Seaside Learning

Cara O’Brien, a California state parks ranger, recently returned to duty from five months of maternity leave, and noticed something different about the Junior Ranger program at Point Mugu and Leo Carrillo State Parks: Compared to last summer, enrollment was way up.

“How it all happened at once, I don’t know,” she says of the five-day-a-week program for kids 7-12, which runs until September. She speculates that the jump in interest in these hourlong nature-study sessions may have something to do with kids’ seeing a lot of science and environmental shows on TV. Plus, parents’ who have been learning of low eighth-grade science-test scores at schools statewide may be deciding that kids will better profit from a summer spent contemplating flora and fauna than Beavis and Butt-head.

Enrollment remains open for the rest of the summer, but reservations are necessary. Kids can attend one or more sessions. O’Brien says that she and the other park rangers who conduct the sessions make it their business to provide kids “a stimulating, hands-on and inspirational” hour devoted to a wide choice of subjects.

Kids who show up for just one--or all 11 of the “study segment areas” get a free Junior Ranger Log Book. They can have this stamped to record their participation in such sessions as geology, native California flora and fauna, history, plant life, animal life, energy, water, weather and climate, ecology, park careers or safety and survival/crime prevention.

There are also special “elective” programs, which the park staff offers when a group of kids expresses a particular interest--oceanography, archeology, astronomy, architecture and pioneer crafts. The log will be stamped upon completing each of these activities.

After three log book stamps have been entered, kids earn a Junior Ranger button; after six, there’s a bigger Junior Ranger button, bearing an insignia similar to a sheriff’s star; after nine, there’s a Junior Ranger Certificate; finally, after 12 stamps, an official-looking shoulder patch is awarded, which says “California State Park System Junior Ranger.”

On Tuesdays and Thursdays the program begins at 10 a.m. at Point Mugu State Park, a few miles south of Los Posas Road on Pacific Coast Highway, at the Sycamore Canyon entrance station. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, 10 a.m. sessions are at Leo Carrillo State Park near the Ventura County line on Pacific Coast Highway.

A child may begin attending sessions at one location and continue at another.

Further, if the family visits another part of California during the summer, kids can keep on earning stamps at Junior Ranger programs in more than 70 state park locations. Call (916) 653-6995 or (916) 653-8959 for information about programs outside Ventura County.

Last year, the 23rd year of the Junior Ranger program, about 30,000 kids participated statewide. The upward trend in enrollment, which O’Brien has noted, is also the case at the other state parks, so it’s a good idea to call ahead to check out enrollment.

When park rangers began this program for kids years ago, according to O’Brien, “They wanted the program to be meaningful to young people without bearing any resemblance to the classroom regimen from which they had escaped for the summer [and] to be something to counteract the old stereotype of a naturalist being ‘a nut with a net.’ ”

Judging by recent response, the program has caught the spirit of the times. Among other things, biological science is now the most frequently mentioned major among kids entering college.

BE THERE

Junior Ranger Program for kids ages 7-12. Point Mugu State Park (Pacific Coast Highway, four miles south of Los Posas Road) and Leo Carrillo State Park (35000 Pacific Coast Highway, just before the L.A. County line). Monday-Friday, 10-11 a.m. Programs cover a different nature topic each day. Free. (805) 986-8591.