Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area

Welcome to the Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area website. We are an organization dedicated to preservation of the 419-acre Whittier Narrows Natural Area, a wildlife sanctuary and community resource located on the San Gabriel River between the Montebello and Puente Hills. (Map) We support restoration and educational uses of the natural area that are in keeping with the conservation of plant and animal habitat and migration, historical resources, water quality, and public health and safety.

One of our most significant efforts right now is our campaign to stop an attempt to take approximately 10 acres — and more than 40 acres eventually — of this rare and critical habitat and to develop them into a science museum dedicated to water education. While we agree with the importance of water education, especially in Southern California, we believe there are a number of excellent, less expensive and less destructive alternatives to replacing the existing modest visitor center, its 40-car parking lot and acres of natural habitat with an 18,230-square-foot building, 150-car parking lot and unnatural landscape features that would put at risk the very species the wildlife sanctuary has protected for its 70-year history.

Please explore our website to get a sense of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area as wildlife habitat, outdoor classroom and open space for our diverse communities. Once you’ve explored our site, we urge you to explore the Natural Area itself. Share it with your family, your friends, your neighbors and educators in your community because—there’s just no substitute for nature!

Whittier Narrows Natural Area

The Whittier Narrows Natural Area is a 419-acre wildlife sanctuary that is important endangered species habitat and community open space. (Map)

Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area
P.O. Box 3522
South El Monte, CA 91733
(626) 286 3850

Click here for our contact page.