Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area

Your support is essential to our work protecting nature and access to nature at the Natural Area and at the larger Whittier Narrows Recreation  Area. With your help we can continue our efforts to protect rare and valuable habitat and wildlife, important community green space and unique environmental education opportunities. Here are 12 ways that you can help:

1 - Participate in our 2nd Annual Birdathon July 2 - 4

Our 2nd Annual Birdathon fundraiser is scheduled for Independence Day weekend, July 2 - 4.

The Birdathon is a birdwatching and fundraising event you can do individually or in a team of your choosing. And you can do it anywhere and for any length of time over the three-day holiday weekend.

As a participant, you collect sponsorship pledges ahead of time -- per bird or in a flat amount -- and then go out and do your birdwatching. If you're a novice birder, you can join a kick-off birding event Saturday, July 2, 9 a.m. at the Whittier Narrows Nature Center, 1000 N. Durfee Ave., South El Monte, 91733.

Download our information and sponsorship form (PDF file)

If you're unable to participate as a birder, consider sponsoring a participant or simply contributing to the Friends. Contact Friends President Jim Odling at (323) 227-1822 for more information.

2 - Sign our petition to save the Natural Area

Add your voice to those of the 1,500 people who have already signed the petition urging officials to abandon the destruction and waste promised by the Discovery Center project and instead pursue:

• Restoration of the historic Whittier Narrows wildlife sanctuary
• Renovation of its much-loved nature center
• Designation of all areas of the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area as a historic landmark.
  

Click here to sign our online petition. And if you'd like to help collect signatures:

Download the print version of our petition to save Whittier Narrows Natural Area (PDF file)

3 - Visit the Natural Area

If it's been awhile since your last visit, or if you've never been, now's the time to stop by.

This unique wildlife sanctuary on the San Gabriel River is home to hawks, egrets, herons, hummingbirds, rabbits, squirrels, lizards, butterflies and other wildlife, including the endangered least Bell's vireo.   

The Natural Area has been an important habitat and wildlife area since its founding by the Audubon Society in 1939. Today, it is an important link for a number of existing and proposed wildlife corridors and forms a crucial part of a Los Angeles County Significant Ecological Area and an Audubon Important Bird Area. 

The Natural Area and Nature Center are located at 1000 N. Durfee Ave., South El Monte CA 91733,  across the street from South El Monte High School. (Map) Check our calendar if you’d like to visit during a programmed event. Or drop by any time during operating hours. 

4 - Contribute today

Your contribution will support our campaign protect the Natural Area and will help to ensure it continues as important community green space and as a center of environmental education for generations to come.  

Please visit our “Contribute now” page to make your tax-deductible contribution online or for information on where to send your contribution by mail.

5 - Tell a friend

The Natural Area is a community resource, available to everyone. The more people who know about it, visit it and value it, the better our chances to save it for today and for the future. 

Our bilingual flier and English-language pamphlet discuss the environmental, financial and social risks posed by the proposed Discovery Center. Please share these documents with friends, family, coworkers and anyone else you think would be concerned about the threat to this important community resource.

Download our bilingual flier now/Oprime aquí para nuestro volante bilingüe (PDF file)

Download our campaign pamphlet now (PDF file)

6 - Participate in Friends activities

We meet monthly at the Natural Area at 1 p.m. on the third Sunday of every month.  Join us for these meetings or join us in our outreach activities, such as tabling at community and environmental fairs.

Check our calendar and our Facebook group to learn about our current activities.  

7 - Sign up for action alerts

Provide us your email address on our contact page and we’ll provide you updates on our activities, public meetings of the Discovery Center Authority board and other events and issues important to protecting the Whittier Narrows Natural Area for its environmental, educational and social values.

8 - Attend Discovery Center Authority board meetings

The authority doesn't make it easy for people to attend and participate in its public meetings. (In late 2009, meetings were moved from weekday afternoons to 8:30 a.m. on Mondays for the convenience of the board.) But a community presence is crucial to ensure a level of public oversight and accountability.

Each meeting includes a public comment period during which members of the public have an opportunity to express their views on the proposed Discovery Center.

Information on upcoming meetings can be found at the Discovery Center Authority website. 

9 - Urge organizations to oppose the Discovery Center

Are you a member of the Sierra Club, the Audubon Society or the California Native Plant Society? Are you active in a chamber of commerce or in other civic organizations? Let your fellow members and your organization's leadership know that there is a serious threat to an important environmental and community resource and that they should oppose this exploitative use of our public lands.

10 -  Express your concern to the media/through the media

Letters to the editor, op-ed pieces, blog posts and other tools of mass and social media are a great way to express your views on the Discovery Center issue. Consider that the threat to the Natural Area posed by the Discovery Center and related projects touches on man issues. These include endangered species, global climate change, government accountability,  access to public lands and the health of diverse communities.

11 - Volunteer with the Whittier Narrows Nature Center Associates

The associates help the county Department of Parks and Recreation, the Natural Area and the Nature Center meet their community and environmental education goals. Please consider volunteering a bit of your time and talent for the benefit of the natural area and its many visitors. For more information call (626) 575-5523.

12 - Help keep us informed of opportunities and challenges

As an all-volunteer organization, we depend upon you, our friends and allies, to help be our eyes and ears in the community. If you are aware of possible outreach opportunities, learn of potential threats or challenges to the Natural Area, to other wildlife areas of Whittier Narrows or to the community's access to these areas, please pass that information on to us through our contact page or by phone to (626) 286-3850.

Together, we can help protect the Whittier Narrows Natural Area for generations to come.

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.