The Chula Vista Nature Center is located on the San Diego Bay at the foot of E Street on the Sweetwater Marsh National Wildlife Refuge. The facility is internationally recognized as a significant exhibitor of plants and animals native to San Diego Bay, its marshes and wetland habitats.

Visitors are introduced to a variety of indigenous shorebirds, and local species of sea life such as sharks, stingrays, and jellyfish.

The gardens around the museum display drought-tolerant plants that are native and selected for their wildlife values.

Funding from the San Diego County Fish and Wildlife Advisory Commission and the San Diego Fly Fishers in 1997 allowed the Nature Center to construct a freshwater aquarium exhibit. This exhibit describes the descent of Rainbow Trout from the headwaters of the Sweetwater River at Green Valley Falls, through San Diego Bay to the ocean where they once changed to Steelhead. When the Sweetwater Dam was built in 1888, the Steelhead were no longer able to return to their traditional spawning grounds and the local native Rainbow Trout are unable to make their migration.