On May 22, Earth Day 2025, the Surfrider Foundation stopped in Ventura with the "Love Your Beach" California tour to raise awareness and defend the California Coastal Act.
Paul Jenkin led a walking tour of the Surfers Point Managed Shoreline Retreat project currently under construction, followed by an informal gathering at Topa Topa Brewery in downtown Ventura. Postcards were circulated to collect signatures and will be delivered to elected officials at this year’s Coastal Day in Sacramento.
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Paul Jenkin explains how "managed retreat" makes room for natural beach processes
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In the news:
"Love Your Beach" tour stops at Surfers Point in Ventura, Surfrider calls on public to support Coastal Act, Coastal Commission, VC Star, April 24, 2025
The Surfrider Foundation spent Earth Day at a Ventura beach, one of the advocacy group's first stops on a tour to rally support for California's Coastal Act. The decades-old law helps protect coastal resources and public access, said Jennifer Savage, Surfrider's California policy associate director. Over the years, those rights have become woven into the state's identity, she said. Now, some may not think they need to be defended.
During the local stop, Paul Jenkin, Surfrider's Ventura campaign coordinator, lead nearly three dozen on a tour of the shoreline restoration at Surfers Point.
Called managed retreat, the project is expected to make room for the beach by relocating a damaged path and eroding parking lot at the Ventura County Fairgrounds. Jenkin called it rewilding the coast.
He and others started advocating for the work back in the 1990s, pushing for an alternative to building a sea wall – a temporary fix that experts say can exacerbate issues. A first phase of the project wrapped up more than a decade ago, and the second phase started late last year.
"We’re allowing the beach to naturally come and go," Jenkin said. Because of that, the beach will be there long after others disappear, he said.
