Chula Vista Nature Center Could Be Closed

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 4, 2008 at 12:30 PM PST

This story was published more than 15 years ago.

The Chula Vista Nature Center could be a casualty of an on-going budget crisis. The center offers environmental education programs for visitors and about 15,000 school children each year. KPBS Environ

The Chula Vista Nature Center could be a casualty of an on-going budget crisis. The center offers environmental education programs for visitors and about 15,000 school children each year. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has details.

The Chula Vista Nature Center is adjacent to the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge on San Diego Bay.

Become a KPBS sponsor

The facility exhibits plants and animals native to the Bay.

But the city proposes to close the center and layoff eight employees.

Nature Center board member Susan Fuller says the center is prepared to accept some budget cuts, but not a complete closure.

Fuller: We're going to ask them to give us an opportunity to give us time to do some fundraising - find some additional funding sources outside of the city to help support keeping the programs going.

Fuller says it costs the city about $650,000 a year to operate the center.

Become a KPBS sponsor

San Diego High-Tech High Teacher James Vavra says closing the center would deprive students of a valuable learning experience.

Chula Vista officials plan to consider the proposal during a budget workshop tonight.

Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

twitter

Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

See stories by Ed Joyce