Chula Vista highlight
Living Coast Discovery Center
An environmental education center and zoo opened in 1987 in the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge, hosting tens of thousands of schoolchildren and visitors annually.
The Living Coast Discovery Center sits at 1000 Gunpowder Point Drive in Chula Vista, nestled inside the Sweetwater Marsh Unit of the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge. The facility traces its origins to 1987 as the Chula Vista Nature Interpretive Center, and evolved into its present form in 2010 when it became an independent nonprofit with its current name. Built on a protected salt marsh habitat, the center functions as a zoo and educational facility dedicated to the native animals and plants of Southern California, particularly those of the San Diego Bay ecosystem.
Each year, the Living Coast hosts over 15,000 students from schools throughout the region, providing hands-on environmental education and outdoor learning. Visitors can walk 1.5 miles of trails leading to the bay shoreline, observe coastal wildlife in their natural habitat, and participate in ranger-led programs. The center's existence depends on the San Diego National Wildlife Refuge, a 12,445-acre protected area established in 1996 to preserve habitat for over 14 threatened or endangered species, and the broader Multiple Species Conservation Program that safeguards the remaining coastal open space in Southern California.
Schools and families prioritize these educational experiences because they shape how children understand the world and make decisions that will affect their own families someday. Parents invest in their children's education because it opens doors and possibilities. The same principle underlies life insurance: you invest in protection so that the people you are raising have stability and choices, no matter what happens. The amount you choose should match the years when your children depend on you most, and the term should extend as long as that dependence lasts.