Natural Perspectives:

Two weeks ago, Vic and I wrote about the record 7.3-foot-high tide that rolled onto shore, a high tide that was swelled by a storm surge.

The high water topped the berm that separates East Cell from the main channel at Warner Bridge and cut a new channel into the wetland cell. Now even a moderately high tide will overtop the berm and cut the channel even deeper.

That turned out to be only one effect of the extra high tide. That high tide also undercut Pacific Coast Highway near the tide gates, eating well into the bike lane. As a consequence, north-bound traffic on PCH is closed until repairs are completed. The south parking lot for the Ecological Reserve is also closed.

Last week, Vic and I hiked from the Bolsa Chica Conservancy building to the gun turret overlooked by the tide gates and back.

Across the bay, new steel sheeting already had been pounded in place to protect the highway. This corrugated sheeting goes deep into the ground and is designed to stop erosion and undercutting of the highway. Such sheeting has been installed on the sides of some flood control channels in south Huntington Beach and on the flood control channel by Graham Street. They should work just fine. Until the ocean rises even more.

We’re aware that not everyone believes in global warming. We’re aware that not everyone believes that global warming is caused by the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. And we’re aware that some people can’t connect the fact that all that carbon dioxide in the air is the result of burning coal, oil and natural gas to produce energy.

It took millions and millions of years for nature to sequester all that carbon in the form of oil, coal and natural gas. In the case of oil, we burned up about half of it in a little more than 100 years. Pouring all that carbon back into the atmosphere in the form of carbon dioxide was bound to have an effect. And sure enough, glaciers and ice sheets are melting. The ocean is expanding as it warms. And ocean levels are going up.

We’re entering uncharted territory for high tides. Recent predictions from the Pacific Institute are that tides in California will rise another 4.6 feet by the end of this century. More conservative estimates from the Union of Concerned Scientists regarding ocean level rise in California suggests that it will rise by 14 to 30 inches by the end of this century. Ocean levels already have risen about 8 inches in California over that past century as measured by tide gauges.

We’re seeing dramatic results from just the little bit that the ocean has already risen. The collapse of PCH about three weeks ago is just one more way in which global warming is affecting all of us. Taxpayers will be footing the bill for sea walls, highways and other infrastructure repairs that are made necessary because of sea level rise.

Other news from Bolsa Chica is better. A few weeks back, I mentioned that I would no longer be able to bring my work crews from the Orange County Conservation Corps to work for free at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. That much is still true.

I had pictured not being able to bring them at all, not even for the educational experience. Fortunately, that has turned out to be wrong. Even with the budget cuts that the corps sustained, we’re still able to bring the brand new crews to Bolsa Chica for an introduction to habitats and conservation.

Vic and I led a group of 14 new recruits on a nature hike and wildlife survey at Bolsa Chica last week. We gave them a checklist of invertebrates, fish, reptiles, birds and mammals and took them on a hike to see how many species we could find.

We did pretty well, locating barnacles, mussels, California horn snails, lined shore crabs, carp, topsmelt, Western fence lizards, California ground squirrels, Audubon’s cottontails and a host of birds.

We even found a velvet ant, a species not on our checklist of common wildlife at Bolsa Chica. Velvet ants are hairy, reddish-orange insects. They are actually wasps, not ants. The females are flightless and crawl around like enormous ants the size of honeybees.

The corps members wanted to know if velvet ants are dangerous. Well, they can sting, so the answer is yes. These pretty little wasps are supposed to have good dispositions and are not likely to sting unless mishandled. But the sting is reported to be so powerful that it can kill a cow. Don’t know how much of this is true, but I wasn’t about to test it.

When we arrived at the Bolsa Chica Conservancy after our hike, Dena Hawes gave a fabulous presentation on the live animals in the marine aquaria and terraria. The corps members got to handle several species of snakes that are kept there for educational purposes.

Dena pointed out that one of the resident’s alligator lizards had a problem with one of its hind legs. I thought it might be gangrene caused by inadequate shedding, but I’m not very good at diagnosing lizard ailments. Fortunately, Dena called Jason Haywood, president of the Southern California Herpetology Assn.

Jason determined that the lizard was female and that her leg was broken, most likely during some overly amorous adventures with the male in the terrarium. Jason set the toothpick-sized leg and gave Dena some medication for the wound.

Dena will be checking the sand in the terrarium over the next few weeks for evidence of leathery lizard eggs.

Highways collapse, eggs hatch, and life goes on.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected] .