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National Park Service
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Contact: Ana Beatriz Cholo, 805-750-9356 (cell); 805-370-2385 (office)
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif – National Park Service rangers from Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) will host “Las Montañas,” a festival featuring family-friendly events, guided hikes, and speakers who work in conservation.The free event, which will take place on July 16, 2022, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., is part of Latino Conservation Week. Parking is also free, and there will be food trucks for park visitors to purchase food and beverages.
During the event, visitors will hear from Latinx biologists and others highlighting their work in conservation. For example, they will discuss how they capture wildlife activity with trail cameras after wildfires and talk about native plants in the Santa Monica Mountains, including which ones are edible.
Miguel Ordeñana, a wildlife biologist from the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles (NHMLA), will discuss his journey in conservation and how he discovered mountain lion P-22. He will also talk about his ongoing research on bats.
Community-based organizations like Heal the Bay, the Santa Monica Mountains Fund’s Monarca team, Angeles National Forest, the Forest Foundation, Pacoima Beautiful, and the Los Angeles Audubon Society will have booths at the festival.
Guests will learn how to create a seed pinata “bomb” for their gardens and how to plant milkweed for native monarch butterflies. Rangers will talk about the Spanish ranching history of the region and be available to allow young land stewards to become Junior Rangers by taking the pledge.
Free bilingual field guides and adventure kits will be available for visitors interested in continuing their conservation journey when they return home.
Participants can learn more and register for the event at samofund.com/outdoors-calendar.
For more information, please call the Santa Monica Mountains Visitor Center at 805-370-2301.
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) is the largest urban national park in the country, encompassing more than 150,000 acres of mountains and coastline in Ventura and Los Angeles counties. A unit of the National Park Service, it comprises a seamless network of local, state, and federal parks interwoven with private lands and communities. As one of only five Mediterranean ecosystems in the world, SMMNRA preserves the rich biological diversity of more than 450 animal species and 26 distinct plant communities. For more information, visit nps.gov/samo.
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Last updated: July 13, 2022