Bolsa Chica Land Trust Director of Restoration and Stewardship Beverley Hansen rows across towards the island with a couple of volunteers. To get to the island you need to cross by kayak. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Fish and Wildlife technician Vincent Charles looks across the island at Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. It would take 3 hours to get most of the weeds out of the island. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Volunteers from Re:Wild and Bolsa Chica Land Trust grab bags and gloves to remove plants from the island. They need to make room for the California Least Tern and Snowy Plover species of birds to nest. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Bags of plants are stored in a black bag and sent off to an area where they are decomposed. Plants like the White Sweet Clover don’t allow for birds like the California Least Tern to nest in these sites where they can be monitored by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
At the end of the event there was a count of how many bags they had accumulated. And there would be a group photo of the volunteers. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Fish and Wildlife Technician Vincent Charles carries all the bag of plants that were removed from the island and put on the other side of the river. The bags of plants would be dumped in an area where they can be decomposed. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Katy Leach who serves on the Board of Directors at Bolsa Chica Land Trust carries bags of plants that were removed from the island. It is put in an area where it can decompose. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Beverley Hansen and Pete Hendrickson help each other put the invasive weeds in bags. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife put the bags in area where they can decompose. Photo Credit: Justin Enriquez
Vincent Charles, with bags of invasive plants in tow, paddled across the river to clear Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve of its troublesome weeds on Oct. 26. His efforts with the help from volunteers are part of a broader mission to help protect endangered birds in the area.
The California Least Tern and the Western Snowy Plover are listed as endangered species and are protected under state (CESA) and federal (FESA) law.
Data provided by the State and Federally Listed Endangered and Threatened Animals of California cities that a total of 238 animals are listed as threatened and endangered under state and federal law.
Both the California Least Tern and the Western Snowy Plover like the sandy habitat, but human population makes it difficult for them to nest along the coast.
“Unfortunately all of our beaches are covered with people…they can't use that as habitat anymore,” Vincent Charles, Fish and Wildlife Technician said.
The event is supposed to help the two birds nest easier by removing invasive plants such as a weed called White Sweet Clover.
“Part of that means removing native plants, but they will eventually regrow and take over the sides [island] which will help with erosion control,” Charles said.
The breeding season for California Least Tern is from April to September, while the end of September to March is when the removal of vegetation helps them have an area to nest. Non-profit organizations (NPO) like Bolsa Chica Land Trust (BCLT) and Re:Wild helped the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) with the removal.
Alicia Newland, President of Re:Wild club at Long Beach State, helped to involve CSULB students for this event.
“We’re taking out most of the invasive plant species here to clear out the area so that the birds have a place to nest,” Newland said.
Tanya Vasquez, a grad student majoring in international affairs, explained that she was browsing through the events page and was interested in the habitat restoration event.
“I think it's really important to get involved in activities that can improve the environmental situation,” Vasquez said.
BCLT and Re:Wild are some of the organizations that help with restoring habitats for endangered species like the Snowy Plover and the Least Tern.
CDFW manages five islands with different non-profit organizations assigned to each different one. BCLT and Re:Wild have an island called site Number 2.
Beverly Hansen, director of restoration and stewardship at BCLT specified that because of the efforts of the NPOs and CDFW it has helped raise the population of species such as California legless lizards.
“Habitat restoration will support them better,” Hansen said
Bolsa Chica Land Trust is an NPO that uses community based initiatives to educate, involve and preserve Bolsa Chica.
To arrive at the destination volunteers need to carpool with others and cross a small river and kayak to get to the island. Once there, volunteers are given bags and tools to remove plants and start digging.
“We use volunteers to do all the work, that makes it a slow process but moving slower reaps better rewards,..we're paying attention to how things are growing and how things are doing. All the weeds are removed by hand. So it's a lot of work to get done.” Hansen said
The number of volunteers saw a significant decrease after the pandemic, dropping from an average of more than 100 to as few as 50.
BCLT hosts its habitat restoration events twice a month and organizes other programs ranging from educational efforts to beach clean ups.
Bolsa Chica history dates back 9,000 years ago when Native American tribes the Tongva and the Acjachemen lived. The Spanish would then take over the land and build its ranches and in the 1900s it would be part of a game reserve owned by businessmen from Los Angeles. Since then infrastructure has disrupted the habitat, ranging from houses being built next to it to oil drills scattered across the wetlands.
“They [oil drilling company] try to be good neighbors and cooperate with CDFW, and participate in some of the nesting sites to help remove weeds and are pretty good about being careful with their infrastructure…obviously we don’t want it here, it's not pretty to look at and in some way disturb the birds, keeps them out,” Hansen said.
Though the primary disruption to the endangered birds is the Pacific Coast Highway, which cuts through the sand dunes linking Bolsa Chica to the beach, it also affects an area where the Snowy Plover is meant to nest.
Both the California Least Tern and the Western Snowy Plover natural predators range from coyotes to small insects such as Argentine ants. However, the greatest threat to their survival is human activity.
Infrastructure such as the Pacific Coast Highway and human encroachment into natural habitats pose significant risks, affecting more species in areas such as Bolsa Chica. In 2006, a restoration project reconnecting the tidal basin with the ocean helped restore the habitat and bring back species once prized by hunters. Despite this, ongoing human activity and rising sea levels pose an even greater threat, making continued efforts to protect Bolsa Chica and its endangered species essential.
“Because we use the beach, because we like to recreate there, because we've built parking lots and use infrastructure to where they have nowhere to go,” Hansen added.
Written and photographed by Justin Enriquez
