Conservationists have declared the five-year effort to restore six acres of degraded coastal sand dunes near Los Angeles International Airport a success.

More than half the restoration area within the former Surfridge housing tract now consists of natural habitat, according to a just-released Ecological Monitoring Report.

The LAX Coastal Dunes Improvement Project, as the program is formally known, began in 2013 in the “ghost town” area west of the airport, an abandoned subdivision of hundreds of homes adjacent to the El Segundo Butterfly Preserve, which provides habitat for the endangered species.

Four acres of abandoned streets, sidewalks, foundations and other infrastructure were removed and the entire six-acre site was regraded and seeded with native dune and coastal prairie species.

“The dune is stable, predominantly native with some seasonal variability, and supports an abundance of native wildlife and vegetation,” concluded the report written by The Bay Foundation. “Combined efforts by Los Angeles World Airports, The Bay Foundation and their partners have allowed for this restoration area to be transformed from impervious roads and other cement and asphalt surfaces into a thriving native, vegetated dune community.”

The dunes support several unique species that are seen nowhere else in addition to the blue butterfly including two moths, two weevils and the Coastal Little Pocket Mouse.

Since 2013, 84 restoration events to remove non-native vegetation have occurred and involved over 2,000 participants committing more than 6,000 volunteer hours and removing over 2,500 bags of invasive plant species, the report said.

The scope of the restoration effort compared with others the nonprofit has done makes it important on a regional level, said Karina Johnston, a co-author of the report and The Bay Foundation’s director of watershed programs.

“This one is definitely the largest scale and I think it’s regionally significant as well,” she said. “We as humans love to live on our coastline and historically there were large sand dunes up and down the California coastline. They’ve been reduced a lot in part due to development and other factors and the LAX Dunes remains one of the largest opportunities for a healthy coastal dune in the Southern California region.”

The main metric used to gauge the success of the restoration project is the “relative vegetation cover” – relative refers to the patches of sand between dune vegetation.

A mapping project conducted in June found the relative native vegetation cover in the six-acre restoration area was higher than 50 percent, the threshold conservationists see as a measure of success.

The proximity of the area near the butterfly preserve is also significant, Johnston said.

“It’s important that it’s adjacent to the butterfly preserve and it’s adjacent to other portions of the dune that have been restored by the airport,” she said. “Improving habitat can only help some of the rare species.”

The public can help do that from 8:45 a.m. to noon on Aug. 4, the next monthly restoration event at the dunes, said LAX spokesman Charles H. Pannunzio.

Gloves, tools, water and snacks are provided; volunteers should bring closed toe shoes, a hat, long pants and long sleeved shirt. More information is available at SantaMonicaBay.org and registration is required.

“The unique community of plants and animals that exist at the LAX Dunes are clearly worth protection,” said Tom Ford, the foundation’s executive director in a press release.

“As far as we’ve come, there is still a great more to do … So, if you haven’t contributed, join us; if you have contributed, please come back, enjoy the familiar faces, and expand this great work.”