Times that, rather than eliminate any of the 225 lake lifeguard positions, officials reduced their hours by 20 percent.

"This is an unprecedented downturn in our economy and it's resulted in a significant decline in revenue for the county of Los Angeles," Maldonado said.

I remember some years ago, during another serious recession, when the county's response was to make significant cuts in services.

The clearest sign to me of those earlier cuts was the fact that my local branch of the county library system was open only one day per week. I don't remember how long that went on, but I remember it feeling like a long time.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think the current combination of budget and service cuts, tax increases and water rate increases casts serious doubt on the claim that no entry or parking fees would be charged at the San Gabriel River Discovery Center because the costs "would be fully supported by the Authority."

When other areas of Whittier Narrows charge for parking and county museums charge admission fees, visitors to a discovery center-dominated Natural Area shouldn't be surprised if they end up having to pay for what today the public enjoys for free.