VENTURA : Homeless Camps Cleared From River Wetlands Area

Cleanup crews concluded a two-day sweep of the Ventura River bottom Thursday aimed at wiping out homeless encampments as part of an ongoing wildlife-protection effort.

Ventura city officials ordered the cleanup of 110 acres of coastal wetlands after learning that the camps had been established south of the Main Street bridge, near the river’s mouth.

A 10-member work release crew borrowed from the county braved hardscrabble terrain and poison oak to dismantle the encampments.

About a dozen homeless residents who were living in the ecologically sensitive area were warned beforehand that they could not stay. Dirty bedding, beer bottles and plastic tarps were discarded, and fire rings were broken up and scattered.

Personal possessions--such as food, bicycles and sleeping bags--were set aside for river-bottom campers to reclaim.

“This is a disappearing resource,” said Barbara Fosbrink, a city employee overseeing the project. “Part of our effort is to stop human encroachment into the area and to let people know that this really is a sensitive habitat.”

Hundreds of homeless residents who live in the area extending north from the Main Street Bridge along the river bottom were not targeted during the cleanup campaign.

Instead, crews concentrated on clearing a wetland habitat that is part of Emma Wood State Beach and the city’s Seaside Wilderness Park.

More than two years ago, city and state officials allocated $100,000 to study the estuary--where the freshwater river meets the ocean--and restore it as urban wilderness.

The wetlands support a variety of plant and animal life, including several species of birds and a river-bottom fish threatened with extinction.