Orange County has some of the cleanest beaches in the country—considering officials test our waters more often than many of their California counterparts do. But one beach that was chronically polluted was Poche Beach in San Clemente. It held a regular spot on Heal the Bay's annual “Beach Bummer” list of California's dirtiest beaches—until this year. Despite tougher testing standards this past year, Poche was also removed from the National Resources Defense Council list of repeat offenders. Credit is due to a lack of rainfall and city/county efforts to keep the beach and streams feeding Poche clean. You want out-of-the-box (cage?) thinking? Trained falcons were brought in to scare off pooping seabirds.
