Wildlife Sanctuary battles silently amid city growth and development

With international talks about climate change dominating news cycles, focus has been on government action to mitigate the environmental problems worldwide. Issues of urban growth, habitat protection and preservation are often tasked to government entities, but other environmental battles are fought, often unknown, in smaller communities.

In Walnut, Calif., a city of 32,000 residents and a burgeoning community college population, a relatively hidden treasure has been silently battling to survive against budget cuts, relocation proposals and urban growth.

The Wildlife Sanctuary at Mt. San Antonio College (Mt. SAC) is a lush preserve that has been a part of the college and the city for over 40 years in an unassuming, yet busy street corner of Grand and Temple. Established in 1964, the Sanctuary is a ten-acre protected preserve for plants, shrubs, and animals of Walnut Valley, owned and funded by Mt. SAC and maintained by the college’s Biological Sciences faculty.

In July 2009, Walnut completed a $1.488 million road expansion project (PDF) on Grand Avenue, the main artery to and from Walnut and Mt. SAC, taking about an acre of the preserve where large oak trees and vegetation once stood, according to Craig Peterson, Wildlife Sanctuary Director. 

Relatively untouched and unchanged by developments in Walnut, it has become one of the few places in the San Gabriel Valley left undisturbed. But urban growth, among other factors, is a looming presence that habitat preservations like the Sanctuary faces.

Land with ‘nothing’ on it

Habitat preservations offer invaluable resources to the local community. The Wildlife Sanctuary supports six different ecosystems with wetlands rich in vegetation and wildlife, providing learning opportunities for students. Such opportunities are becoming harder to come by as housing, business plazas and transportation take up free land and lessons on the environment are relegated to textbook illustrations.

Craig Petersen, 62, has been the director since 1981. He has overseen the maintenance, cultivation and operations of the Sanctuary for over 20 years with passion and appreciation.

“Some people said this corner between Temple and Grand is now the most valuable piece of property in the whole city of Walnut because it has ‘nothing’ on it,” he said. “From my perspective, it’s full of native animals and wildlife and teaching opportunities that is extraordinary.”

For years, the Sanctuary has provided thousands of students from the college with onsite lessons on ecosystems and native plants of the region. But Petersen wanted to reach more students in nearby cities, not just the college.

“Many people see a bunch of weeds there,” he said. “They’re not familiar with it until there’s an article about it or until they’ve got a class, and there [are] many faculty that have been here many years that haven’t set foot in it.”

So in 2006, the Wildlife Sanctuary partnered up with Orange County Department of Education’s “Inside the Outdoors” (ITO) program. ITO provides science programs to students in Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties through field trips to various nature centers. The field program at Mt. SAC offers programs for K-4 students with lessons on ecosystem exploration and local Native American lifestyle per California curriculum standards.

“It [partnership with Mt. SAC] has expanded our program to younger students, which has been traditionally more for fourth and fifth graders,” said Kelly Ellis, the project assistant with ITO. “It’s a great way for students to get out in nature. Especially students from low-income families, who may not have had a chance to see so many trees before.”

Mainly funded by grants, ITO has brought more than 8,000 students to the Sanctuary.

It has also brought the Sanctuary much-needed funds. A small student fee from ITO goes directly to the Sanctuary to pay for field naturalists, Ellis said.

In the recent years, the Sanctuary has received a $2,000 annual budget from the college for tools and maintenance. One year, the budget was barely enough to buy two bags of gravel, according to Petersen.

But funding and urban development are not the only battles the Sanctuary and other nature centers and parks around the country face. The survival of these local treasures depends heavily on community members to continue the work needed to safeguard natural habitats.

To do that, the community would need to see the value of the Sanctuary and other natural parks, especially as communities continue to expand and progress. That is what the Sanctuary’s partnership with ITO hopes to do.

“Someday I won’t be here and we don’t know who might be the next person to take charge or take the responsibility,” Petersen said. “Since I’ve been here 30 years, it has been a life-long love of mine to try and keep it going.”

A growing community

Walnut, a residential community ranked as one of the top cities to live in by Money Magazine, has a significant commuter population of college students. This year, Mt. SAC reported a 7 percent increase in enrollment.

Because of this and the city’s growth, Grand Avenue, the main road to the college, has been a cause for concern. Increased traffic over the years has frustrated Walnut residents and the City Council.

“The Grand Avenue intersection has been the most complained about intersection by Walnut residents,” said Mary Rooney, the community services director for Walnut. “It has been on the city’s Capital Improvement list for years.”

The original proposal to alleviate traffic was to use the existing road south of the Sanctuary, but Mt. SAC and the Sanctuary opposed it. Access to the existing road would put the preserve under heavier noise and air pollution, according to Petersen.

The approved project expanded the intersection with more right and left turn lanes to alleviate traffic. The expansion took a 40-foot wedge-shaped area from the Sanctuary.

To offset this loss, the Mt. SAC Board of Trustees agreed to give fifteen acres of land southwest of the preserve and $750,000 to re-vegetate and cultivate the land, as well as to remove the existing road.

But Petersen is realistic about what could come to fruition.

“The enlargement of the Sanctuary has been promised, but not much has moved forward because of the budgetary crisis,” he said.

The money for the Sanctuary is under a local bond, Bond Measure RR, which Mt. SAC hopes to sell soon, according to John Nixon, president of the college’s Board of Trustees.

“We have been promised $750,000 which is huge. But we don’t know if we’ll ever see it,” Petersen said. “If they hold up to their promises, the Wildlife Sanctuary will become mitigated land which will make it more difficult, just at a snap of a finger, to take over and do something with it.”

Nixon, on the other hand, is confident about the future of the Sanctuary.

“The Board of Trustees is committed to it [the Sanctuary], in fact we’re expanding it. There is no jeopardy for the Sanctuary.”

But even if its removal is not in the immediate future, ongoing developments in nearby cities could negatively impact the Sanctuary.

Nearby, the City of Industry plans to build an NFL stadium, which could require future improvements on Grand Avenue. Increased traffic, noise, light and air pollution would interrupt the ecosystems, which are migratory and breeding grounds for many animals.

Though no developments are being discussed yet, Petersen knows that it’s only a matter of time until they may have to face another hurdle.

“This has always been a battle,” he said.

When asked what future developments might mean to the Sanctuary, Petersen quoted environmentalist and author Dr. Richard Vogl, “A preservationist has to win many battles. A developer only has to win once.”

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For more information on Bond Measure RR, click here.