COUNTYWIDE : Latinos Told About Parkland Offerings

A series of presentations offered this month by the Mountains Conservancy Education and Recreation Program aim to educate teachers and Latino families about the 60,000 acres of parkland available in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Many in the Latino community are unaware of the public parks and often perceive that the land is private, according to a study conducted by the program.

“There’s a perception that these are not public spaces,” said Xavier Sibaja, bilingual outreach specialist with the program. “So there’s a big need to create an awareness . . . especially to the Hispanic community because they make less use of the parks.”

The conservancy program also offers other services to the Latino community, including transportation to the parks for schools lacking budgets for such excursions and a toll-free number for park information.

This month’s presentations--two bilingual programs to be held in Oxnard on Thursday and Feb. 26 and one Spanish-only class in Santa Monica on Saturday--will further explain those services, he said.

“It’s for the families to know about recreation opportunities they can enjoy with their kids in the Santa Monica Mountains,” and for teachers to discover services to supplement their environmental curriculum, he said.

A natural wildlife corridor that extends from downtown Los Angeles to Point Mugu provides more than 100 park and beach areas, equestrian and hiking trails, and picnic areas, he said. Last year, the conservancy program brought 5,000 schoolchildren to the parks, he said.

Steve Hutton, a sixth-grade teacher at Aragon Avenue School in Los Angeles, took his class to three different park areas this year. He said the students’ personal experience was an excellent teaching tool.

“I found that the kids were just ape about it,” Hutton said. “I wasn’t sure if they’d be bored with it but they loved it.”