Santa Barbara Channelkeeper’s Watershed Brigade organizes beach cleanups and other environmental outings. In June, brigade volunteers gathered marine debris on a mile-long stretch of Goleta’s Ellwood Beach — including nearly four dozen lobster traps that had washed ashore. 
Channelkeeper advocates for municipal ordinances banning the distribution of plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam takeout containers and single-use plastic products. 
Channelkeeper volunteers monitor water quality at local beaches and streams. Each sample is tested and the water quality data is sent to government agencies. 
Education programs led by Channelkeeper include a mix of classroom-based lessons, in-the-field water quality monitoring experiences and on-the water marine conservation boat trips. 
Beaches are a major collection point for debris, trash and litter. 
A student gets a closer look at marine life during a Channelkeeper excursion off Santa Barbara.
[Noozhawk’s note: First in a series.]
In 2020, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper celebrated 20 years of environmental stewardship. In that time, the nonprofit organization has spearheaded watershed monitoring, conservation and sustainability initiatives throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura counties.
With a small but mighty core team led by new executive director Ted Morton, Channelkeeper works to protect and restore the Santa Barbara Channel and its watersheds through science-based advocacy, education, fieldwork and enforcement.
The organization’s programmatic framework has expanded into a range of youth education, community-based monitoring programs and policy development — all with the common goal of environmental stewardship.
Channelkeeper’s education programs include a mix of classroom-based lessons, in-the-field water quality monitoring experiences, and on-the-water marine conservation boat trips.
Hands-on science experiments and student art shows grow enthusiasm and a sense of responsibility in the minds of schoolchildren. By fostering an understanding for the need to conserve our natural resources, Channelkeeper hopes its message will inspire future generations.
Channelkeeper frequently undertakes political advocacy at the local, regional and state levels, calling for protective environmental measures in the areas of plastic reduction, oil and gas exploration, agricultural pollution and urban runoff.
In fact, Channelkeeper’s advocacy helped shape the stormwater management programs that municipalities throughout Santa Barbara County were required to develop to comply with California’s municipal stormwater permit — programs that continue to guide how our communities address and reduce polluted urban runoff.
When it comes to caring for our coastal community, Channelkeeper’s diverse projects address water quality on many levels and offer ways for people to take local action. Volunteers and families can easily link up on weekends for a cleanup event, to help monitor pollution levels in creeks, or to survey human activity in the Marine Protected Areas off the coast.
Even during the COVID-19 pandemic, Channelkeeper has continued to build its programs.
During last year’s quarantines, when open spaces throughout Santa Barbara and Ventura counties began experiencing increased visitation and trash accumulation, the organization formed the Watershed Brigade, a community group that helps fight litter and keep local watersheds and beaches clean. Members head out individually to clean up trash and debris from public areas and now also work together during monthly events.
“We have held two in-person Watershed Brigade cleanup events,” Channelkeeper communications director Laura Sanchez told Noozhawk. “In June, members of the Watershed Brigade gathered to address marine debris on a one-mile stretch of Ellwood Beach in Goleta, where more than 40 lobster traps had washed ashore.
“In September for Coastal Cleanup Day, volunteers used sifters to collect microtrash from West Beach (in Santa Barbara).”
The impact is impressive.
“Since the program began, a total of 464 volunteers have cleaned up 253 different locations and removed 7,370 pounds of trash,” Sanchez said.
A diverse array of programs contributes to an all-inclusive approach to the well-being of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties’ ocean, wetlands and streams.
Volunteers also monitor water quality at local beaches and streams through sample collection. Channelkeeper sends water quality information gathered by volunteers and staff to government agencies and investigates pollution sources to help ensure that local beaches are clean, chemical-free, and safe for humans and marine life alike.
As one of the newest faces on the Channelkeeper team, Morton, who was hired in July, is looking forward to the next phase of growth for the environmental watchdog organization, which was founded in 1999 as a program of the Environmental Defense Center in Santa Barbara.
He has held environmental leadership positions at The Pew Charitable Trusts, the Environmental Defense Fund and the American Oceans Campaign, among others — nearly all of them intimately involved in ocean protection.
“I am excited to use my national policy experience to protect our area’s ocean and coastal waters, habitat and wildlife,” Morton said. “For more than 25 years, I have worked in our nation’s capital to improve and defend federal laws and policies that protect water quality, conserve fish and marine mammal populations, and ensure the public has a role in environmental stewardship, among other priorities.”
Morton shared more of his thoughts for Channelkeeper’s future.
“The first is to build support for Channelkeeper’s work in the Ventura River,” he explained. “In the upcoming months, there is a critical opportunity to secure lasting changes for determining how the river’s water is used.
“Historically, substantial amounts of the river have been diverted upstream and at the City of Ventura’s Foster Park pumping wells, leaving far too little water in the lower reaches to support quality habitat for fish and wildlife, and recreational opportunities for local communities throughout the year.”
Channelkeeper, Morton added, is working to make sure future water diversions support the critical needs of the people and wildlife that rely on a healthy, flowing river.
Future areas of emphasis are also on the Channelkeeper horizon.
“We want to set a course that builds on the significant accomplishments we’ve made in protecting water quality and aquatic habitats and tackle the critical, tough challenges ahead, such as climate change, drought, environmental justice and development pressure,” Morton said.
Channelkeeper is already well-accomplished. In its two decades of community conservation, it has an impressive list of eco wins:
» In 2018, the organization ensured that Santa Barbara County stopped discharging polluted runoff from the South Coast Recycling & Transfer Station, once the Central Coast’s worst industrial stormwater polluter.
» Channelkeeper’s legal action also led the City of Santa Barbara to repair or replace 34 miles of leaky sewer lines and, as a result, the city achieved 91% reduction in sewage spills in 2019.
» Channelkeeper has worked to convince municipalities throughout the region to adopt ordinances banning the distribution of plastic grocery bags, Styrofoam takeout containers, and plastic straws, stirrers and cutlery. The bans have made a huge dent in the volume of plastic the community uses and discards, much of which ends up in the ocean.
While Channelkeeper works to improve the health of local watersheds today, it has an eye on the future — and the next generation.
Beyond the impact of legislative changes, Channelkeeper’s engaging science lab workshops and sustainability curriculum bring problem-based learning into classrooms, where students put on their lab coats and become marine biologists for the day, cultivating a desire to preserve our precious natural resources for future generations.
Channelkeeper also takes student groups out on boats to experience the Santa Barbara Channel first-hand and explore kelp forests and marine creatures below the water’s surface with the help of a diver and live-feed video camera.
Over its more than 20 years of outreach, 36,000 students have participated in Channelkeeper’s educational programs, while more than 4,500 volunteers have joined the organization’s efforts to take local action for the environment.
If that record of public support is any indicator of Channelkeeper’s impact, it’s encouraging to know that the watersheds of Santa Barbara and Ventura counties are in very caring, capable hands — both today and with the volunteers of tomorrow.
Click here for more information about Santa Barbara Channelkeeper. Click here to make an online donation.
— Noozhawk contributing writer Mara Pyzel can be reached at news@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.