Countywide : Volunteers Help Wildlife Service

Jerry Greenberg’s mission was clear: Find a least Bell’s vireo.

This was no easy task. Even though its numbers have been increasing slightly, the five-inch songbird is still on the endangered species list.

And Greenberg was assigned to explore a six-mile stretch along the Santa Ana River in Yorba Linda, where the bird hadn’t been spotted in more than 10 years.

Every Saturday morning for six weeks this spring and summer, Greenberg, a volunteer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, would don his hat, apply his sunscreen and search the fields and brush for his quarry.

But the bird proved elusive.

“I was at the point where I was beginning to feel like I was going to go the whole summer and not find anything,” said Greenberg, 35, a public affairs official with the Los Angeles County Bar Assn.

Then he heard the vireo’s call, which communicates in fast, harsh, scolding notes, according to experts.

Greenberg tracked the sounds for 45 minutes. Finally, he saw the bird.

“It was a hell of a surprise and a hell of a good one,” said Greenberg, whose find confirmed that the delicate bird is making a minor comeback.

Greenberg, a Burbank resident, is one of about 85 volunteers who regularly help the Fish and Wildlife Service in Orange County.

Because of recent budget cuts, the federal agency is understaffed, and volunteers are helping to fill the void.

In fact, the agency conducts an orientation program every two months so it can use its volunteer resources to best advantage.

“They are the backbone of our office,” said Shawnetta Grandberry, volunteer coordinator with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in San Diego.

“When we don’t have 12 people to build fences to help protect the least tern populations, the volunteers are our support system. They help get the things done that wouldn’t get done otherwise.”

After a brief orientation period, the volunteers, who range from college to retirement age, begin performing everything from office tasks to taking water and soil samplings.

The volunteers say they do it because they want to help restore the environment.

“I think everyone should volunteer,” said Huntington Beach resident Jamie Schumm, 22, a recent college graduate seeking a job in education.

“I feel like I’ve been pretty lucky in my life, and I should pay back my debt to society.”

Schumm, an environmental studies major at UC Santa Barbara, has worked an average of four hours a week since March, mostly at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve.

At the Huntington Beach reserve, he monitored water quality, recorded temperature variations and contributed to habitat surveys.

Another volunteer, Dan Kimura, a senior at UC Irvine majoring in biology, helped compile mammal surveys at the reserve as well.

After sundown this summer, he rode in the back of a pickup truck spotting coyotes.

“The more coyotes, the better because it means less foxes,” said Kimura. “They are foreign animals and aren’t natural to the habitat.”

While pleased with the volunteers they have, officials say still more are needed.

“It’s going to take everyone in California to help save our ecosystem,” said Grandberry.

“If we aren’t careful, we may turn around someday and all the trees and birds will be gone.”

The Fish & Wildlife Service conducts orientation for volunteers about every two months.

For more information, contact Grandberry at (619) 431-9440.