Education on ice

As they root out invasive ice plant in the Back Bay, Costa Mesa High School students get hands-on lesson in native species and habitat health. BACK BAY -- Ice plant can be a tough assignment.

It can spread across the ground like a carpet, with its stems becoming a tangled mass of green. Anyone trying to clear away a patch of ice plant had better be prepared to work.

“If it’s just one [stem], it’s not that hard; it’s because they’re all intertwined,” 16-year-old Ted Lee said.

Charged with removing some ice plant from the ground, Ted joined forces with 17-year-old Thomas Kosnosky and 17-year-old Thang Pham to tackle the job. The three went to work with shovels and gloved hands to pull out the unwanted plant, revealing the deep brown soil beneath the green mass.

On Wednesday, 25 Costa Mesa High School students faced the daunting task of removing an unwanted bit of waterfront ice plant growing near Back Bay Drive. The job was part of a field trip that required them to tackle a habitat-restoration project.

Before the students began their work, California Coastal Commission restoration and education coordinator Matt Yurko explained that ice plant, which is native to South Africa, was being cleared away to make way for native plants that he said would be a better habitat for the animals that make the Back Bay their home.

The students who visited the Back Bay to do Wednesday’s dirty work are members of Costa Mesa High School’s first Advanced Placement environmental studies class. They were joined by Briana Madden of Orange County Coastkeeper, a Newport Beach-based water quality group. This school year, Coastkeeper started a program called WHALES, an acronym for Watershed Heroes -- Actions Linking Education to Stewardship. Through the program, Coastkeeper works with schools to teach subjects related to water quality and nature preservation.

“Our kids get a lot of hands-on stuff,” teacher Joe Havens said. “They have boots on, and they’re in the sludge doing stuff or doing chemical tests.”

Students said the environmental studies class can be tough, whether they’re assigned to do lab reports or tear out some ice plant.

“It’s kind of hard, but it’s fun,” 17-year-old Jenny Holt said. “It turned me into a gardener.”

The students cleared out about two-thirds of the ice plant patch Wednesday, Madden said. Today, another group of high-school students is expected to finish the job. If the students have time, they will plant native species to replace the ice plant.

The objective of the WHALES program, Madden said, is to teach high school students about issues related to watersheds. A watershed is an area in which water drains from an inland source, such as a city, to a major body of water, such as the ocean.

“We want to introduce the concept of the watershed so they understand what happens to water they use at their house,” Madden said.

20060119itbgxdncDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Costa Mesa High School students Huy Dang, left, John Dang, Steven Hamasaki, Lincoln Tran, and Jeff Li pull up ice plant from the Back Bay. The working field trip was part of their science class’ habitat-restoration project.