Help save the San Gabriel Valley's Whittier Narrows Natural Area from developers.
Meet the Natural Area. Enter at 1000 N. Durfee Avenue, South El Monte, California.
April 20, 2008
Endangered Least Bells Vireo sings in the threatened Whittier Narrows Natural Area.
Acres of rare riverside habitat for Endangered Species would disappear under the football-field long building, its 150 space "green" parking lot and false-bottom "wetland".
$30 million is a beginning price tag for this first phase of development by the San Gabriel River Discovery Center Authority. More development and destruction is planned.
IMPORTANT VOTE: May 5, 2008. LA County Department of Regional Planning biologists (SEATAC) met and voted to reject the Biota Report of the "incompatible" San Gabriel River Discovery Center. The developers intend to ignore the biologists.
Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area
P.O. Box 3522
South El Monte, CA 91733-0522
ph: 626 286 3850
info
OVERLAY MAP: Partial view of Whittier Narrows Natural Area. The current Nature Center facilities are in yellow. The planned Discovery Center is in red with the main building (the length of a football field), a 150-space parking lot, a demonstration "wetland" and the elimination of many mature trees from the riverside habitat. Run-off detention basin for intended parking lot and buildings, not shown. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
San Gabriel River Discovery Center Education Center Location Criteria* (page 4 of the May 2006 Schematic Design Report .
Category Points
1. Favorable political climate 4
2. Centrally located 4
3. Suitable location for participant needs(measured 4
against key list of objectives of participants)
4. Site does not present technical difficulties 3
5. Location near freeway 3
6. Location available to schools 2
7. Location near river 2
8. Adequate site space 2
9. Offers opportunity for outdoor education exhibit 1
10. Available site 1
* Original criteria used as regional screen in 2001
Fundraising presentations for the Discovery Center at its monthly board meeting indicate that “corporate philanthropy” and corporate “branding” are being sought for the project.
Why is Los Angeles County Supervisor Gloria Molina promising $3 million for this environmentally damaging project while county clinics and other services are under threat of cutback or closing? Please ask her. E-mail or write or call supervisor Molina at 3400 Aerojet Avenue, Suite 240 El Monte, CA 91731 Phone: (626) 350-4500, Fax: (626) 448-1573. Many millions of dollars of State of California funds and labor have already been spent. Why? Ask your Assembly Member and State Senator.
At the November 2007 Discovery Center Authority Board meeting a public relations firm was hired for $188,000. In the presentation to the Discovery Center board, the PR firm assured that the opposition to the project would be “neutralized”. Since then another $90,000 has been approved for promotion of the project, with another $50,000 pending approval. One water agency, the Central Basin Municipal Water District has provided two separate “grants,” one to cover the unbudgeted public relations firm, and another for $100,000. Why, after seven years of planning, does a project, if a sound one, need a public relations firm and over $300,000 in promotion?
• Sundays at 8:00AM. Nature Walk in the Whittier Narrows Natural. Meet in the parking lot of the Whittier Narrows Nature Center, 1000 N Durfee Avenue, South El Monte. The walk will be led by experienced, trained docents who know and care for this remaining natural area on the San Gabriel River. Learn about what will be lost if the false green Discovery Center complex is built.
• Sundays at 1:00PM. Participate in Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural work and report back meetings. We meet in the picnic area of the Whittier Narrow Natural Area. Look for our signs.

•300 SPECIES
• ENDANGERED SPECIES: 7 ARE STATE LISTED AND 5 ARE FEDERALLY LIST.
• THREATENED SPECIES: 2 ARE STATE LISTED AND 3 ARE FEDERALLY LISTED
• SPECIES OF SPECIAL CONCERN: 9 LISTED (FEDERAL ONLY)

Red tail hawk settles to tree perch at the Whittier Narrows Natural Area.
As of April 23, 2008 the EIR has again been postponed. This time from May-June, 2008 to "this summer". See Updates for the history.
May 5, 2008 SEATAC BIOLOGISTS VOTE: "DISCOVERY CENTER IS INCOMPATIBLE IN A SIGNIFICANT ECOLOGICAL AREA."
LA TACO on the Whittier Narrow Natural Area & Center (with photos)
"We do not inherit the land from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." - Native American Proverb
Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area
P.O. Box 3522
South El Monte, CA 91733-0522
ph: 626 286 3850
info