Join Friends of California Condors Wild and Free for a captivating free lecture exploring the remarkable journey of the critically endangered California Condor! We’ll discuss the current status of wild condor populations and the profound impact of breeding and release efforts on their survival.

Our guest speaker, Ms. Debbie Parisi, is a board member of the non-profit Friends of California Condors, Wild & Free. She will speak to the public at the Agriculture Museum located at 926 Railroad Ave, Santa Paula from 11:30am to 12:30 pm on Sunday, July 5, 2026. Admission is free to the museum, and it is only open to the public on Sundays from 11am to 5pm.

Ms. Parisi has been a USFWS volunteer since 2008 working on the Hopper Mountain National Wildlife refuges as a CACO nest monitor and radio telemetry tracker in support of the California Condor Recovery program. She completed the California Naturalist program and has a level 3 Wildlife Track and Sign certification. The Friends of California Condors Wild and Free supports the USFWS refuges that are home to the critically endangered California Condor.

The lecture is a brief history of the California Condor with the cause of its demise, the establishment of the California Condor Recovery Program and its goal to establish captive breeding, and the reintroduction of this critically endangered species back into the wild. The lecture will be focused on children with entertaining photos and videos.

The California condor was listed as an endangered species in 1967. In 1987 California Condors were on the verge of extinction with only 27 alive, as the last free flying condor, AC9, was taken from the wild. In 1992, the USFWS began reintroducing captive-bred condors to the wild to reestablish the population. Today, there are over 600 birds with over half of them flying free in the wild in various populations including California, Arizona, and Baja Mexico. The California Condor is a resident of the local area and can be found in the mountains behind Ojai, Santa Paula, Fillmore, Piru, and Santa Barbara.

The Recovery Program is currently focusing its efforts on the captive breeding and reintroduction of California condors to the wild in the hopes of establishing a self-sustaining population of two geographically separate populations, one in California and the other in Arizona, each with 150 birds and at least 15 breeding pairs.

Friends of California Condors Wild and Free is a nonprofit 501c3 all volunteer organization that has the mission to enhance public awareness of the endangered California Condor and to ensure that they are protected, healthy, and free.