Los Angeles’ wildlife areas need to be...

Los Angeles’ wildlife areas need to be cleaned up.

Not on Hollywood Boulevard, but in Ken Malloy Harbor Regional Park in Harbor City. Believe it or not, the City of Los Angeles does have a few areas of bona fide natural wildlife remaining. And they’re getting trashed.

But for a few hours today, volunteers can join members of the local chapters of the California Native Plant Society and the Sierra Club to clean up the park, whose native plant habitats, freshwater lake and surrounding wetlands are home to about 300 migratory and native bird species.

According to Sally Lawrence, a cleanup co-organizer and Sierra Club member, the project coincides with the migratory season for many of the birds in the park.

“This is a good time of year to visit the park,” Lawrence said. “It’s a good chance to see some migratory birds and to do a little nature appreciation.”

Angelica Brinkmann-Busi, the other cleanup co-organizer and president of the South Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, will point out native plant habitats to workers during the cleanup.

Although the park is a little less than a square mile in area, its native willow habitat and freshwater, crescent-shaped, Machado Lake supports a small, self-sustaining ecosystem.

The native willow habitat, which supports native and migratory birds and wildlife, stretched 20 miles to the north during the area’s pre-Spanish days. And the lake, which collects polluted runoff from the city’s streets and sidewalks, was once a semi-saltwater lake influenced by the ocean’s tides.

The polluted runoff, however, is too complex a problem to be dealt with during today’s event, said Lawrence, who is also on the citizens advisory board for Harbor Park. The board is working with the park’s management to come up with a long-term solution to the problem.

Today’s cleanup will target litter removal from the habitat areas.

“There are areas in the park used heavily by the public, and these areas are kept clean,” Lawrence said. “It’s the wildlife areas that need the cleanup and that’s what we’re going to go into.”

Volunteers should meet at 10 a.m. in the parking lot next to the Anaheim Street entrance to the park. Trash bags will be provided, but volunteers will need to bring work gloves and, if possible, rakes. The cleanup will take place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

The park is just west of the Harbor Freeway (110) and south of Pacific Coast Highway.