It feels like you’re in the middle of a jungle, surrounded by what appear to be seven or eight feet high bamboo shoots.
But, this is actually the Ventura riverbed, just west of the Ventura County fairgrounds. A crew made up of teenagers is hacking away, and removing the non-native plants, as part of an effort to restore this section of the Ventura River Estuary.
The teens are part of an annual eight week long supper program run by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area intended to give them a hands on chance to learn firsthand about careers in the National Parks System.
Antonio Solorio, the National Park Service Ranger who manages the SAMO Youth Program, says the teens and young adults are high school graduates headed to college, or students going into their senior years.
Briana Ruiz just graduated from high school in Oxnard, and is heading to Humbolt State to major in environmental studies. She admits the work can be grueling, but seeing the results is heartwarming.
While most of the SAMO crew’s work has been focused in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and Channel Islands National Park, this project clearing non-native plants is helping the non-profit Ventura Hillsides Conservancy.
The program costs about $300,000 a year, and is made possible by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, its non-profit support group, the Santa Monica Mountains Fund, the National Park Foundation, and the Annenberg Foundation. The teens get paid for their work, which is important since many of them are getting ready to go off to college.
Solorio says graduates of the program have gone on to work at 18 national parks, and some have become environmental researchers and teachers.
