The Long Beach Unified School District released a statement today stating that the LBUSD Camp Hi-Hill Outdoor Education Center, as of 12:39 a.m. Wednesday morning, might be impacted by the Angeles National Forest fire. District officials did not have an estimate of any damages to the camp.
A former Girl Scout camp owned by LBUSD, Hi-Hill Outdoor School (also known as Camp Hi-Hill) opened to its first LBUSD class in April 1948. It occupies 13 acres in the Angeles National Forest near Mount Wilson. The camp exposes LBUSD students to outdoor education.
There are no students attending the camp during the fire and the lone LBUSD employee – a maintenance worker – was evacuated Friday.
According to the release from LBUSD, “The school district owns the more than 40 structures at the site, including student dorms, or cabins, a dining hall, storage buildings, offices, staff residences and other buildings. The buildings are wood-framed structures, some of them built 60 years ago. More than 300,000 students had attended the camp since it opened as one of Californias first outdoor science schools in 1948.
Fifth graders in the school district would spend a week at the camp learning firsthand about astronomy, geology, ecology, biology, botany, entomology, ornithology, meteorology and other sciences. For many students, the one-week camp was their first close-up experience with nature.
Last years closure of the camp saved the school district nearly $1 million annually. The closure was part of more than $100 million in cuts that the school district has made in the past five years due to the states ongoing budget crisis.”
For updates on the forest fire, visit www.inciweb.org and click on the Station Wildfire. Updates also are available 24 hours a day at 626-821-6700 and 626-574-1613.
