Parks Service to Run Program That Teaches About Outdoors
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The operation of a 16-year-old program that annually teaches tens of thousands of children about the outdoors has been taken over permanently by the National Park Service, officials said Wednesday.
Since the program’s inception in 1981, funds had to be raised every year to support the William O. Douglas Outdoor Classroom in Franklin Canyon Park, said John Diaz, president of the program’s board of directors. But a bill sponsored by Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Mission Hills) made the educational program’s $230,000 annual cost a permanent part of the Park Service’s budget.
About 75,000 children and adults hike and learn from volunteer naturalists at the outdoor classroom each year, Diaz said. All programs are free, including bus service for visiting school children.
On hand at the 605-acre park Wednesday to celebrate the future of the program were Berman, program founder Sooky Goldman, county Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, officials of the state-funded Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and second-graders from Langdon Avenue School in North Hills.
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