Jean Harris (environmentalist)

Jean Mahoney Harris (May 22, 1922 – November 25, 2008) was an American schoolteacher and environmentalist. She was a member of the Oxnard School Board for nine years, as well as the Vice President of the Oxnard Advisory Group to the City Council. Harris is best known for being the champion of Ormond Beach Wetlands and for fighting to get the City of Oxnard to require the developers to expand on the initial state purchase to create Oxnard Beach Park.

Harris was born Jean Mahoney in Mesquite, Texas. Harris and her family moved to California after her father, who was a sports columnist for a newspaper in Texas, was hired as a public relations manager for the Del Mar racetrack, in Del Mar, California. Harris met her husband Ed Harris, an engineer, while in high school and they married when Harris was 18 years old. After marrying, Jean and Ed had three children; Timm, Ellen, and Brian. Harris moved from the San Fernando Valley to Oxnard in the early 1970s. She had a master's degree in Education and was a career schoolteacher and later a school board member for the Oxnard Board of Education for nine years.

Harris’ mentor Roma Armbrust was also her partner in her conservation efforts. In 1983, they formed the Ormond Beach Observers, which unified the voice of a number of diverse organizations interested in protecting these wetlands. They were able to help Oxnard Beach become a State beach, and to conserve the Ormond Beach Wetlands. Harris was quoted in the Vista newspaper in 1980 for wanting to keep Ventura County, especially its coastlines, from becoming another “smoggy, crowded San Fernando Valley”. Harris began pushing for the preservation of the Ormond Beach Wetlands in 1979 and she continued to champion for this landscape for more than 30 years. Her work began by organizing hundreds of tours of this rare landscape; Jean stated that she “knew if we took people for a walk on Ormond Beach, and they saw the birds flying, it would sell them on the importance of saving and restoring the wetlands.” In 1989 Jean Harris and her counterpart Roma Armbrust, officially began the Ormond Beach Observers to expand these tours on which they would take anyone with interest. Together Jean and Roma monitored development to the surrounding areas ensuring the safety of the wetlands. Harris stated that they fought throughout the years to hold off developers until the Coastal Conservancy and contributors had the resources to help with the preservation of the wetlands. Ormond Beach wetlands are now approximately 1,100 acres with 250 acres still in need of restoration. These wetlands now connect to the Mugu Lagoon wetlands making this area southern California’s largest coastal wetlands. The project of restoration and preservation on the edge of the Oxnard Plain continues and is considered by wetland experts to be the most important wetland restoration opportunity in southern California.

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