Middle school students in northeast Los Angeles will now be able to take part in a new conservation leadership program at the Audubon Center at Debs Park, thanks to a $20,000 TogetherGreen national Innovation Grant. Previously, the Center’s Beyond Nature’s Open House program was only available to elementary school students. The $20,000 grant for the Audubon Center at Debs Park will help junior high school students build conservation leadership skills by preparing them to address the environmental needs of their own communities. By providing teens with enriching experiences in nature, the Center hopes to raise awareness about the conservation issues that impact this community, and possibly inspire some of these young people to pursue a lifetime interest in the natural world.

“Debs Park is a unique natural resource in the middle of the city,” said Jeff Chapman, director of the Audubon Center at Debs Park. “Many of the kids we will work with this year participated in Audubon programs last year, and we feel lucky to continue to provide them with hands-on learning opportunities.”Students will not only learn methods used by restoration ecologists to restore threatened coastal sage scrub habitats, but will also plan their own research projects and participate in bird banding and other wildlife monitoring projects.

At the end of the school year, students will be given the opportunity to participate in a symposium, to present their projects and findings. Besides providing invaluable lessons about conservation and leadership, the data they gather will guide Audubon’s future ecological restoration programs in Debs Park.

In 2008, the Audubon Center at Debs Park received a TogetherGreen Innovation Grant to offer Nature’s Open House to two local elementary schools. As a result, over 1,000 students from these schools had a chance to learn about the local natural world and explore Debs Park.

“I’ve always been into nature, so this was a great program for me,” said Gabriella Green, one of the participants in Nature’s Open House. “This has been so fun and I’ve learned so much. I had no idea before how much nature is right here where I live.”

With 282-acres of urban wilderness, Debs Park supports one of the last open spaces along the Arroyo Seco, a tributary of the Los Angeles River. The park harbors rare walnut woodlands, coastal sage scrub and grasslands. Debs Park is also home to coyotes, snakes, rabbits and more than 136 species of birds, 40 of which nest within its borders.

In all, 48 projects received a total of $1.1 million of TogetherGreen funding this year. Audubon and Toyota launched the five-year TogetherGreen initiative in 2008 to fund conservation projects, train environmental leaders, and offer volunteer opportunities that significantly benefit the environment. Grantees were selected from scores of applicants across America.

“This program is a wonderful opportunity for creating a generation of environmental leaders in California and we’re happy to support it for another successful year,” said TogetherGreen Project Manager Judy Braus.