A couple of quick facts about Earthside Nature Center: it was founded in 1971 by the Pasadena Girls Club and naturalist and author Elna S. Bakker. Kevin Connelly, a horticulturalist and native plant advocate, took over the day-to-day operations in 1975. Volunteers and contributions helped Bakker and Connelly keep the place running for twenty years or so. But both of them happened to die in the mid-1990s and no one took up the cause. Earthside has been returning to nature ever since.

Earthside Nature Center appeared to be an abandoned idyll until recently. Arroyo Lover told us in yesterday’s comments that plans are in the works, and I found a .pdf about it on the City’s website. Since I don’t know how to link you to a .pdf, I’ll tell you simply to go to this page and click on the GREENVISION link. It takes you to a .pdf of a study that was done this year by four grad students in Urban and Regional Planning at Cal Poly Pomona. Among other things, the study offers suggestions and potential uses for Earthside (the uses they suggest are all parks).

One of the people the Cal Poly students met with was the guy who got the Altadena Hiker and me interested in Earthside in the first place, open space advocate Michael Coppess of East of Allen. His was the last comment on yesterday’s post before I had to sign off. He said, “Most recently, the parcel was slated for a fire and police training area. Thus far, there is no official city action preserving the site for open space, park or garden use.”

So though Earthside will no longer be abandoned, perhaps it will also no longer be an idyll. I’m glad I got to snoop around and take pictures. More tomorrow.

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