Los Angeles Audubon Staff Members Selected as 2020 Nature For All Leaders
By Emily Cobar & Edgar Pedroza
Los Angeles Audubon is proud to announce that staff members Emily Cobar and Edgar Pedroza have been selected as part of Nature For All’s Cohort 17 Leadership Academy! Following, Edgar and Emily talk about their initial experience and what they hope to accomplish during their time in the leadership academy.
Edgar Pedroza
Los Angeles Audubon staff member Edgar Pedroza explores the river in the San Gabriel National Monument. | Photo courtesy of Nature for All
Nature for All is a coalition of organizations working to protect our local green space and to create access to those green spaces for communities historically excluded from enjoying them. The Nature for All Leadership Academy was started in 2011 in order to train and nurture the next generation of environmental stewards. The academy trains its participants in community organizing and advocacy strategies, culminating in a funded individual project. The project would support the vision to protect, create, and connect locals to green spaces in the San Gabriel Mountains.
As an education and restoration staff member for the Los Angeles Audubon Society, I already consider myself a steward of the environment. However, the leadership academy presented a unique opportunity to learn more about policy being written at the County, State and Federal level that impacts our public wildlands and parks. I was also happy to discover that Nature For All incorporates an environmental justice component to all its lessons, a critical component to understanding the history of Los Angeles public land that is often missing from environmental conversations. I was also excited to get formal instruction on community organizing techniques from the Nature For All staff, a subject that I’m only familiar with in practice from volunteering in autonomous spaces and college organizations at Cal State LA. On the very first day of the leadership academy, we had the opportunity to tour the monument San Gabriel National Monument. We bonded as a cohort while exploring the river and navigating the mountains’ winding roads. It’s difficult to grasp how special the monument is unless you go there yourself - it’s a natural paradise adjacent to one of the country’s largest cities.
Emily Cobar
Members of the Nature for All Leadership Academy–Cohort 17 visit Rio Vista Veteran’s Memorial Park in El Monte. | Photo courtesy of Nature for All
Our first day of the Leadership Academy was January 12th, 2020, and we met at the Rio Vista Veterans Memorial Park in El Monte. Vrej, from Amigos de los Rios organization, hosted a tour and taught us about the plans for the Emerald Necklace Green Way. This green way connects community parks that include native California habitat, stormwater infrastructure, and cultural history from the indigenous people to the families from Hick’s camp. For the second part of the day, we carpooled to the East Fork of the Los Angeles River in the San Gabriel Mountains where we learned that it became a national monument in 2014. On our second day, we learned more about the history of the Nature For All coalition and the measures they focus on: Measure A (parks), H (housing), M (Transit & Trails), and W (water). We are only two workshops in and I have learned so much about community empowerment and legislative measures. Future workshops will include community organizing, civic engagement, advocacy, and more throughout the greater Los Angeles Area including the San Gabriel Valley, Downtown LA, Pasadena and El Monte.
In past Western Tanager newsletters, I have mentioned how I’ve led nature walks for Esperanza Elementary School families on campus and at MacArthur Park with a big help from the Principal Brad Rumble and the ee360 college interns. I really appreciated the families who would wake up early in the morning on a weekend to go to school for these activities—we had many regulars! For my project with the Nature For All Leadership Academy, I want to continue to build the relationship with these families, venturing beyond Esperanza Elementary and MacArthur Park. I’m proposing a project where I will host two nature days for Esperanza families. One will be a green space in LA day where I will take the families to the Ballona Wetlands and then to Baldwin Hills Parklands to learn about water conservation and native plants and birds. I will then create a digital resource for how to travel to these places via public transportation from Esperanza Elementary so that families can return on their own. For the second nature day, I plan to take Esperanza families to the East Fork of the Los Angeles River in the San Gabriel Mountains where the Leadership Academy took place on the first day. I plan to cover park access and community advocacy in protecting these places. All participants in the Leadership Academy are applying for a grant for their projects—if I receive the grant, funding will go towards transportation. Transportation is a huge barrier for many communities in park-poor neighborhoods. Public transportation to local Los Angeles green spaces can be feasible; however, getting to the San Gabriel Mountains is not nearly as feasible (which this is something I will talk about during our trip there).
Members of the Nature for All Leadership Academy–Cohort 17 visit Rio Vista Veteran’s Memorial Park in El Monte. | Photo courtesy of Nature for All
On our very first day of the Leadership Academy, I recognized a few people in our cohort that I’ve met through Los Angeles Audubon programs. This made me reflect on how small the nature leader community is in the Los Angeles area, especially leaders who are Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC). I am excited to learn and share knowledge with people who have a passion for nature and for community advocacy in our highly urbanized habitat.