Courtesy photos Adults studying English and civics traveled to Santa Cruz Island to help remove non-native plants and learn how the U.S. handles the environment.

Participants in a Ventura Adult and Continuing Education class pass tree clippings along to a wood chipper on Santa Cruz Island. They spent four days on the island to get a hands-on look at issues affecting the environment.

More than a dozen adult students studying English and civics traveled to the Channel Islands recently to remove invasive plants — and learn a bit more about how the United States handles the environment.

The students — natives of Mexico, Honduras, Korea and Benin, among other countries — are taking the literacy and civics class through Ventura Adult and Continuing Education.

The course focuses on key issues in U.S. government and life, including education, health and employment. Students study each topic for six weeks, learning how the U.S. system works and how to navigate everything from a job application to their child's report card.

"We're trying to address the needs of well-educated immigrants," instructor Steve Thompson said. "They came here as engineers, teachers, but they can't work in their professions."

This summer, the class is studying the environment, a new theme. "It's particularly topical, isn't it?" Thompson said. "We've been doing a lot on global warming."

Thompson wanted his students to get a hands-on look at local environmental issues, so he recently took them to Santa Cruz Island for four days.

The students worked with the Channel Islands Restoration Project, a nonprofit group restoring natural habitat on the islands.

On Santa Cruz, they cut down eucalyptus trees, which are not native, and fed the trunks into a chipper. It was hard work, they said, but rewarding enough that they'd like to do more volunteering.

"It's interesting to know what the island needed," said Aracely Tielemans, who came to the United States from Honduras 14 years ago. "Many people go there to clear the island because it is so beautiful."

They also spotted dolphins and whales on the way over to Santa Cruz, enjoyed a full moon, ate s'mores and were impressed with the island's use of solar energy.

And they left the island nicer than they found it, cleaning dormitory windows that hadn't been washed in years.

"I cleaned the skylight because that can save energy," Tielemans said.

In addition to the literacy and civics course, Ventura adult education offers other classes for adults learning English, including a computer course.

There's also a program for students 50 and older, who can take free classes on everything from yoga to quilting to Spanish. Vocational programs include multimedia training and TV production.

On the Net:

http://www.ventura.k12.ca.us/vusd/vace.htm