A newly formed Surfrider Foundation chapter is launching in North Orange County with hopes of expanding the nonprofit’s ocean advocacy reach and impact.
The collaboration combines the Newport Beach and Huntington Beach/Seal Beach chapters, which until now worked independently, but fought against similar issues such as poor water quality and plastic pollution. The new chapter will be one of about 80 across the globe.
The co-chairs of the new North Orange County chapter will be Richard Busch, coming from Huntington Beach, and John Wadsworth, who has worked with the Newport Beach chapter for years.
Busch joined the Surfrider Foundation about six years after moving to Huntington Beach, saying, “I was trying to find something to do, to spend my time on weekends rather than watch TV.”
Riding his bike along the beach path, he noticed one of the group’s cleanup events. When he got home, he did more research on the Surfrider Foundation, which was inspired by a group of Malibu surfers in 1984 who grew concerned about environmental threats posed by escalating coastal development at their favorite surf spot.
“I had no clue how big Surfrider was at the time, the thumbprint it had on bills locally, as well as state and federal,” Busch said.
He soon became a volunteer and started helping out with beach and harbor cleanups, he said. “You start learning more about issues that are occurring here along the coastline.”
Busch recalled visiting his grandparents in San Clemente as a kid, picking up seashells and building sand castles. Now as an adult, he can’t help but also notice all the trash strewn on the sand.
“When volunteering, we see people who may come once a year or will be in the presence of someone who has never seen the ocean,” he said. “It’s sad to see the joy of seeing the ocean, and then say, ‘There’s trash.’”
Having a North Orange County chapter and a South Orange County chapter will make it easier when talking to elected officials, and to combine the efforts of delegations for maximum impact, Busch said.
Surfrider not only has local engagement, Wadsworth said, but offers a platform on a national level to help change laws and educate elected officials about environmental issues.
“Whenever you volunteer for a nonprofit or an environmental group, you want to know your efforts are going to be seen, rewarded and make an impact,” he said. “Surfrider has been the best channel to do that.”
Wadsworth had served as vice chair of the Newport Beach chapter since 2018. As an avid surfer who grew up on the shores of Long Island before coming to the West Coast 30 years ago, he said he’s long been aware of the issues that plague beaches.
“I think the No. 1 issue for me – and I think for our local marine environment – is plastic pollution and doing whatever we can to mitigate that,” Wadsworth said.
Becoming a North Orange County inclusive chapter will also give the group more ability to reach further inland to address issues upstream of the beach, organizers said.
And the merger will help the group have greater outreach to a bigger population, Wadsworth said. More than 6 million people live within the Santa Ana River watershed, one of the largest in Southern California.
In 2022, an estimated 10,000 pounds of litter and debris was picked up by volunteers during monthly cleanups of the Santa Ana River, which meets the ocean between Newport Beach and Huntington Beach. With each rain more inland trash is washed down the riverbed to the shore.
“It’s not just a coastal issue,” Wadsworth said, “it starts way upstream of the coast and we’re all in it together.”
Source: Orange County Register
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