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.”
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