Now in its 11th consecutive year, The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy held its Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour Events in April at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium and at Redondo Union High School. For at least the past four years, they have incorporated the Film Festival into their broader Earth Month programming, so it coincides with their Outdoor Volunteer Day and their online Earth Day Auction. This allows them to cross-promote all of the activities together and advertise each event at the others. The auction runs for most of the month and includes everything from vacation stays to local restaurant gift cards.
This year, they utilized the screening at Cabrillo Marine Aquarium to piggyback off another event already taking place on the grounds, “Arts Open San Pedro.” This allowed their guests to roll directly into a small festival atmosphere with live music and local art immediately following both screenings.
For the screening at Redondo Union High School, they created our own mini festival before the screening with face painting, churros, drinks, and live raptors (owls and falcons) on display for educational purposes and photo opportunities.
They also invited a local speaker to present at all three of their events. Austin Nicassio, founder of Accessible Off-Road, spoke about equal access to trails, which aligned perfectly with one of the films featured in this year’s lineup.
The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy is the only nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and restoring the Peninsula’s natural lands, rare wildlife, and coastal beauty for the benefit of its communities.
In 1988, a small but committed group of eleven concerned Peninsula residents founded a volunteer organization with a clear goal: To preserve natural lands in perpetuity on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. These dedicated residents worked with willing sellers to ensure this hidden coastal gem would be forever protected. As the result of their work and continued collaboration with local governments, willing landowners and trusted community partners, the Conservancy has preserved and continues to protect 1,700 acres of natural land across the Peninsula, including 42 miles of public trails.
With the help of their supporters, volunteers and quite a few goats, they use natural solutions to help remedy human’s historic impact on the Peninsula, restore its rare wildlife, and preserve clean air, water ,and natural lands – all of which are needed for a healthy and resilient community.
To combat the effects of urbanization, agriculture, natural disasters, and the introduction of non-native plants, the Conservancy works to restore native coastal sage scrub, grassland, cactus scrub, and riparian habitat to return damaged lands to a healthier condition.
Conservancy habitat restoration projects have assisted in the recovery of four at-risk species: the El Segundo blue butterfly, the Palos Verdes blue butterfly, the Coastal California gnatcatcher, and the cactus wren. The Conservancy’s native plant nursery propagates more than 60 different species for restoration projects, and annually plants over 23,000 seedlings in the Nature Preserve lands with the help of more than 1,700 volunteers along with a professional stewardship staff.
From their interactive school education programs to their scout programs and publicly accessible nature centers, the Conservancy’s goal is to educate and inspire the next generation of conservationists and Peninsula stewards. Their many programs, experiences, and research projects provide students and lifetime learners with hands-on, science-based experiences in nature so that they can better understand the history of the Peninsula and the vital role they play in protecting and preserving it.
Today, the Conservancy manages over 1,700 acres of natural lands.
