Boy Scouts and Parents Clean Up Beach

Finding everything from broken beer bottles to a 6-foot section of faded green and yellow shag rug, local Boy Scouts scoured Ormond Beach on Sunday.

Scouts from several troops in Camarillo and Oxnard wore gloves and canvassed the sand, cleaning up on behalf of the California least tern, an endangered bird that nests in the area.

“It’s messed up,” 11-year-old Justin Hadley said of the beach. “It’s got too much trash. Almost everywhere you look, there’s little bits of trash.”

But that didn’t stop the group of more than 50 youngsters and their parents from cleaning more than 5 acres, filling scores of trash bags.

They also took down an old fence that sections off the birds’ nesting area. A new fence will be erected before the birds return in the spring.

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Ten-year-old J. D. Perry had to stop a few times while lugging the bag he filled with bottles, broken buckets and an abandoned T-shirt.

“It was a little hard, but I managed to get through it,” J. D. said as he took a break to catch his breath.

The Camarillo Scout said he had visited this beach and was happy to help spruce it up.

Earlier in the week, Scouts from several troops met with local biologists to learn about the ecosystem of the Ormond Beach wetlands. On Sunday, they had a chance to see firsthand where the terns and dozens of other animals live.

“I had no clue,” 13-year-old Travis Harmon said of the beach’s rich environment. “This is very educational for me.”

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Cub Scout leader Dennis Wellwood of Camarillo agreed, saying the day helped teach the Scouts a new lesson.

“I think it helps them understand that the beach is more than a place to come down to and make sand castles,” he said.

While the biologists from the California Department of Fish & Game and U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service officials appreciate the Scouts’ efforts, they were more interested in educating kids like Travis.

“It’s a very large area with lots of wildlife,” David Pritchett of the federal agency told the troops before they started their trash collecting. “It’s a real jewel for Ventura County.”

The government agencies as well as private environmental groups have worked diligently in recent years to keep the wetlands intact.

“Oxnard sees this as a place where they can have ‘high-end housing,’ ” said Morgan Wehtje, a biologist for the state. “That’s not what this should be.”

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Teaching young people about the need for protected wildlife areas is one way that the environmental agencies further their cause. Wehtje said that although the weed-choked land beyond the beach may not be aesthetically pleasing, it is an attractive locale for all kinds of animals.

“You have to realize what the wildlife see out here is very different,” she said. “For them, it’s optimal--kind of how you would pick out a house.”

And their efforts seemed to have paid off.

“I think [the trash] distracts them,” 14-year-old Matt Olson of Camarillo said of the birds. “If there is a lot of litter, they won’t have any place to build their nests.”

But most Scouts agreed that the day was about more than learning and cleaning.

“I’m just doing it because I want to have fun,” J. D. said.