Crimes and misdemeanors against nature

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

Sometimes, the things going on around here make our blood boil. And

sometimes, the news is so good that we are overjoyed. We had some of

both this week.

After the monthly bird census at Shipley Nature Center, we heard

some distressing news about a landlord ordering a worker to wash

active cliff swallow nests off his apartment building near Main

Street and Garfield Avenue. Harming cliff swallow nests with eggs or

chicks in them is a violation of two laws -- a recently enacted city

ordinance protecting birds within the city limits and the federal

Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. But as with most environmental

laws, it requires a concerned citizen to ensure that the laws are

enforced.

Fortunately for the cliff swallows, someone called the Wetlands

and Wildlife Care Center. The reporting party reached Star Howard,

who called Orange County Animal Control and a game warden.

At the request of the citizen, the worker stopped hosing down the

nests. However, the landlord reportedly told the worker that if he

didn’t continue, he’d be fired. Not wanting to lose his job, he

continued destroying the egg-bearing nests in the swallow colony.

Another call to the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center mobilized

Star, who called the Huntington Beach Police. The police dispatcher

said they couldn’t cite the owner without a municipal code.

Fortunately, our City Council had enacted an ordinance just a few

weeks earlier, making it illegal to intentionally kill or maim birds

within the city limits. Good work, council members!

Star got the ordinance number from the city clerk, and gave it to

the police dispatcher. The responding officer went to the apartment

building to halt the destruction of the swallow colony, and found

that an animal control officer was already there. The game warden

arrived soon after. The building owner was informed of the law and

the remaining swallow nests were saved.

Things in Garden Grove are much worse. There, the city trimmed a

row of trees along Shannon Street, destroying bird nests in the

process. Crying children brought some chicks to bird rehabilitator

Vicki Andersen for rescue, but unfortunately, most of the nestlings

were hacked to pieces by chainsaws. Shame on the city of Garden Grove

for conducting tree trimming during nesting season.

This discussion of crimes against nature over coffee at Alice’s

Breakfast in the Park led to a tale of rattlesnakes on Bolsa Mesa.

Jim Roe was walking east on the trail that parallels the Wintersburg

flood control channel when a boy yelled at him to bring over a big

stick. The boy had stopped with the front wheel of his dirt bike

headed into the bushes.

Not sure what the problem was, Jim picked up a small, brittle

stick and headed over. When Jim saw that the bike wheel was on top of

a writhing rattlesnake, he tossed the twig away. The boy wanted Jim

to club the snake to death. Naturally Jim declined, since he had no

intention of harming Bolsa Chica’s wildlife. The boy claimed he had

talked to “someone” who had told him it was OK to kill a rattlesnake

if it was in an area with people.

Since Jim wouldn’t kill the snake, the boy leaned over to grab the

snake’s tail. Leaning took the weight off the front wheel, which

allowed the snake freedom of movement. And move it did.

Fortunately, snakes don’t want revenge; they just want to get

away. The snake quickly slithered to safety deep in the bushes.

These dirt-bike-riding kids have committed any number of crimes

against nature with their illegal, off-road earthworks that they

persist in building in ecologically sensitive areas. We know we’re

not the only ones outraged by this.

All that sad environmental news was depressing, but fortunately

there have been plusses to offset these minuses. On the bird census

at Shipley Nature Center, the group found not one but two nests of

green herons with a total of six gangly gray chicks. The birders have

consistently found three adult green herons there. They surmised one

enterprising male is helping his two female mates raise their broods.

This is the first nesting of green herons at Shipley we’re aware

of, and certainly the first in many years since invasive giant reed

(arundo donax) took over the wetlands. Hired by the city, Orange

County Conservation Corps members began taking out arundo in 2001,

and finished last year. Nesting green herons and other wildlife now

find good native habitat at Shipley.

The “Arundo Kings” of the corps have moved on to Carbon Canyon,

where they have removed an impressive 50 acres of arundo from the

Santa Ana River watershed. Lou worked with those boys last week at

Bolsa Chica, where they sweated and strained in removing two tons of

star thistle, another nasty and invasive plant, from the upper marsh

zone around the conservancy building.

Most of these corps members have also worked at Shipley Nature

Center and are aware of the huge difference their efforts make. The

teens spoke with pride about their restoration work. They were

excited to report that native mule fat is growing back in Carbon

Canyon where there had once been a solid stand of arundo, which

supports only an impoverished ecosystem of spiders and toads.

In the face of so much bad environmental news, it’s encouraging to

find a group of teens working so hard to restore habitat to its

natural state.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].