NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

The city’s yearlong centennial celebration rolls along, with April being designated “Environment Month.” Vic and I are guessing that April was chosen to celebrate the environment because Earth Day falls on April 22. And, although the vernal equinox was on March 20, April is spring and a time for renewals of all sorts.

A big kickoff of the month’s celebrations within Huntington Beach begins this Saturday with an Earth Day celebration at the Bolsa Chica. The Bolsa Chica Conservancy and Amigos de Bolsa Chica are combining forces to bring the biggest wetland celebration ever to the interpretive center at Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, and to the south parking lot across from the entrance to Bolsa Chica State Beach.

The Amigos will lead guided tours of the wetlands from the south lot from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. On most first Saturdays of the month, the Amigos lead tours from 9 a.m. to noon, but this event is special, so the Amigos will be there longer this Saturday.

The Amigos will also join the Bolsa Chica Conservancy from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the north lot, where they will stage a terrific wetland fair with games, exhibits, live animals, food and fun for the whole family. Grace Adams, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, has been working hard for a couple of months, lining up exhibitors and scheduling activities.

In addition to the many educational and game booths, there will be a jump tent for smaller children, hot dogs, snow cones and much more. Conservancy visitors will be given a passport they can have stamped at the various outdoor booths.

This year, there will be more booths than ever before. There will be two reptile booths, a Sharkmobile from the Newport Back Bay Science Center, and a booth staffed by the local Native American tribe called the Acjachemems. There will also be exhibits of raptors, songbirds, and a bird-count station.

This will be the fourth year that bird census data will be collected at the Earth Day event, documenting the numbers and types of birds that use the wetlands at different stages in the tide cycle.

If you have never touched a shark or stingray, or want to do so again, this is a great opportunity. Stingrays are velvety soft and a delight to touch. Their stingers will have been clipped so that they are no danger to visitors. Sharks have rough skin, a real contrast to the soft rays. Sharkskin is so rough and sand-papery that local Native Americans used sharkskin as sandpaper to smooth arrows and the wood for their canoes.

It was a big surprise for Vic and I to learn many years ago that the local Native Americans were a sea-faring people who built 30-foot-long ocean-going canoes of redwood planks. The Acjachemem and Tongva used hand-powered drills with obsidian bits to drill holes in the planks that they split using stone, whalebone and antler tools. They beveled the edges of the planks to fit them together, drilled hole through the planks, and tied them together with cordage made from yucca fibers. The bevels were sealed with asphaltum, or tar, that washed up on the beaches.

The asphaltum came up from below ground through natural seeps and tar balls were common on beaches. This natural glue served many uses. For example, it could be used to attach woven, open-bottomed baskets to stone mortars. These baskets caught the acorn meal that was being ground in the boulder mortar with a stone pestle. The natives used brushes of yucca roots to sweep the ground meal into a holding basket. Acorn meal made up a major portion of the plant-based portion of the diets of the locals, but most food came from the wetlands and the ocean.

Orange County Conservation Corps members will volunteer to help set up, staff, and take down the booths at the Earth Day event at the interpretive building. George Morales will bring a group of Corps members who have volunteered to help out at the event. In the past, a corps crew was stationed full time at the Conservancy. Due to budget cuts, this partnership is on hold, but both parties would like to continue the relationship, so both Grace and I continue to write grant proposals that could bring a Corps crew back to Bolsa Chica.

Earth Day will be marked in other ways as well. The Sierra Club is sponsoring a walk on April 4 from Central Park to the beach. This seven-mile walk will begin at 9 a.m. at the picnic shelter near Alice’s Breakfast-in-the-Park restaurant.

Next Monday, the Sea and Sage chapter of the Audubon Society will hold the first of four bird walks in Huntington Beach in April, also as part of the city’s centennial celebration. Each walk will begin at 8 a.m. On April 6, Audubon will show people the bird life at Bolsa Chica. Meet at the south parking area near the boardwalk. Parking is going to be tight, so try to carpool. Throughout April there will be additional events Vic and I will give you more information about next week.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].