By Cindy Hardin

Updates, updates, updates! This was the heading of multiple recent emails received by the many who make our education programs happen. That’s right-after almost two years of no school field trips at all, Los Angeles Audubon is back at it, sharing nature with residents of all ages that call Los Angeles home.

At the start of 2020, we were fully booked for student field trips at both Ballona and Kenneth Hahn. Our monthly Open Wetlands at Ballona program was seeing robust numbers of visitors as well. The cancellations of field trips due to COVID started pouring in even before schools were forced to go to remote learning. Like many others, not recognizing the gravity of the situation, I assumed that things would be back to normal within a few weeks. But as we know now, what started out as a brief respite became an unmitigated stretch of no in-person activity at all.

LA Audubon staff scrambled to put together remote programs via Zoom to fill in the gap. Suddenly, we were all at home, trying to create excitement and knowledge about the wonders of outdoors — while being indoors. These efforts were successful, and many teachers with a long history of working with us invited us into their classrooms to work with their students. We saw positive results with this new approach, and some classes received multiple visits from LA Audubon during the year. Online is never a real substitute for being on site and outdoors, but these online efforts allowed us to stay in touch and support educators in their challenges of a completely new way of teaching.

Online learning carried over in Fall of 2020 for our volunteer docents too. Every year, as the school year begins, we hold two separate sets of six-week training sessions for new and returning naturalists. Our guest speakers rose to the occasion remotely, and provided information rich, compelling sessions on different aspects of the native habitats and ecosystems found in our very biodiverse region. We even did a hands-on practicum of invertebrate study with one of our favorite presenters, Marty Lewis. Marty asked us to photograph insects found in our own yards and neighborhoods, and then helped us with Identification. It was a great way to be reminded that no matter what is going on in the human sphere, nature is chugging along, in all of its wonder. And it was fun to see new and familiar faces, even if only in two-inch squares on a glowing screen.

But . . . we were all missing being together and out and about. So, a year into the pandemic, in March 2021, as things were starting to ease and vaccines became available, plans were made to convene as a group in the safest setting possible: outdoors. I proposed a docent field trip to one of our favorite spots, the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. And to my delight, over a dozen people met up in beautiful Huntington Beach. The positive response was so encouraging, and rather than trying to do another online training series, the consensus was docent field trips would be the way to go. And boy did we go! We visited Franklin Canyon, Descanso Gardens, and even made it up the coast to Carpinteria Salt Marsh and the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. And those were just some of the highlights!

However, enthusiasm was still present to engage with the public at large. To that end, Open Wetlands was reinstituted last summer. Of course, some adjustments needed to be made, which included the requirement of reservations and scheduled hourly tours, limited to small groups. Response was huge-so much so that it was decided there was enough demand that a second tour was added for each month. We are now at the Wetlands on the first Saturday and second Sunday of each month!

Still, the missing piece was working with the students of Los Angeles. Calls from teachers requesting field trips started trickling in towards the end of 2021, and we were hosting schools by the following February. It was wonderful to have the opportunity to be with the students again!

But now I had new concerns. It had been so long since our wonderful naturalists had been in the habit of marking their calendars for tours, I worried that we would be short on personnel to lead the tours. And so came about the Updates, Updates, Updates emails! And to my delight, a core group of dedicated volunteers rose to the occasion. For virtually every field trip I worried that I might be singlehandedly leading a group of 40 students on a visit to Ballona or Kenneth Hahn. But to my delight, for each and every event enough people showed up to provide a wonderful outing to children that sorely needed a dose of the outdoors. Our fabulous LA Audubon staff also stepped up to fill in any gaps, and response from teachers and students was wonderful. I think we were all just so grateful just to have a chance to learn and laugh together in nature once again.

The day that I am writing this piece is actually the last day of formal instruction for most of our local schools, but this does not mean that things will completely quiet down. We already have tours and activities booked for the coming months with various groups that have summer programs. One of the highlights will take place in July when we take summer day campers from the Boys and Girls Club of Mar Vista Gardens to Crystal Cove State Park. And we will continue to enjoy some docent field trips too-we adults need to be out and about with each other in nature too!

The commitment and dedication that our team of both staff and volunteers has shown through the past two years is one of the most inspirational things I have ever had the pleasure to witness. Under extremely difficult and alarming circumstances so many individuals have continued to shine and make Los Angeles and LA Audubon truly special. Onward!