OXNARD : Mountain Program Approved for Pupils

The board of directors of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has approved an $80,000 grant that will enable thousands of Oxnard schoolchildren to learn about the natural resources of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Under the pilot program, which will begin in October, school buses will pick up the students at their schools in Oxnard and transport them to the mountains, where they will be met by conservancy naturalists, said Amy Lethbridge, director of the Mountains Conservancy Foundation’s Education and Recreation Program.

The naturalists will lead the students on two-hour educational hikes to introduce them to wildlife and nature, Lethbridge said. Conservancy officials hope to begin the program in October and serve more than 7,000 children.

The Oxnard program will be modeled after a similar conservancy program in Los Angeles County designed for children from disadvantaged areas of Los Angeles, Lethbridge said.

Norman Brekke, superintendent of the Oxnard Elementary School District, said the program may substitute for a districtwide outdoor science program that was phased out in recent years because of budget cuts.

Lethbridge said Oxnard was selected because of the large number of minority students, whom the program aims specifically to help, and because of its proximity to the Santa Monica Mountains.