Creating nature experts

Jenny Marder

After many history lessons, spelling tests and art classes focused on

the wetlands’ ecosystem, third-graders at Huntington Seacliff

Elementary School can spot a peregrine falcon by sight and spell

“endangered species” off the top of their heads.

So by the time the children got to the Bolsa Chica mesa, they were

practically experts on the wetlands.

“I want to see a light-footed clapper rail,” one girl declared on

the 10-minute walk to the mesa.

“Look, it’s diving,” another boy screamed, prompting cheers from

his friends as a brown pelican dove into the water for its prey.

Both are endangered birds, and the youngsters knew it.

In 2002, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust received $30,000 in grants

from Boeing Co. and the Metropolitan Water District to establish an

environmental education program for third-graders in Orange County.

The money paid for a prepared slide show, curriculum materials for

teachers, handouts for students, field guides and buses.

Land Trust volunteers have spent the past three years working with

the administration at eight different Orange County schools to create

a program to educate the children about the Bolsa Chica.

Teachers are now incorporating lessons about the Bolsa Chica into

the third-grade curriculum as a part of the study of Orange County

history. Endangered species, wetlands, mesa plants and native

American history specific to the area are emerging in science, social

studies and vocabulary lessons.

“The earlier they start laying the foundation, the better,” said

Land Trust member Linda Wolfe, who is in charge of organizing the

field trips. “There are so many people in Orange County that don’t

realize that there’s an ecological reserve here and that it’s

wilderness.”

The program is a good fit for third-graders because children start

developing an environmental conscience at 7 or 8, said Anne Webber, a

teacher at Huntington Seacliff. And for many of them, it’s their

backyard that they’re learning to protect, she said.

“A lot of the kids live in homes nearby,” Webber said. “Now they

can bring their families down here.”

About 60 students attend each field trip. As they are led across a

quarter mile of the inner Bolsa Bay, Land Trust volunteers point out

some of the area’s 200 species of birds -- a brown pelican, a western

sandpiper, egrets, willets, least terns.

Once they arrive at the mesa, they are separated into four groups,

each led by a volunteer. One volunteer lectures on Bolsa Chica birds

and wildlife while another takes a group through the sagebrush,

describing restoration projects in the works in both the wetlands and

the uplands. A third volunteer talks about the history of the land

from the time it was a thriving Native American village to present

day. And a fourth explains the role of wetlands in improving water

quality.

“[The students] were really upset when they saw the trash,” Webber

said.

The children take issues like pollution, endangered species and

loss of wetlands habitat very seriously, she said, and many vow to

take their families back to the mesa to show them what they’ve

learned.

“We’re preparing the kids for when they’re voters,” Webber said.

“They are learning to be activists now and in the future.”