OXNARD : Firm Blocks Beach Area to Protect Bird Nests

Officials at Ventura County Railway, which owns rights of way abutting several entrances to Oxnard’s Ormond Beach, have installed barriers and positioned railroad cars to prevent vehicles from driving onto the nesting areas of California least terns.

Two nests of the endangered birds have been destroyed in recent weeks by off-road drivers whose vehicles trample the sensitive areas, said Alan Sanders, president of the Sespe Group of the Sierra Club.

Sanders said Sunday that the barriers have not prevented off-road drivers from entering the sanctuary.

He said he saw about a half-dozen trucks with trailers and jet skis on the beach over the weekend.

The Oxnard Police Department, which has pledged to patrol the 100 or so acres as often as possible, could not confirm Sunday any trespassing at the nesting area.

As the thermometer rises, so does the number of people driving illegally onto Ormond Beach, said Morgan Boucke, a state Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist who helped prompt the move by the railway.

“Right now we’ve got a second wave of nesting and birds hatching chicks. We have more birds coming in all the time.”

The president of Ventura County Railway, the private firm that erected the steel barriers along a dirt entrance off McWane Boulevard, said she was merely doing her part.

“I just want to protect lives for the future, for my grandkids to see these birds,” Carmen Chappell said.

Oxnard police traffic coordinator Don Mulville said his department has issued 16 citations so far this year and that he wishes officers had more time to cite other violators.

“The problem is probably getting worse, but shifts are getting worse, too, and the calls are handled in priority,” he said.

Mulville said his officers would continue to patrol the beach as often as possible throughout the nesting season.