Are you interested in greeting visitors on Sundays at the Trippet Ranch Nature Center and elsewhere within Topanga State Park? Would you like to help out with free Sunday afternoon nature walks for families? Do you have time during the week to assist with special school walks for children who live in other areas of the Los Angeles metro region? Could you volunteer at this unique urban-wildland treasure in some other way?
Then become a Topanga Canyon Docent (www.topangacanyondocents.org) and take the organization’s annual fall training, which begins on September 10, 2011 at the Trippet Ranch Nature Center.
The Topanga Canyon Docents’ naturalist-education program—considered one of the best in the Santa Monica Mountains area and offered for the 37th year—will be held on six Saturdays and four Sundays (Sept. 10, Sept. 24, Oct. 2, Oct. 8, Oct. 16, Oct. 22, Oct. 30, Nov. 5, Nov. 13 and Nov. 19), ending before Thanksgiving weekend.
This program offers classroom and in-the-field training by highly respected educators and professional naturalists from local colleges, museums and conservation-based institutions, as well as interpretive walks led by experts. Topics include the Chumash and Tongva cultures; native plants and plant communities; fire ecology; geology; mammals, insects and birds; reptiles/amphibians; climate and its effect; and naturalist leadership.
If you’ve ever hiked in Topanga State Park and longed to share what you saw, the program is perfect for you. Participants get to touch, see, smell and hear what they’re studying.
This program is also the first step to becoming a Topanga Canyon Docent. Throughout the year Docents have hikes, potluck gatherings, field trips, seminars, educational workshops and other events.
A $75 training-program fee includes a one-year Docents membership, monthly newsletters and a parking pass to use while volunteering. The registration deadline is Sept. 7. Registration will be accepted at the door if space permits.
To register, please send a self-addressed, stamped envelope and a check payable to the Topanga Canyon Docents along with a completed registration form to Topanga Canyon Docents, 2558 Burson Rd., Topanga, CA 90290. A training-program parking pass, a map and other program-related information will be mailed to you.
For a registration form or more information, email Docents board director Marc Birenbaum, marcbirenbaum@gmail.com, or call Docents board director Karin, 310-455-3143.
