[Angeles Chapter Sierra Club Inspiring Connections Outdoors (LA ICO) sponsors trips for approximately 40 members of Paramount High’s Green Club to Bolsa Chica Conservancy in the fall and spring. Kids get to observe changes in the seasons and perform the different kinds of service projects needed at different times of year to preserve the wetlands. Daniel Hasheminejad is a volunteer leader for LA ICO and the teacher adviser for the Green Club at Paramount High School. In January 2014, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust gave him the Kennedy-Kolpin Conservation Award. He writes this story for the Chapter.]
Paramount High School’s Green Club’s relationship with the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and the Sierra Club Los Angeles Chapter's Inspiring Connections Outdoors (LA ICO) has opened several opportunities for the club to be involved in significant conservation movements.
We feel highly grateful to be involved with such remarkable organizations. Our involvement in this conservation movement has helped us strengthen our leadership skills and our knowledge about the importance of preserving natural communities. The PHS Green Club’s involvement has led us to receive the 2013 Kennedy-Kolpin Conservation Award from the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. To commemorate the honor, at sunrise on New Year’s Day, we planted a native toyon on the mesa to which we feel very attached.
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Paramount High School Green Club members at Bolsa Chica Wetlands. |
This opportunity to be involved with Bolsa Chica’s restoration program has led our members to learn more about environmental stewardship and connect more with nature. Our partnership with the Bolsa Chica Stewards has helped us find a connection with them as we all share the same goal. We hope to continue forming a part of Bolsa Chica’s wetlands conservation.
Throughout the past years in Paramount High School’s Green Club, we have been dedicated members in helping conserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Each year we go out to the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve during different seasons to clear and keep the mesa clean and full of life. The fact that we do seasonal visits allows us to have a further understanding of the conservation goals and see the different steps necessary to keep the area preserved.
Our visits and tasks depend on the season as we see the process step by step. During the early fall when the weather is still warm we help clear the land by removing invasive species such as the crystalline ice plant that came all the way from Southern Africa. These non-natives leech nutrients from the indigenous plants. After the heat passes and winter and spring arrive, we start planting native grasses and plants on the mesa. This brings green life back to the area. We also try to keep the wetlands clean by carefully removing trash from the edge of the water during low tide without disrupting any of the wildlife. Once spring and summer arrive, the native grasses and plants such as the coastal sage, buckwheat, deer grass are blooming, and the wetlands are green and clean.
LA ICO leader and Paramount High School teacher Danny Hasheminejad is the Green Club sponsor.