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Ormond Beach

The Ormond Beach clean-ups are focused on engaging the local community and teaming up with environmental partners to shift the health of our coastline.  

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Restoring the most neglected beach in Ventura County: Surfrider-Style

Nestled between the Port Hueneme Pier and the Point Mugu Navy Base, Ormond Beach is one of the largest and most crucial open-space wetland projects in California. This is one of the few places in Southern California with an intact dune-transition zone-marsh system—a complete wetland ecosystem providing a buffer against sea-level rise and the impacts of climate change.

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Wildlife at Ormond Beach & Lagoon

Home to over 200 migrant bird species, the well-established dunes are also a fragile habitat to two endangered nesting shorebirds, the California Least Tern and Western Snowy Plover. Ormond Beach is used by a large variety of shorebirds, such as the American Avocet, Sanderling, Black-necked Stilt, Marbled Godwit, Willet, and Long-billed Curlew. The wetlands harbor six threatened or endangered species, along with six species of concern. 

The History of Ormond

Off-road racing, gang wars, and an EPA superfund site. South Oxnard has been subject to decades of environmental injustice due to the industrialization of the coastline in the late 1900s.

In 1965, a 700,000-cubic-yard slag heap of toxic waste was left behind on the remains of an Oxnard City Dump by Halaco Engineering Co.  By 2007, it was abandoned and declared a toxic waste Superfund Site.

A photo of a volunteer sifting through mangled greenery and trash.
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Beach Healing Begins

After decades of advocacy by activists like Roma Armbrust and Jean Harris (Ormond Beach Observers), the State Coastal Conservancy partnered with The Nature Conservancy and the City of Oxnard to develop the Ormond Beach Restoration and Access Program (OBRAP) in 2021. 

Surfrider VC got involved in 2020, after a volunteer notified the chapter about the amount of trash in the Ormond Lagoon and on the beach. 

What lies ahead?

As a result of our regular presence doing cleanups on Ormond Beach, our chapter was given a sub-award of the National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant by The Nature Conservancy. This allowed us to fund more frequent and effective cleanups at Ormond Beach. 

We continue to host monthly cleanups and are working with the State to establish a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL). We are also planning on including water quality testing as a part of our program. 

Ormond Cleanups

To date, we have removed over 84,509 lbs of trash with the help of 2,035 volunteers!

  • 2026 Totals: 233 volunteers removed 6,727 lbs of trash as of April

  • 2025 Totals: 395 volunteers removed 16,797 lbs of trash

  • 2024 Totals: 661 volunteers removed 23,278 lbs of trash so far

  • 2023 Totals: 345 volunteers removed 15,669 lbs of trash

  • 2022 Totals: 104 volunteers removed 1,747 lbs of trash

  • 2021 Totals: 458 volunteers removed over 22,000 lbs of trash

  • 2020 Totals: 719 volunteers removed over 30,000 lbs of trash 

 

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Ormond Beach Cleanup Perkins July 20 2024 Marie M (3)
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Stakeholders and Partners:

Each of these groups has worked to develop a restoration and access plan that balances habitat restoration and protection of sensitive plant and animal species with improved and increased public access. The Ormond Beach Restoration and Access Project (OBRAP) is open for public comment and can be viewed here.

  • The California State Coastal Conservancy (CSCC)
  • City of Oxnard
  • Ventura Audubon Society
  • California Coastal Commission (CCC)
  • The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
  • Coastal Keepers

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