Outreach With The Cleveland “Clippers”

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You may think Santa Barbara Cleveland School’s mascot is the Dolphins, but for a couple of days in early May they became the Cleveland Clippers. That’s because each sixth grade class spent a day on Santa Cruz Island clipping the heads off of thousands of invasive plants.

For most students, it was their first trip to the islands and their first boat trip. Dolphin, whale, and island fox sightings awed the students, as did the view at our Cavern Point picnic site. Eventually we found our way to the project site beyond the upper campground. There we spread out to locate oyster plants (Tragopogon porrifolius) in various stages of bud, flower, and seed.

Each student used safety scissors to clip off and carefully bag the heads. Most found the task to be pleasant, aside from dealing with rip gut grass burrs that nestled into their socks.

After a couple of hours of hard work, we admired the huge pile of stuffed black plastic bags. Then, covered with white sap and burrs, we hauled them back to the mouth of Scorpion Canyon. We spent an hour or so at the Visitor’s Center and relaxing at the beach before the return boat arrived.

The field trip was a culmination of months of classroom and behind-the-scenes work by Channel Island Restoration board member Cindy Kimmick, with help from other board members including ASBTS parishioner Karen Telleen-Lawton. Cleveland School was chosen because of ASBTS’ Outreach focus and because of the leadership and enthusiastic support of sixth grade teachers Sam Adams and Kevin Sullivan. The trip was free to the students with grant money provided to CIR by the Santa Barbara Garden Club, the Bentson Foundation, and Susan Shields.

The highlight for many was the knowledge that thousands of bagged seeds will prevent millions of new plants: an invasion literally nipped in the bud. But likely most would name an additional favorite: watching hundreds of dolphins approach the boat and surf our wake. It was an enthralling show seemingly just for the graduating Cleveland Dolphins.

Karen Telleen-Lawton