The Galster Wilderness Park Nature Center is a small
museum
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
and educational center set in
Galster Wilderness Park Galster is a family tree surname. People with that name include:
* George Galster (born 1948), American Professor of Urban Affairs in the Department of Urban Studies & Planning at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan.
* Karl Galster (1886- ...
, a wilderness park located on the north slope of the
San Jose Hills
The San Jose Hills are a part of the Transverse Ranges in eastern Los Angeles County, California, marking the border between the San Gabriel Valley and the Pomona Valley. It includes portions of Covina, West Covina, Walnut, Pomona, and San Dim ...
in the
San Gabriel Valley
The San Gabriel Valley ( es, Valle de San Gabriel) is one of the principal valleys of Southern California, lying immediately to the east of the eastern city limits of the city of Los Angeles, and occupying the vast majority of the eastern part ...
,
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
. It is operated by the
San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy
The San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy (SGMRC) is a regional environmental organization located in the foothill area of the eastern San Gabriel Valley. It is concerned with the conservation of land, land use planning, publication of studi ...
in partnership with the City of
West Covina, California.
The center is named after Emil S. and Gladys Galster, who deeded the park to the City of West Covina in 1971. Emil and Gladys Galster stipulated that the park will always remain a wilderness park and be available for educational use to scouting organizations.
Galster Wilderness is one of the last remaining
native plant
In biogeography, a native species is indigenous to a given region or ecosystem if its presence in that region is the result of only local natural evolution (though often popularised as "with no human intervention") during history. The term is equ ...
communities of
Southern California Black Walnut Woodlands, ''Juglans californica'' trees, which grow on the north slope of the San Jose Hills. Besides the non-natives,
coastal sage scrub
Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is w ...
dominates the remainder of the park.
See also
California chaparral and woodlands
The California chaparral and woodlands is a terrestrial ecoregion of southwestern Oregon, northern, central, and southern California (United States) and northwestern Baja California (Mexico), located on the west coast of North America. It is a ...
ecoregion
An ecoregion (ecological region) or ecozone (ecological zone) is an ecologically and geographically defined area that is smaller than a bioregion, which in turn is smaller than a biogeographic realm. Ecoregions cover relatively large areas of l ...
External links
Official Galster Wilderness Park Nature Center websiteThe San Gabriel Mountains Regional Conservancy: website
{{coord, 34, 02, 36, N, 117, 54, 02, W, display=title
San Gabriel Valley
Parks in Los Angeles County, California
Nature centers in California
Parks in Southern California
1971 establishments in California
Protected areas established in 1971