Mountains environmental campus opening soon

The Santa Monica Mountains will be home to a new environmental education campus for Southern California students.

The new campus at Circle X Ranch in the heart of the Santa Monica Mountains will be operated by NatureBridge in partnership with the National Park Service.

NatureBridge, based in San Francisco, offers environmental and science education for youths in an outdoor environment.

According to Paul Culberg, a resident of the mountain community and a longtime board member with the Santa Monica Mountains Institute, the new outdoor educational campus has been in the works for 12 years.

“I originally got involved when I went to the 25th anniversary party in Yosemite Park in 1995,” Culberg said. “It’s really exciting for me because it’s the realization of 10 years of my efforts to make it happen.”

NatureBridge runs three campuses—Headlands Institute in Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Olympic National Park in Washington State and Yosemite Institute in Yosemite National Park. The Santa Monica Mountains Institute will be its fourth.

The first program in the local mountain range is expected to kick off in March. Students from the Los Angeles Unified School District will be the first to experience the new campus, which does not have any accommodations for housing but does include a meeting hall and updated kitchen.

The first program will house students in yurts, three-sided environmentally friendly “tent-cabins.” The curriculum will be science- and inquiry-based. Students will learn about nature and science by interacting with the environment in hands-on activities.

“Santa Monica Mountains Institute will provide an outdoor laboratory for learning and discovery that cannot be replicated by books or classrooms,” said Woody Smeck, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area superintendent.

“For many students, this will be their first experience in a national park setting that hopefully inspires a lifelong appreciation for our natural world,” Smeck said.

Of the 5 million school-age children in the Los Angeles area, fewer than 4 percent have the opportunity to experience outdoor science education through their schools, said NatureBridge CEO Susan Smartt. The program will eventually serve up to 10,000 students each year, she said.

Henry Ortiz, a former science teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District, will serve as the director for the new campus.

NatureBridge will reach out to more affluent private and public schools to help pay for the program. Scholarships will be given.

“We would do more if we could raise more money,” Culberg said.

A pilot program will run for two years on the initial $1 million raised by NatureBridge.