The Santa Ana River meets the Pacific Ocean at the boundaries of Huntington Beach and Newport Beach. Sandbars, jetties and shallow waters provide excellent and rare habitats for many birds including the Endangered California Least Tern and the Threatened Western Snowy Plover. Terns use the shallows as a very important foraging areas for the adjacent Huntington Beach Least Tern Nesting Preserve. Snowy Plovers use the sand bars for foraging. Both species use the area for roosting courtship and raising young.
Sea and Sage Audubon continues a long history of supporting conservation efforts at the river mouth and at the connected Huntington Beach Wetlands, Banning Ranch wetlands and other coastal properties. We work diligently alongside Orange County Coastkeepers, Sierra Club, Endangered Habitats League (EHL) and local residents to help keep the area as wild as possible for the sake of birds and other wildlife at one of the busiest stretches of beaches in California.
Sea and Sage Audubon Society is a founding member of the Safe Trails Coalition, formed in 2008 by the Friends of Harbors Beaches and Parks (FHBP), Audubon California, Sea and Sage Audubon Society, Laguna Canyon Foundation and the Sierra Club to help meet the intense public need to safely access Orange County’s open spaces and trails while protecting its rare and sensitive natural resources.
Please visit the Safe Trails Website
Sea and Sage Audubon Society supports the efforts of The Friends of Coyote Hills to save all of West Coyote Hills.
Banning Ranch, on the west side of Newport Beach overlooking the Santa ana River and the Pacific Ocean, is comprised of 401 acres of critically important coastal bluffs and wetlands. Sea and Sage Audubon Society supports the efforts of The Banning Ranch Conservancy and Friends to save all of Banning Ranch.
Please visit the Banning Ranch Conservancy
Sea and Sage Audubon Society joined the then newly formed Save San Onofre Coalition (SSOC) in 2005. The coalition includes Endangered Habitats League, State Parks Foundation, Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, Sea and Sage Audubon Society, Surfrider, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), California Coastal Protection Network, Laguna Greenbelt, WILDCOAST, and Defenders of Wildlife.
The coalition’s goal is to protect critically important open spaces, sensitive bird habitats and San Onofre State Beach by stopping the extension of the 241 Toll Road or any other highway through the back country of south Orange County and the State Park.
In 2015 we won a major victory and came to a settlement that permanently restricts the Toll Road from being constructed through the most critical areas, including the San Mateo Watershed. And, in 2020 California passed AB 1426 to permanently protect San Onofre State Beach.
SSOC coalition members California State Parks Foundation and Surfrider Foundation maintain some of the most updated websites on the continuing efforts.
The Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is comprised of nearly 1,300 acres of coastal estuary habitats including open water, mudflats, salt marsh, coastal dunes, seabird nesting islands, riparian, and freshwater marshes. Sea and Sage Audubon Society supports the efforts of Amigos De Bolsa Chica, Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Bolsa Chica Conservancy, and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife at Bolsa Chica.
