SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS : Grant to Fund Field Study for Middle School Pupils

The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area has been awarded a three-year environmental education grant of $142,000 to support field study for Los Angeles middle school students at mountain park sites.

Officials said the program will be offered to about 4,500 sixth- and seventh-grade pupils as part of the science curriculum of the Los Angeles Unified School District. Students will visit the national recreation area’s Fryman Canyon tract above Studio City and Rocky Oaks preserve in Malibu, and will use sampling kits to test air, water and soil, said Costa Dillon, chief of interpretation for the national recreation area.

The idea is “to demonstrate both how air and water quality are important, and . . . how the national parks play a role in preserving” them, Dillon said.

Altogether, nine units of the national park system won “Parks as Classrooms” grants totaling $1.4 million from the National Park Foundation, a private, nonprofit group that channels private funds to the national park system. Foundation officials said the Pew Charitable Trusts were a major contributor to the grants program.