The Gold Creek Ecological Field Station, a 240-acre protected reserve in Northeast Los Angeles County, is one of the Los Angeles Community College District’s most distinctive educational assets.
Preserved as largely undisturbed land, Gold Creek functions as a living outdoor laboratory where students and faculty from across disciplines engage directly with Southern California’s natural systems. The site features a year-round stream, rich plant and animal life, geological formations including a fault zone, and significant archaeological resources—offering hands-on learning experiences rarely accessible to urban students. Through guided field labs, ecological monitoring, seasonal studies, and immersive trail experiences, Gold Creek connects classroom learning to real-world environmental processes.
Managed in support of instruction and stewardship, the field station has served thousands of LACCD students, faculty, and staff over the years and continues to play a vital role in advancing environmental literacy, sustainability education, and experiential learning across the district.
Attendees had several opportunities to try the now restored planned trails. Actually restoration is underway for the most challenging hike, the Red trail. But there was a hile on that one to in the afternoon. Here we walked the Green trail to learn about botany which included the ephemeral bloom of the cactus plant and the riparian vegetation at the creek edge like sycamore trees. It was amazing to see the bounce back after two devastating fires swept through the reserve only a few years ago, destroying some of the oldest trees. Dr. Kirk Olsen explains to attendees the wide diversity of insects found at the Gold in the Creek Reserve.Kirk Olsen was presented with a certificate of appreciation for all his work in field biology over the last twenty years. Mike Farrell (Geography, LACC) and Rob West (Geology, ELAC, ret.) explain to the attendees what work has been done to bring the Gold Creek facility back to its educational mission. Much hard work has been accomplished to bring the access road back to easier access by regular vehicles. We learned that not only fire, but flood have required major cleanup. Now field trips are once again possible. See you campus rep. below. We were amazed at the number of butterflies which, of course included Monarchs.
