Retail Stores Take a Down-to-Earth Approach : Nature-conscious shops are consistently and quietly heightening environmental awareness through classes, outings and cleanups.

There are no self-serving advertisements, no slick televised spots telling viewers how it is serving the environment.

But quietly and consistently, a California-based group of retail stores is giving the public its view of the natural sciences and linking people with such agencies as the Audubon Society, the Day of the Dolphin Foundation and the Nature Conservancy.

The Nature Company, which has stores at South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa and the Brea Mall in Orange County, sponsors nature walks, seminars on recycling, discussions of the wetlands, and lectures on scientific disciplines such as astronomy and geology. All are free and open to every age group.

“Of course, we have a retail side,” says Jason Hoskins, a naturalist who works at the Brea store. “We aren’t a nonprofit organization, but we are an environmental organization. We want to enhance the public’s knowledge and love of nature, and we are able to attract customers who are shoppers and would otherwise not be exposed to nature.”

Claudia Burckle, manager of the South Coast Plaza store, describes the firm as a “natural history store” that also sees science education as a worthwhile endeavor.

“I think many of our employees are naturalists at heart,” she says. “That’s why they want to work here. Our employees (are) experts from the field such as rangers and those who know apes, snakes, dolphins, whatever, and we allow the public to appreciate the natural world more than it might have before.”

In the company stores is a newsletter called Nature Discovery Events, which lists programs for the following two months. The list--on recycled paper, of course--usually has 20 to 25 events with titles ranging from “Owls: Hoooooo Are They?” to “Mountain Biking in Nature” and “Native American Stories.”

This Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon, Hoskins will head a tour of Caspers Regional park near San Juan Hot Springs. The newsletter points out, in a listing typical of the publication, that the park “is home to one of California’s great survivors, the Coast Live Oak. Able to survive with little water, this tree is well-adapted to the area’s semi-arid climate.”

On Sunday, with Hoskins once again in charge, a group will meet at the Brea store and head for Bolsa Chica State Beach in Huntington Beach for a look at the wetlands.

The company sponsors such outings virtually every weekend except in November and December.

“We try to have at least two per month from each store,” Burckle said. “If we can do more, it’s great. The employees are urged to participate if their schedule allows.”

All programs are open to the public; some--such as “Recycling for Kids” and “Panther Dream Story Hour”--are primarily for children. These presentations, usually 90 minutes long, are held in the stores.

Adventure 16 in Costa Mesa offers slide shows, clinic and backpacking classes. Clinics are held on the first Thursday of each month, while slide shows usually are scheduled on the second and third Thursday. The clinics begin at 6:30 p.m. at the store, with slide shows at 7:30 p.m. The company also distributes a newsletter three times a year. Further information is available by calling (714) 650-3301.

All Nature Company stores--74 in 23 states and the District of Columbia--have similar programs. They began six years ago in San Diego, evolving from a single nature walk and bird-watching trip that met with success.

Burckle has been with the company for five years and has been manager in Costa Mesa for two months. She said each tour has about 25 participants. People are encouraged to sign up in advance “to keep things to a manageable size.” Some tours begin at the closest Nature Company store; for others, participants meet at the destination.

Hoskins said most nature tours will have “a 50-50” mix of novices and those who have been on previous outings. “People come in and pick up a list and think ‘Hey, this looks like a great thing,’ ” he said. “Maybe it’s their first experience. Or they see that we’re doing a beach cleanup day, and they say ‘This looks like something that needs to be done.’ ”

The company has a more activist side. It has affiliated with the nonprofit Nature Conservancy group to form what both call Alliance for Nature.

“This company felt that Nature Conservancy was the only organization that really shared our philosophies--and that is to preserve biodiversity and conservation,” Hoskins said. “We are nonpolitical, but we believe there is sometimes a difference between environmentalism and conservationism. Environmentalism can be ‘protesty’ at times. We believe it’s better to work with people and try to make things happen.”

One project in which the company and Nature Conservancy are working together is in the 7,000-acre Santa Rosa Plateau Reserve, near Murrieta, about 40 miles south of Riverside. Part of the hilly area, a former ranch, was acquired by the Nature Conservancy in 1984. By 1991, through acquisition of surrounding land, it had reached its present size. Their goal is to return the area to virgin grassland.

The Santa Rosa Plateau “is a wonderful area,” Hoskins said. “It is the way most of Southern California must have looked 200 years ago, with all the impurities removed. It’s a classic grassland.”

One tour group went to the site in February to study how early cultures used the area’s plants for medicine and food. On April 26, an outing is planned to visit the plateau as an observation of Earth Day.

Hoskins and Mark Sanderson, another Nature Company employee, will lead that visit. “It makes little sense saving a species if the land supporting its existence is not protected,” Hoskins wrote in the notice announcing the visit.

On May 30-31, there will be an overnight barbecue at the reserve and what Burckle called “a stargazing party” that will take advantage of the area’s clear skies.

Environmental cleanup is other aspects of the Nature Company-sponsored outings.

Another Earth Day outing will have volunteers out cleaning up a beach. Participants will meet at the Rolling Hills Estates store, drive to Malaga Cove on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in Los Angeles County and spend the afternoon picking up debris beach-goers have left behind.

People with a more marine bent can assist the American Cetacean Society in tracking dolphins. Volunteers will line up along the Orange County coastline and track data such as the number of dolphins in each passing pod and note the direction in which they are migrating. There will be an orientation meeting at the Costa Mesa Neighborhood Community Center at 7:30 p.m. April 23, with an all-day dolphin “census” on April 25.

More information about the group’s Orange County activities may be obtained by calling Hoskins at (714) 671-0616 or Burckle at (714) 557-0656.