Groups Work to Protect Site of Nesting Terns

Inspired by a religious duty to care for the Earth and its creatures, about 25 volunteers spent Sunday morning repairing fences that protect the nesting grounds of the endangered California least tern.

The eager group, wearing sun hats and carrying hammers and other tools, also cleared away about 300 pounds of trash from the remote portion on Ormond Beach. The group included members of the Jewish League for Environmental Awareness, Temple Beth Torah and the College Methodist Church’s Community Connections program, all based in Ventura.

Their efforts to bolster leaning fences and put up fresh signs was part of Mitzvah Day--a day of service when Jewish people donate time to “help repair the world,” said Jeffrey Auerbach, director of the Jewish League.

“Not only does our work today help protect God’s wonderful creation, we are also enjoying a day at the beach with our families,” Auerbach said, pounding a stake into the sand under a cloudless, blue sky.

Nine-year-old Ira Goldenring of Ventura said he was glad to help because his dad explained to him how the birds make nests in the sand dunes and how people on motorcycles and dune buggies sometimes run over a nest and smash the eggs.

“That’s the life of a couple of birds, that’s taking a life away for no reason,” Ira said, toting an armful of laminated “No Trespassing” signs in English and Spanish. “It makes me mad. What if you were one of those little animals? How would you feel?”

While this is the religious activists’ second year of participation, environmentalists from the Sierra Club and Ormond Beach Observers have monitored the vulnerable habitat for the past eight years.

The small migratory terns prefer the Ormond Beach area, which is south of Hueneme Road between Hueneme Pier and Southern California Edison’s power plant, because of its relatively remote location near a lagoon filled with small fish.

The California least tern, which has a white body, black-tipped pale gray wings and a black crown, has suffered a drop in population from the hundreds of thousands because of continued development along the state’s coastline. Its speckled eggs are easily destroyed by pedestrians, unleashed dogs and motorized vehicles.