Gabriels Projects: The Nature Centers Network

The San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy currently operates and/or partners with educational programming for three regional Nature Centers and natural areas in the San Gabriel Valley. See Santa Fe Dam and Galster Wilderness Nature Centers featured below.

Santa Fe Dam Nature Center tells the story of plants and wildlife that have lived historically to the present on the alluvial fan of the San Gabriel River. The plant community of the river fan, Alluvial Fan Sage Scrub (afss), is among the rarest and last of its kind in Los Angeles County. Only two afss vestiges are left on the San Gabriel River: here at Santa Fe Dam and downstream at Whittier Narrows.Rare and endangered plants, birds, and other wildlife species inhabit these unusual habitat areas.Examples include: cactus wrens, California gnatcatchers, scissor-tail flycatchers, horned lizards, kangaroo rats, and more. It should also be pointed out that the Santa Fe Dam has one of the longest bird listings for inland lakes and flyways in the County.

Galster Wilderness Park Nature Center, located on the northern slopes of the San Jose is the newest addition to SGMRC's Nature Center Network and educational programming. The area around the Nature Center is home to a large Southern California Black Walnut Plant Community - one of the rarest of indigenous woodlands in the state. Coastal Sage Scrub Plant Communities may also be found nearby, home to endangered bird species such as the California gnatcatcher. We invite your help in compiling plant, bird, and wildlife listings, plus photography, to add to Nature Center resources. Come see and help with our continuing progress. Nature Center official opening is set for March 8, 2008

Contact us/SGMRC if you would like to start or need assistance in getting a Nature Center going in your area. No child should be left without the advantages of Nature Center fun and learning!

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