The hopper mountain national wildlife refuge complex refuge complex includes four wildlife refuges, three of which, bitter creek, blue ridge, and hopper mountain refuges , provide foraging,…

The hopper mountain national wildlife refuge complex refuge complex includes four wildlife refuges, three of which, bitter creek, blue ridge, and hopper mountain refuges , provide foraging, roosting, breeding, and nesting habitat for the endangered california condor the refuges are physically located in close proximity to the dense urban population centers of ventura, oxnard, fillmore, santa clarita, camarillo, thousand oaks and LOS angeles however, due to their purpose in facilitating the recovery of the california condor, public access is limited because the refuges are difficult to reach and largely inaccessible to the public, and the condor is yet an uncommonly seen bird in public areas, targeted efforts are key in connecting with nearby urban populations many children in the region live in close proximity to the refuges but experience significant barriers to participating in outdoor recreation all participating condorkids schools are characterized as title 1, in which 40 or more students are from low income households additionally, 79 5 of santa paula, 75 of fillmore, 73 of oxnard, and 45 5 of bakersfield residents are latinx, and are underrepresented in stem careers while our robust condorkids curriculum is continuing to be implemented in fillmore schools, we will further scale up our programs to reach 500,000 plus ZOO guests annually, including 22,000 school aged students visiting from LOS angeles to SAN luis obispo by incorporating condorkids curriculum into field trip programming and visitor engagement at the ZOO, we will connect a much broader proportion of the urban population that surrounds critical condor habitat to both the condor and to the refuge complex condorkids addresses conserving the future recommendations and USFWS priorities by working with others to build a conservation constituency that will help to achieve recovery and prevent extinction of the endangered california condor