Lessons from the earth

As they replant native species at Bolsa Chica, Conservation Corps members help get their own lives back on track.Having grown up in a tough neighborhood in Santa Ana, Sergio Rodriguez has seen a lot in his 18 years, from the ravaging effects of drug use to the tight grip of gangs on city streets. But Thursday he saw something that changed the way he looked at his low-paying landscaping job: a California legless lizard.

The endangered species is known for burrowing in loose soil and not getting noticed by too many humans -- a biologist working with Rodriguez said she had seen the snake-like reptile only twice in her decades of work on the lower Bolsa Chica Mesa.

Rodriguez is one of a handful of youths doing native plant restoration at Bolsa Chica as part of the Orange County Conservation Corps. The all-male crew -- led by a woman, Casey Collins -- is helping the Bolsa Chica Conservancy complete the restoration of the Little Mesa near the intersection of Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway.

The young men are also helping themselves out -- by participating in the Conservation Corps, they’re given jobs, some help completing their high school work and a boost toward college.

“Before, I used to think there was no purpose to anything,” Rodriguez said. “I didn’t have my diploma, and without my diploma I couldn’t get a college degree, and without a degree I knew I couldn’t get a very good job. Now all that seems possible.”

Participants in the program spend eight hours a day doing mostly landscaping work and hard labor throughout Orange County. Rodriguez said his crew has logged hours removing bamboo plants from parks in Fullerton and digging drainage ditches in the Anaheim Hills. Collins said her crew learned of the Bolsa Chica restoration project after helping out with a similar native plant restoration effort at the Shipley Nature Center.

After each day’s work, the crew members spend an hour doing classwork with a group of teachers who help them earn enough credits to get their high school diplomas. Participants are then placed in a transition program to prepare them for community college or vocational training.

“A lot of these guys are coming from the streets, where they face drugs, gang problems -- we try to help them out as best we can,” Collins said. “It’s really satisfying when we see someone turn their life around.”

Crew member Ulyses Cueva said he enjoys the work and has learned a lot about plant restoration.

“We get to do a lot of different things and aren’t stuck inside all day,” he said. “I like how they explain to us what each project means. It makes us feel like this work has a purpose.”

The crew members are participating in a three-year-old restoration of the wetlands, sponsored by a $52,000 grant from the California Coastal Commission and the Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project.

Most of the work involves removing invasive nonnative species and replacing them with native plants such as sea lavender, coyote bush, California buckwheat and golden bush.

The work is beginning to pay off, said conservancy executive Grace Adams. Volunteers have noticed an increase in Belding’s savannah sparrows and the threatened wandering skipper butterfly, both of which nest and feed in the replanted habitats. The corps work is also improving perimeter buffers around the small mesa, preventing unwanted foot traffic from visitors.

“We couldn’t be any more proud of the work these young people are doing,” she said. “Anyone driving by on Pacific Coast Highway should thank them for the aesthetic improvements made to this important stretch of land.”PHOTOS BY KENT TREPTOW / INDEPENDENTPeter Castro, 20, and other members of the California Conservation Corps plant coastal buckwheat, a native plant, at Bolsa Chica Mesa. 20051020iokyheknPHOTOS BY KENT TREPTOW / INDEPENDENT20051020iokygykn20051020iokyg9kn