The Placerita Nature Center will once again be offering their annual open house to the community (today). Though you can visit the center at any time during the year, this open house event also includes information tables from local organizations that promote the environment and natural areas. Plus plenty of activities for the kids, including panning for gold, hikes, Santa Clarita Valley history, live animal exhibits, food trucks and just a general good time outdoors, including many easy hiking trails for kids and parents.
This is a Los Angeles County facility and staff and the building are supported by the county, but MANY wonderful local people make sure the center is an amazing place with their volunteerism, donating thousands of hours of their time, out of their love for nature and inspiring children to learn about it.
Did you know that during the school year the center hosts thousands of students from throughout the SCV who enjoy field trips to the center? Not only does the experience introduce these students to the local plants and animals that share our community, but there is also an exhibit of the original native American culture.
I recently was honored to participate in one of the center’s student presentations, since the center was a scheduled field trip for Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment’s McGrath watershed education grant (funded by the Rose Foundation and the Regional Water Quality Control Board). The docent presentation (totally volunteer-led) was amazing. The students were fascinated with the exhibits and live animals, including owls, snakes and spiders. Docents talked about the web of life and how these animals interact with each other and the ill effects of pesticides and other issues that break this circle of life. Then the docents divided the students into groups and led them, along with their after-school leaders, on short hikes within the natural area.
I cannot help smiling about the knowledge and care these volunteer docents imparted to the students. What a gift we have in this Nature Center. I am so grateful to the county of Los Angeles for funding this and other facilities like it and to all the wonderful volunteers who give their time so future generations of students and children can learn about and appreciate our local environment.
I hope that you are all planning on bringing your families to the Placerita Nature Center Open House this Saturday. I am sure you will find it to be an unforgettable event. But if you can’t make it this Saturday, just try for a family outing to the center any other day of the year. It is an amazing and wonderful place.
Lynne Plambeck
Santa Clarita
