Bolsa restoration begins

Dave Brooks

One of the largest wetlands restoration projects in California kicked

off Wednesday at the Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve, one that

could reclaim much of the coastal habitat for wildlife and native

species through a collaboration with state and federal environmental

agencies.

The real heroes however, said Mayor Cathy Green, were the Amigos

de Bolsa Chica, local residents who fought to protect the wetlands

area from large-scale development through lobbying, community

outreach and litigation.

“This is a dream come true,” Green told an audience of several

hundred people who came to celebrate the groundbreaking. “We began as

a rag-tag band of activists, and after a while we grew. We had a

goal, we never lost site of it and now look what happened.”

The area proposed for restoration is just south of the

controversial Bolsa Chica mesa, which could be purchased soon with

state funding if the properties’ board of directors approve the sale.

Ray Pacini, chief executive officer of landowner Hearthside Homes,

said his company wouldn’t agree to sell unless they are allowed to

build on the upper portion of the mesa.

While that portion of the Bolsa Chica is before the California

Coastal Commission, environmentalist plan to move forward with the

restoration of nearly 900 acres of marine and wetland habitat using

money from the expansion of the Long Beach and Los Angeles harbors.

For years, much of the wetland was used for oil extraction and a

major component of the restoration will now involve the purchase and

removal of extraction facilities.

The other component is a plan to restore a connection with the

ocean by creating a tidal inlet under Pacific Coast Highway, allowing

seawater to flow into the marsh. Restoring an ocean connection will

bring the construction of two new bridges, one on Pacific Coast

Highway and another for continued access to some existing field oil

wells still on former wetlands. As those extraction efforts begin to

dry up, the land they currently occupy could eventually be

reconnected with the Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Wednesday’s ceremony included a number of state and local

officials -- including California Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante -- who

have gotten involved in the restoration efforts.

“There’s only one thing left to say and that is ‘it’s about

time,’” said Bustamante. “We’re at the end of a lengthy and tedious

process to save this critical habitat and the beginning of a rebirth.

Congratulations, you have left a legacy for generations of

Californians.”

Representatives from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the

Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers

also spoke at Wednesday’s ceremony, calling the restoration -- which

has been 33 years in the making -- a model for saving other wetlands

in the state.

Before the 20th century, the Bolsa Chica existed as a massive

freshwater marsh, extending from Anaheim Bay to the Huntington Beach

Bluffs. At the turn of the century, the Bolsa Chica was diked in an

effort to create a regional gun club and later sold and drained for

oil extrication. In the 1970s, it was proposed for a large-scale

development into a residential marina, spawning the birth of the

Amigos de Bolsa who fought to keep the wetlands as an ecological

reserve.

At Wednesday’s ceremony, energy executive Eugene Voiland said that

oil extraction might have helped save the wetlands.

“If the oil fields hadn’t existed, the wetlands would have surely

been developed and lost forever. Now it can come back full circle,”

he said.

Much of the marine fauna and bird species will simply return when

the salt water returns and traces of the lands’ past use as an oil

producer disappear, officials said.

“There is always a push between business and the environment,”

said local activist Joey Racano. “Today the environment pushed back.”

* DAVE BROOKS covers City Hall. He can be reached at (714)

965-7173 or by e-mail at [email protected].