For the past 17 years the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County Department of Forestry have hosted a one-acre habitat site at the Los Angeles County Fair in Pomona. This year, activities at the site exploded with the help of hundreds of volunteers: Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, AT&T Volunteers, and the Backcountry Horseman's Association, to name only a few.

Site visitors who experienced Camp Smokey got to saw a log and get the chip branded...watch a log being milled...climb on fire engines...make environmental buttons...hold snakes and lizards...pet Leroy and Sherman from the BLM's wild horse and burro program, and take a nature hike focusing on natural resources, led by Forest Service Southern California Consortium high schoolers.

Add making s'mores by a fire, visits by the Leave No Trace Travelling Trainers, and Water Wise Magic Shows and you start to get the idea how volunteers and a lot of exciting activites made the Caring for the Land exhibit a hit at the L.A. County Fair this year.

Nicole, of Norco Girl Scout Troop 491, with burros Sherman and Leroy, is ready to share burro stories with visitors at the Los Angeles County Fair. Girl Scouts from Norco's Troop 491 and 348, San Gorgonio girl Scout Council, volunteered at the Caring for the Land site. The Scouts staffed activity areas at the one-acre habitat site, making environmental buttons for visitors, holding snakes, and staffing the Wild Horse and Burro area with Leroy and Sherman, the Wild Horse and Burro Program mascots. The Girl Scouts are wearing their "National Public Lands Day" T-shirts.

A young visitor meets "Rosie" the boa  (held by Ariel, or Troop 491) while getting her free Italian stone pine seedling at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Karina, ofTroop 348, and Nicole,Troop 491 with Smokey at the Caring for the Land site at the Los Angeles County Fair.

Alexis, of Troop 491, in a grinning contest with a California king snake.

Cadette girl scouts from Troop 491 of Norco, Calif. staff an activity table.

Jo Ann Schiffer-Burdett, BLM California Desert District outreach, 9/26/07

BLM California News.bytes, issue 301