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| The Annenburg's Planned "Interpretive Center" |
The foundation also plans to add veterinary facilities, adoption facilities, and educational programs on domesticated animals, on public lands within an ecological reserve. This seems very suspect. Currently, no dogs are allowed within the preserve due to the fact that they could disturb wildlife. If and when the Annenberg Foundation creates the "interpretive center" these laws will need to be overridden.
The Annenberg Foundation stated that:
"Set within the broader context of urban ecology, initial concepts for the Center include exhibits and programs involving live wildlife and domestic animals, including a domestic animal adoption program; an auditorium; and facilities for school age children visiting the Reserve for field trips."
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Great post, Gregory. The inclusion of facilities for domestic animals is ecologically unsound for many reasons:
ReplyDelete- It is not an appropriate use of protected conservation land. Such facilities could very easily be located in any number of existing buildings in the vast urban landscape of Los Angeles.
- The overall size of the center is much too big because of the need to balance the domestic animal facilities with more traditional components. If you look at typical visitor/nature/interpretive centers, such as the one in Franklin Canyon or those in the Angeles Forest, they tend to be a few thousand square feet. The Annenberg Foundation's 46,000 sq ft proposal should be called a museum to be accurate. Like companion animal facilities, museums are great, but not on rare protected conservation land.
- In order to rationalize this inappropriate land use, the Foundation has launched a PR campaign suggesting that the principles or urban ecology mandate these facilities. However, urban ecology practices are meant to make cities more ecologically friendly, not to make existing conservation areas more urban. This ill-advised version of urban ecology would not only lead to a degradation of the land in question, but would set a terrible precedent for conservation efforts across the state and beyond, as the California Department of Fish and Wildlife would have to approve these new, PR driven concepts, in order to approve the project.
Thank you again for raising awareness about this project and about ecological issues in general.
Walter Lamb
Ballona Wetlands Land Trust
www.ballona.org/annenberg
You're welcome.
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