About
Newport Bay Conservancy Education Programs and Tours include guided kayak tours, guided walking tours, guided water tours, and school field trips. Participants can view birds and other wildlife, watch the film “Newport, Our Bay” in the Ray and Elsa Watson Theater, and see live reptile and amphibian displays in the classrooms.
• Schedule: The Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center upper parking lot and nature preserve trails are open 7:00 am to sunset, restrooms are open daily 7:00 am–4:00 pm, the center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 am–4:00 pm, and a guided kayak tour is offered every Saturday morning year-round.
• Price: Admission and parking at the Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center are free.
The Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center is a 10,000 square foot educational facility built into the side of a bluff, with panoramic views of Upper Newport Bay and exhibits, interactive displays, classrooms, and the Ray and Elsa Watson Theater. The center opened in October 2000. Exhibits and interactive displays focus on life in and around an estuary, and live reptile and amphibian displays in the classrooms include a gopher snake. Upper Newport Bay is one of the very few remaining undeveloped wetlands on the California coast in Orange County, with a square mile of protected tidelands and uplands and a 154 square mile watershed of central Orange County that drains to the Pacific via the Bay.
Newport Bay Conservancy is focused exclusively on the protection and preservation of Upper Newport Bay and has a mission to protect and preserve the Upper Newport Bay through education, restoration, research, and advocacy. Upper Newport Bay is recognized as a globally significant hotspot of biodiversity. Newport Bay Conservancy supports Orange County Parks at the Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center and offers a guided kayak tour every Saturday morning year-round in partnership with the Newport Aquatic Center located at Northstar Beach. Newport Bay Conservancy conducts its own programs and provides volunteer support for programs organized by its partners at the Interpretive Center and the Back Bay Science Center. Newport Bay Conservancy acknowledges that its work takes place on the ancestral lands of native peoples, original inhabitants and stewards of this territory, and states that Upper Newport Bay welcomes people of all races, genders, nations, ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
The leadership team connected to these programs and facilities includes Alys Arenas, Ecological Reserve Manager, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who manages Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve; Robin Madrid, Senior Environmental Scientist Supervisor, R5 Northern Lands Program, Back Bay Science Center; Jene Dietz, Education Specialist, Back Bay Science Center; Molly Waldram, Supervising Park Ranger, Orange County Parks, who manages Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve; Justin Schmillen, Recreation Supervisor, City of Newport Beach, who manages Big Canyon Nature Park and other city parks adjacent to the Bay; Matt Yurko, Program Manager, Project Grow; and Joe Guzman, Supervisor, OC Health Care Agency Water Quality Laboratory.
Last updated August 6, 2026.
• Schedule: The Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center upper parking lot and nature preserve trails are open 7:00 am to sunset, restrooms are open daily 7:00 am–4:00 pm, the center is open Tuesday through Sunday from 10:00 am–4:00 pm, and a guided kayak tour is offered every Saturday morning year-round.
• Price: Admission and parking at the Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center are free.
The Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center is a 10,000 square foot educational facility built into the side of a bluff, with panoramic views of Upper Newport Bay and exhibits, interactive displays, classrooms, and the Ray and Elsa Watson Theater. The center opened in October 2000. Exhibits and interactive displays focus on life in and around an estuary, and live reptile and amphibian displays in the classrooms include a gopher snake. Upper Newport Bay is one of the very few remaining undeveloped wetlands on the California coast in Orange County, with a square mile of protected tidelands and uplands and a 154 square mile watershed of central Orange County that drains to the Pacific via the Bay.
Newport Bay Conservancy is focused exclusively on the protection and preservation of Upper Newport Bay and has a mission to protect and preserve the Upper Newport Bay through education, restoration, research, and advocacy. Upper Newport Bay is recognized as a globally significant hotspot of biodiversity. Newport Bay Conservancy supports Orange County Parks at the Peter & Mary Muth Interpretive Center and offers a guided kayak tour every Saturday morning year-round in partnership with the Newport Aquatic Center located at Northstar Beach. Newport Bay Conservancy conducts its own programs and provides volunteer support for programs organized by its partners at the Interpretive Center and the Back Bay Science Center. Newport Bay Conservancy acknowledges that its work takes place on the ancestral lands of native peoples, original inhabitants and stewards of this territory, and states that Upper Newport Bay welcomes people of all races, genders, nations, ages, abilities, and backgrounds.
The leadership team connected to these programs and facilities includes Alys Arenas, Ecological Reserve Manager, California Department of Fish and Wildlife, who manages Upper Newport Bay Ecological Reserve; Robin Madrid, Senior Environmental Scientist Supervisor, R5 Northern Lands Program, Back Bay Science Center; Jene Dietz, Education Specialist, Back Bay Science Center; Molly Waldram, Supervising Park Ranger, Orange County Parks, who manages Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve; Justin Schmillen, Recreation Supervisor, City of Newport Beach, who manages Big Canyon Nature Park and other city parks adjacent to the Bay; Matt Yurko, Program Manager, Project Grow; and Joe Guzman, Supervisor, OC Health Care Agency Water Quality Laboratory.
Last updated August 6, 2026.
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