OC Habitats
PROGRAMS
Habitat Education Programs (Campus, Field Trips, and Outreach)
OCH's On-Campus Habitat Education Programs are designed to provide students from grades 2-12 with information and an experience about their local environment and habitats. OCH incorporates their own mission of habitat and species conservation along with NextGen Science, Common Core, Ocean and Environmental Literacy standards to reach students in an interesting and experiential way. For our on-campus programs: Our younger programs: grades 2-3 have "stations" where students rotate through to learn about various aspects of the environment or science per their grade level. For the next group of students, grades 4-8, we provide programming about specific topics such as coastal dune habitats, the tide pools, and sharks along with the required science standards to create a valuable experience. For our high school students, we provide programs that target specific subject matter that is being introduced to them through their science courses as well as introduce them to subjects that may be new to them. Our younger programs (grades 2-3) require a minimum of five educators to provide programming. The programs for older students (grades 4-12) require a minimum of two educators but could be larger depending on the the type of presentation. Programs generally run two hours, with setup and cleanup on the outside. For our field trip programs: OCH provides field trip programs where we meet students at a designated natural outdoor space and explore that particular habitat. These programs will vary, depending on the age of the student and/or group and the habitat that we are visiting. We generally do an overview of the habitat, covering a variety of species that live within the habitat, talk about watersheds, native people, and human impacts to the environment. The amount of educators depends upon the size of the group, but we try to keep a student to educator ratio of 15:1. The minimum number of educators can be as low as two and up to six. Programs usually run 2-3 hours. We provide these programs to Title 1 schools at no charge and charge a fee to non-Title 1 schools on a sliding scale depending on ability to pay. Budget for this program is for one year and includes staffing costs. We provide hybrid programs for some of our groups depending on their needs and schedules. Having the opportunity to meet students and give them a lesson on an upcoming field trip through virtual means is helpful and helps students to retain content through different senses (visual, auditory, tactile, etc).
On-Campus Programs: We have visited schools in Irvine, Garden Grove, Lake Forest, Dana Point, and Costa Mesa and have had excellent feedback from both students and teachers. Students enjoy getting out of the classroom and experiencing nature in our hands-on program and teachers appreciate that our programs support what they are already teaching in the classroom.
We provide a provide a student survey before and after our programming and an evaluation form for school teacher's to evaluate our program. We also challenge students with an environmental task(age appropriate and attainable) and follow-up with them after 30 days. This engagement reminds them of our visit and to continue to remember how they can help their local environment. We have found that the students are really excited to share what they learned, what they did, who they shared with, and new things that they discovered during this journey. It is a great way to give them a voice and feel empowered.
Field Trips: We have provided habitat tours at both local coastal dune, tide pool, coastal sage scrub, wetlands, and other local habitats. For our school aged groups, we found that both students and parents (parents participation is mandatory) appreciate the experiential nature of our programming and that they get to enjoy nature and the outdoors. We have provided these field trips to local home school groups, public schools on our own and in collaboration with OC Coastkeepers. We have also provided private tours to smaller groups of family and friends. From the feedback we have received, participants learn a lot and see these locations in a different light after attending our programs. We feel that their new perspective is exactly our objective to enlighten and expose them to the great many creatures (plant and animal) that can be enjoyed and protected with a little bit of knowledge and care.
Hybrid Programs: To ensure that we provide programs to groups with limited time, resources, and/or for safety, we are providing hybrid programs to many of our schools and groups. These programs allow for us to present an overview of a habitat or concept with students virtually and then take them to the field to explore about what they learned. Most of these programs are two or three part programs.
Hike Programs (Free to Public)
OC Habitats provides free guided hikes in and around Orange County to the public. These hikes can be both in inland and coastal areas and our qualified guides discuss habitat, geology, species, and impacts to the areas that we explore. In our MPA Hike, which is adjacent to many of the tide pools in Orange County, we explore all the habitats, species, geology, and history along our 2+ mile path. Since this program is along the shore, scheduling is dependent on a low tide and good weather. We have individuals or groups join us in Newport Beach and provide a guided hike from Little Corona to Crystal Cove and back. This journey is limited to persons no younger than 10 and any minor under 16 must be accompanied by an adult/guardian. For our Inland Hikes, which include coastal sage scrub, riparian, grassland, wetland, and coastal oak woodlands, we explore the area and discuss the plants, animals, the history, and the impacts to the area. We are working to include edible plants to our hikes to better inform our hikers of the plants that have been used historically for a variety of uses and how they are used today. We previously provided eight or more hikes per year but we have reduced this down due to lack of funding. We would like to continue to offer at least four programs per year. Some of the crowd favorites are our Marine Protected Area Hike (MPA), Santiago Oaks, Carbon Canyon, Laguna Canyon, Arroyo Trabuco, Dripping Caves, O'Neill Regional, and Hagador Canyon hiking tours. We train all our our staff, interns and interested volunteers on the habitats within Orange County and do thorough research and hike development before hosting a hike. At least one guide (volunteer, intern, or staff) are CPR/First Aid trained at all events. We have recently been contracted by the City of Mission Viejo to host up to four hikes per year for residents and non-residents, which is free. We do accept donations. This program requires a minimum of two guides/educators (a leader and a sweep) but could use more depending on the group size. Our budget includes research and development, training, insurance and permits, as well as staffing costs for all pre-hikes and hikes.
Our hike program is popular and we often get repeat hikers attending our various events. We have received much positive feedback from our hikers on the content we share and the knowledge and experience of our guides. Often, we expose our guests to things they never knew or even considered and they walk away with a new and expanded appreciation for the habitat we are exploring. In 2023 and 2024, we offered and provided 8-10 hikes throughout the year. We are gaining a good reputation in the community which has opened up opportunities with local cities on providing programs with their residents.
For our free hikes, we advertise our hikes on Eventbrite and the free tickets "sell" out fast. For City programs, we are paid directly from the city and they advertise through their portals and quarterly guides.
OC Habitats Habitat Sea Urchin Monitoring Program
OCH's Habitat Sea Urchin Monitoring Program is a partnership with GetInspired (Nancy Caruso). We are monitoring all tide pools/intertidal areas within Orange County (specifically MPAs) to determine the presence, density, and impact of red and purple sea urchins. Sea Urchins are native to the area but if they go unchecked, they can decimate local kelp forests just off the coast and create a negative "waterfall" effect for other species within the marine ecosystem. We started this program in late 2022 with initial site surveys and obtained a permit under Nancy Caruso (GetInspired) in 2023 to do more intensive surveys into the foreseeable future. In 2023, we finalized the initial surveys and began our more focused surveys and will repeat the cycle each year. The focused surveys require training and a team of six surveyors to conduct our quadrat sampling in the intertidal zone during low tide periods. We are in the 2nd cycle of this program and hope to be able to continue this as long as it is needed. Currently, this project is unfunded.
We started this program in 2022 with initial site surveys and obtained a permit under Nancy Caruso (GetInspired) to do more intensive surveys into the foreseeable future. In 2023, we finalized the initial surveys and began our more focused surveys, under the permit, and will repeat the cycle each year. So far we are finding pockets of sea urchins in higher densities (called barrens) and our second cycle of surveys are under way to get solid data to determine what the rate of population growth is in these areas.
This project is currently unfunded, but we are allocating financial resources for tools, parking, gas expense and staffing.
Habitat Restoration Programs (City of Santa Ana and Upper Newport Bay)
OC Habitats provides restoration project work in City of Santa Ana, at Santiago Creek and Park and in the salt marsh in Upper Newport Bay. Our work here is partially funding through grants and donations made by individuals and Santa Ana councilmembers. Santa Ana: OCH provides regular park and creek clean up and restoration at the Santiago Creek/Park. We remove trash, debris, and invasive species in this riparian habitat and watershed. Santa Ana is a dense urban location and this location is the only "wild" space in the City. This habitat houses many native species of oak, sycamore and other plants as well as many animal species that use, live, and rely on it. By attending to this site regularly, we are allowing for native species to thrive, keeping the watershed clear on trash, including micro-plastics, and reducing invasive species that can choke out our natives. We would like to work in this space at least once a month and this project costs about $1000/event, totaling $12K per year. Upper Newport Bay: We have two projects that we work on in this space. One is our Algerian Sea Lavender (ASL) removal of salt water marsh habitat and the second is riparian restoration of Newport Valley. The ASL project is in its last year of mitigation (ends in September 2025) and we hope to finish out the project and continue monitoring the site and beyond to remove ASL and other invasive species as well as removal of trash and debris to ensure our native plant species can thrive and support our endangered species (Least Bell's Vireo and Ridgway's Rail) that rely on it. These projects cost between $800-1000 for each event, depending on the event program time (2 or 3 hours). 1. ASL Removal - $9,600 (12 2-hour events) 2. Newport Valley - $12,000 (12 3-hour events)
We have been working in Santa Ana since 2022 and Upper Newport Bay since 2019. We have made great strides in both habitats and project sites by removing invasives and trash, planting natives (as needed) and maintaining site through monthly monitoring and restoration efforts.
We rely heavily on volunteers to help us accomplish these tasks. These projects are open to the public and allow for the community to actively engage with nature, give a sense of purpose and ownership of their local habitats, which in turn leads them to advocate for these habitats and species and the environment overall.
CONTACT
OC Habitats
1505 E. 17th Street
Suite 116
Santa Ana, California 92705
Stacey Chartier-Grable
Phone: 9496978651