One man had been “in and out of jail” before he joined the Orange County Conservation Corps; another spoke of nightly partying that often ended up involving the police.

But this week, they were elbow deep in poison oak near a running stream at the Audubon’s Starr Ranch Sanctuary.

The 4,000-acre sanctuary, near Dove Canyon, harbors spectacular expanses of oak woodland and coastal sage scrub, the classic Orange County outback that is elsewhere displaced by development.

But keeping the habitat healthy requires a lot of heavy lifting. Non-native plants, such as periwinkle, threaten to wipe out stands of native plants.

Sandy DeSimone, the ranch’s director of research and education, adds another challenge to conservation efforts: her mandate to control invasive plants without chemicals or herbicides.

Biology students as well as volunteers that include Boy Scouts, school and religious groups,  called “Weed Warriors” on the ranch, are often recruited to help remove the invasives by hand and restore the native vegetation.

And for a second year in a row, young adults from the Orange County Conservation Corps are pitching in, too.

The young men on the ranch this week — their third and last week on the job — are considered “at risk,” a term that covers a variety of tough and often criminal backgrounds: gangs, drugs, homelessness.

The idea is to pull them out of that world and into a new one — instilling a sense of accomplishment and hope for the future along the way.

By all accounts, it works.

“It’s hard work, but it kind of pays off,” said Diego Padilla, 22, of Placentia.

Alfredo Melchor of Santa Ana, 23 (shown in photo above), said his life was “basically nowhere; in and out of jail” before he joined the Conservation Corps. “Couldn’t get no job. Bad record.”

“Other work places, knowing how you were back then, gives a negative vibe,” he said.

But working with the Conservation Corps supervisors, including some who had similar backgrounds, opened up new possibilities.

They “know how to talk to you,” he said. “They give you the opportunity, but you’re the one who has to perform.”

He hopes to become a landscaper, and believes his experience at the ranch — learning the fine art of wrestling invasive weeds into submission — will enhance his resume.

Sedric George, 20, of Buena Park (in photo, standing near center), wants to be a barber — just as he did before he joined the group. But he also found the experience transformational.

He said he learned “the work ethic: to be on task, and stay on task. The basics.”

Before this, he said, he spent his time “staying at home, getting in trouble. I’d go out every night and party, cops, all that good stuff.”

Now he’s working on getting a high school diploma to help him get work.

Conservation Corps supervisor Luiz Frausto said he often sees dramatic changes in the attitudes of the men when they leave the program.

“I see a complete turnaround,” he said. “From not caring about anything to having something to look forward to.”

They are part of a group of about 80-85 adults in Orange County, whose mostly outdoor work is funded by a variety of grants, Frausto said.

At the meeting point of the two worlds — tough-looking young men used to tough streets, biologists and land managers used to puzzling out the intricacies of wild nature — there is plenty of humor.

“We had what we called a ‘language exchange,’” said Allison Roth, a specialist in invasive species and habitat restoration who helped supervise the men. “They teach me slang words, I teach them ‘big’ words, quote unquote.”

At first, she said, she thought her brief lectures on the wild animals at the ranch were much too nerdy to interest them. But then they began asking her follow-up questions — “Did that hummingbird have her babies yet?”

The ranch work was done with a $25,000 grant from the Orange County Transportation Authority, and covers half an acre. DeSimone hopes to have the Orange County Conservation Corps work there again in the future, but much depends on unpredictable funding sources.

There was good news as the men who worked on the ranch — usually six, some days more or fewer — wrapped up their final week. Despite close work surrounded by poison oak, sometimes requiring them to put on protective white suits, nobody got the itchy, painful rash for which the plant is famous.

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