Getting Down and Dirty for a Good Cause : Volunteerism: Uprooting ice plant at the wetlands is among dozens of tasks on National Make a Difference Day.

Matt Sollie, 12, never knew what an ice plant was until Saturday. After hours of crouching on his hands and knees and yanking the spiny plants out of the dunes at Bolsa Chica, he now knows he hates them.

“It’s really hard to get them out of the ground. It was fun at first, but then I started to get kind of tired,” said the Boy Scout from Irvine.

Matt and four of his friends from Troop 57 were among the 3,000 Orange County residents who turned out Saturday for National Make a Difference Day. From yanking non-native plants out of the wetlands to recording books on tape for the blind and giving toys to needy children, the Volunteer Center of Orange County coordinated almost 30 charitable activities across the county for the fifth annual event.

“People think one little person can’t make a difference but that’s not true,” said Jeannette Wood, a spokesperson for the center, who planned to spend the day collecting clothing for rescue missions. Other volunteers made their mark by painting murals over graffiti and staging Halloween parties for abused children.

When Lt. Bill Drelling of the U.S. Coast Guard, who drives down the scenic Pacific Coast Highway every morning on his way to work, heard the wetlands needed help on Make a Difference Day, he jumped at the chance to remove the ice plants, which steal water from native plants and corrupt the habitat.

“I was surprised how hard I had to work,” said Drilling, 34, wiping his muddy hands on his shirt. “But I’m glad I came out and I’m definitely doing it again.”

Phil Smith, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, said the work of volunteers was essential to preserving the 500 acres of wetlands. If the ice plant was allowed to grow unhampered, it would suck up all the water in its path, killing native plants like beach primrose and coyote bush. With the indigenous plants gone, there would be no decaying plant matter for the fish and birds that occupy the wetlands to feed on.

“I just love it out here,” said Helen Higgins, 44, of La Mirada, holding a dirt-encrusted hoe in her hand. “I’d do anything to help save it.”

Higgins said she fears that many people don’t understand why it’s necessary to remove the ice plant. As she yanked and pulled at the sand-covered succulents, she heard two bicyclists whizzing by talking about the volunteers.

“I heard one of them say ‘Why, don’t they just leave it the way it is ?’ ” she said. “They don’t realize that this stuff was put here by man, it didn’t grow here, and we have to take it out.” For her, the best part of volunteering at the wetlands was knowing that she was doing a little something to restore the delicate balance between man and nature.

“A lot of people don’t see that if you destroy the natural beauty, you destroy the tourism and there goes the economy,” she said.