San Clemente Naturalist Knows Pollution Solutions Start With the Young

Phyllis Robertson was taking college classes on pre-Columbian archeology when she became annoyed with people polluting the environment. So she switched to biology and geology and became a naturalist to help fight the problem.

“Now I’m trying to impress on the younger generation, in particular, the necessity of preserving and protecting the environment,” the 57-year-old San Clemente resident said. “Not only for animals, but (for) mankind itself.”

She regularly commutes from her San Clemente home to the Anaheim Oak Canyon Nature Center, where she delivers messages on nature to youngsters and accepts speaking engagements throughout the county to discuss the dangers of pollution to the land and animals.

If awareness of the problem is taught to people at an early age, Robertson said, “We can prevent the madness of pollution and save our world. I don’t think polluters do it out of malice, just ignorance.”

The desert, her favorite haunt, is of particular concern: “The desert is very fragile, and there is a delicate balance between animals and plants that live there.”

It takes little to upset the desert environment and make life difficult for desert animals. Even noise from motorcycles can do it, she said.

Robertson also noted that “we’ll never know what might happen to the environment if we pull one link out of the chain. We would never know if a plant destroyed by polluters might have the next cure for cancer.”

A former junior high school teacher, Robertson conducts workshops at the center, travels to preschool centers and just about anywhere that she can talk about how pollution is harming the world.

“We have to tell our young people that when we destroy part of nature, we destroy part of mankind,” she said. “Man and nature are not separate things.”

Reaching the young may be the way to save what nature has provided, she said, but added that adults have a responsibility to halt pollution.

She blames packagers of foodstuffs and manufacturers of such things as foam-plastic cups for a great deal of bulk pollution.

“I would say we overpackage everything,” Robertson said. “And that presents a problem of disposing of all that material.” But while her current focus is on stemming the ravages of pollution, her message at the nature center is on plants and animals:

“Every time I go to teach something about the environment, I learn something myself. I guess that’s why I’m caught up in this. I just love teaching children, and want them to have a healthy environment.

“I guess I’ll always be a teacher.”

Imagine walking into your garage and trading glances with an 8 1/2-foot-long Burmese python.

“Actually, it’s quite beautiful,” said Phyllis Wallace, a volunteer at the San Clemente Animal Shelter, where the snake was taken after the homeowner called for help. “But I’d be surprised and concerned too if one showed up in my garage.” But another problem has developed. Wallace said the center contacted the owner, but he has tired of the snake and doesn’t want it as a pet any longer.

“Now we’re looking for a nice home for the snake,” she said.

Evening storytelling is big stuff at the Newport Center branch of the Newport Beach Public Library.

“I was surprised when about 90 people walked in,” children’s librarian Maret Rank said. Rank told stories for about 60 pajama-clad kids who brought pillows, blankets and their teddy bears, and wore headbands of teddy bear ears. They wore PJs so so parents could whisk them right home and slip them directly into bed after the stories.

The 30 adults who brought the kids to the library wore regular clothes, “but they all stayed to listen,” she said.

Elizabeth Klein of Fountain Valley enters a lot of recipe contests and often wins a prize. Most recently, she was fifth runner-up in the Dreyer’s Grand Light Ice Cream recipe contest with her creamy blueberry muffins, which used ice cream made by the contest sponsor.

She won a year’s supply of her favorite ice cream, which she said was a treat since many of her prizes from other contests were aprons and cookbooks.

A person can use only so many aprons and cookbooks, Klein said.