For six weeks during June and July, CWC’s Watershed Rangers education program teamed up with Nueva Vista’s Summer Fun! youth program based in Santa Cruz’s Beach Flats neighborhood. Together, we provided multiple San Lorenzo River field trips for 26 Beach Flats youth, totaling 72 unique experiences and opportunities along the river’s banks!
CWC Environmental Educator Maria Rocha explores the San Lorenzo River mouth with participants in Nueva Vista’s Summer Fun! program.
Nearly all of the Summer Fun! field trips to the San Lorenzo River center around the Beach Flats neighborhood. We admire community art, study the river estuary’s plants and wildlife with binoculars and field guides, pick up trash, and step into waders so we can immerse ourselves in the cool, flowing river without getting wet (as highlighted in the Santa Cruz Sentinel). Here at the river mouth (shown above) amongst Boardwalk roller coasters and tourist traffic jams, the tranquility of the San Lorenzo River’s redwood forest feels very, very far away. With full-time work and school, busy weekends, transportation challenges and park entry fees, the redwoods feel even further for many Beach Flats residents.
Beach flats residents observe the Santa Cruz redwoods from aboard the Roaring Camp train.
Fortunately, thanks to funding from the California Department of Parks and Recreation, CWC is able to make visiting the upper San Lorenzo River watershed a reality for families in the Beach Flats. On the sunny morning of Friday, July 19th, Beach Flats kids and their families board the historic Roaring Camp Railroad train at the Boardwalk for a journey into the forest. With a warm breeze in their hair and excitement in their voices, the kids point at the San Lorenzo River through huge redwood trees as the train winds up the mountain. “There it is! There’s the river!” one of them shouts, peering down from the side of the train car.
CWC staff and board members help youth access the San Lorenzo River at Henry Cowell State Park.
After an hour-long train ride through the redwoods from the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk to Henry Cowell State Park, our 55-person group comprised of Beach Flats community members, CWC staff, and volunteers departed the train and walked to our picnic site on a shaded bank of the San Lorenzo River. Following a quick lunch, members of CWC’s staff and board of directors step into the cool, clear water and welcome dozens of Beach Flats youth and families to join them. Smiles, splashing, and rock skipping are immediate. Parents take photos while kids make the connection that this is the same river they’ve visited under the Santa Cruz trestle bridge all summer, and that if they were fish they could swim the entire way back to the river mouth!
Beach Flats families explore the San Lorenzo River at Henry Cowell State Park.
Although it’s hard to get these river-loving kids out of the water and back on the train, with a group effort we leave our picnic site cleaner than we found it and board the train for our return trip to Santa Cruz. The group is all smiles on the train ride back except for the kids who opt for a nap instead. Once we return to the Beach Flats, we present the kids with Watershed Ranger badges to recognize all they learned and accomplished for the San Lorenzo River as part of Summer Fun!
Youth receive Watershed Rangers badges at the end of the Roaring Camp outing.
By providing community and youth experiences like these, we improve the health and wellness of our community and strengthen our connection to the San Lorenzo River and the natural world. Special thanks to the California Department of Parks and Recreation for funding this program that supports the health of people and planet.