Earth Alert has launched a project about the history of Ormond Beach, and anyone who has been involved in protecting, cleaning up and lobbying for reserve status is welcome to submit photos or videos for the documentary.
The Earth Alert’s documentary team worked both inside and outside. In the studio interview (left) Janet Bridgers is interviewing a willing subject with her colleague Shelly Carney. Photo by Tony Younis.
It comes at an opportune time, as the Ormond Beach wetland is now under consideration by US Fish and Wildlife to be named a wildlife reserve, certainly supported by our Sierra Club.
The project was announced by Janet Bridgers, a co-founder (with her husband Patrick Wall, now deceased) of the 39-year-old Earth Alert.
“We will gather interviews from activists who have either worked or are currently working to protect the Ventura County wetland,” Bridgers said, adding that organized efforts to protect the area have been going on since 1988. Interviews were video-taped, and photos were taken by photographer Toby Younis of Earth Alert.
Some of the interviewees were Assembly member Steve Bennett, Russ Baggerly, Alisse Fisher (Sierra Club), Robert O’Reilly (Carmen Ramirez’s staffer), Shelly Carny, Brian Foster and Walter Fuller (longtime volunteer who lives at the entrance) among others.
The Ventura Sierra Club was quite active in protecting Ormond Beach for years, paying Al Sanders to monitor the area and protect the snowy plovers and least terns. He left the area about ten years ago, and while the club has not paid anyone else it has always been a supporter of the Friends of Ormond Beach’s work.
Bridgers said that research and additional interviews for the documentary will later be conducted regarding the area’s ancient and modern history with indigenous peoples, development of the Oxnard plan and the adjacent Ventura County coastal areas during the 20th century.
Filming outside (right) videographer Toby Younis is filming Brian Foster and Janet Bridgers at Ormond Beach. Photo courtesy of Earth Alert.
“Our research will require an unknown length of time, and consequently, no completion date for the project is estimated at this time,” she said.
“The goal of the project is to show how Ormond’s startling biodiversity has empowered a wide variety of people to come to its defense over a significant number of years,” she said. “The point to be made is that credit for its preservation cannot be given to any one person or organization. It must be shared with many.”
Bridgers invites suggestions for additional future interviews. “And we very much welcome both still photos and footage to tell the story,” she said.
For more information, please contact Janet Bridgers via phone or text at (505) 254-7995 or info@earthalert.org.
Earth Alert’s other documentaries—all related to California coastal issues—are linked at its home page: https://www.earthalert.org