With a navy pink- and- blue-flowered baseball cap pulled over her forehead, purple boots and a plastic grabbing tool in hand, 4-year-old Amelia Jones set off down the marsh’s dirt road.
Her parents, Erin and Chris, both biologists, and her uncle, Andrew Hardison, were not far behind.
As Amelia scoured the ground for trash, Erin, who works for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Los Angeles District, pointed to a plastic water bottle hidden in the brush. Amelia seemed pleased with her find, as she picked up the bottle with her grabber and dropped it into her lime-green bucket.