A Summer Full of Audubon Youth Leaders
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Summer at the Audubon Center at Debs Park comes in many forms, from rust-colored California Buckwheat to the trill of Hooded Orioles. For the Public Programs team, it also means the return of Audubon Youth Leaders, our flagship high school program!
Audubon Youth Leaders is a summer program that runs 4 weeks from June to July and then July to August. High school students spend 80 hours throughout the entire program learning about what it means to be an environmental leader in their community, connecting with California native ecosystems, and getting certified as either a Climate Steward or California Naturalist.
This summer, we hosted 16 students who are now a certified Climate Steward via UCANR! We are incredibly proud of this cohort and how much they accomplished in their time here with us.
As part of their course, the students embarked on three field trips, with each being centered around bringing students new nature experiences, connecting them to professionals in the conservation field, and empowering them to see how they can steward the community of life in Los Angeles.
This summer, the students visited the LAX Dunes, Ballona Wetlands, and Rio de Los Angeles State Park. At LAX Dunes, we met with LAWA and the students explored this beautiful site as they looked for the rare El Segundo Blue Butterfly in the largest remaining fragment of southern coastal dunes in LA.
At the Ballona Wetlands, our students did restoration work alongside Friends of Ballona Wetlands and learned about the history of this vital ecosystem as they got to see a Snowy Egret and Yellow-billed Night Heron for the first time!
Finally, we visited Rio de Los Angeles State Park (a local park to all of them) and got to meet Luis Rincon from CalParks as they learned about the park’s history, the community-wide efforts and stories that shaped the park into what it is now, and the conservation efforts for the Least Bell’s Vireo. We were blessed to hear the songbird in question as Luis was giving his talk!
Alongside all of these opportunities to network and connect with conservationists, Audubon Youth Leaders were vital in helping with summer restoration efforts and you will see their handiwork every step of the way along Scrub Jay Trail at Ernest E. Debs Regional Park.
We hope our Audubon Youth Leaders continue to connect with our flock and we wish them the best in the future!