Notes about your surroundings.

Docent Training Classes--Amigos de Bolsa Chica, a volunteer group dedicated to preserving the Bolsa Chica wetlands, will conduct new docent training sessions beginning Tuesday. Docents are needed at the wetlands to conduct weekday tours, especially for schoolchildren.

The training classes will be held from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday and on July 16, 18, 23 and 25. Optional field trips around the wetlands’ trails will follow each session.

Prospective docents will learn about the area’s ecology, its plants and animals (including the endangered species that can be seen there), its birds and in what seasons they are common, and its early history and current status.

A new docent should be enthusiastic about the outdoors, particularly the Bolsa Chica wetlands. He or she, after training, must be knowledgeable and able to give accurate information and lead a minimum of one tour a month.

There is a $10 fee, which includes the training manual and a name badge at the end of the classes that authorizes that person to be a docent. For more information and reservations, contact the Amigos de Bolsa Chica office at (714) 897-7003.