A more mellow marsh

Danette Goulet

Editor’s Note: This is the first of a two-part series examining the

proposed restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Next week, we will look

at a successful restoration project in San Diego county and what can be

expected here.

For decades rusted metal monstrosities have ruled Bolsa Chica, bobbing

their man-made heads endlessly on the desolate marshes, extracting

resources from the earth.

Now, their reign is nearly over and Mother Nature will flourish once

again. Water will pour back into the neglected salt marshes and mud flats

so wildlife might reclaim the mesa.

In November, the California Coastal Commission approved a plan to

restore full tidal flooding to the wetlands of Bolsa Chica by cutting an

inlet through the state beach.

The $100-million proposal to revive the 1,200 acres has been in the

works for nearly five years. It is the culmination of three decades of

persistence for many environmentalists who insist that opening the area

up to the ocean is the only way to restore and preserve the land that is

home to many endangered species and is a stopover for many weary

travelers on the Pacific flyway.

While it has very vocal and visible support it is not without

opposition.

Members of the Surfrider Foundation have questioned the plan and said

that they will fight it although no visible campaign has been mounted.

“Inlet is another word for storm drain and a storm drain is a source

of pollution for the ocean -- that’s the bottom line,� said Lisa Brooks,

chair of the Huntington Beach chapter of the Surfrider Foundation. “Right

now Bolsa Chica is considered one of the cleanest beaches in the area.�

Wildlife officials have said that studies and experience elsewhere

show that the beach’s water quality will be unaffected by the inlet.

The plan is the most expensive wetlands recovery project in the

state’s history. It promises to turn the 1,200-acre coastal expanse of

polluted salt marshes, mud flats, tidal pools and oil rigs into a

thriving ecosystem. It calls for cutting a 360-foot-wide swath in the

popular state beach that lies between the ocean and the wetlands and

building a four lane traffic bridge over the inlet created.

The ocean inlet will be large enough to accommodate the flow of water

needed for future restoration back where oil fields remain active. When

the oil is depleted in those areas in the next 15 to 20 years, the dyke

will be breached and it too will be restored to full tidal flooding.

The immediate project, however, would restore full tidal flooding to

366.5 acres of the Bolsa Chica lowlands and muted tidal flooding to about

200 acres.

An area of about 120 acres in the southeastern corner will be left as

seasonal ponds.

“What the various elements that make up final project will do is

provide [a] habitat for different species,� said Shirley Dettloff, a

member of the California Coastal Commissioners who approved this plan.

“Each species requires and likes different habitats. We have to have deep

water for pelicans who dive and fish, shore birds and wading birds need

more shallow water and mud flaps.

“Fish want obviously a little deeper water to hatch their young, least

terns like the sandy area, fish lay eggs and feed young.�

Dettloff, also a Huntington Beach councilwoman, was a founding member

of Amigos de Bolsa Chica. She began the fight to save the wetlands more

than 30 years ago.

Once part of a chain of flourishing salt marshes that stretched the

length of the coast, the Bolsa Chica wetlands were cut off from the ocean

more than a century ago by duck hunters who filled the natural inlet to

create better hunting conditions.

Now, the neglected marshes of Bolsa Chica, meaning little pocket in

Spanish, is the largest remaining wetland in Southern California and a

key stopover for migratory birds on the Pacific flyway.

Of that once-grand chain of wetlands in the state, 90% has been

destroyed.

“It is man again tampering with Mother Nature,� Dettloff said. “Man

saying they are stronger and will prevail. But I have found Mother Nature

always says otherwise.�

The fight to save the wetlands from suffering a similar fate as

Huntington Harbour and countless other areas up and down the coast began

in an unlikely place.

“The spark was the League of Woman Voters, who did a study of

environmental issues in the late 60s early 70s,� said Dave Carlberg,

another of the founding members of Amigos de Bolsa Chica, which was born

out the league’s environmental discoveries. “They are the ones that

realized the valuable resource here at our door step that was destined to

be destroyed and turned into another harbor.�

Since the league was a bipartisan organization and thus could take no

action, the friends of the wetlands were born in 1976, Carlberg said.

“The Amigos, being a lobbying organization, picked up the battle and

been at it ever since,� he said.

Over the years, other groups like the Surfrider Foundation, the Sierra

Club and in particular the Bolsa Chica Land Trust have also joined the

fight.

For three decades now, government officials, developers and

environmentalists have argued over the wetlands, which nearly became part

of a major residential development and marina.

“When I came here 35 years ago everyone thought Huntington Harbour was

a fine idea -- we were filling in swamps,� Dettloff said. “People were

trying to create more buildable area. Luckily, almost too late, we’ve

become wiser, we’ve discovered the importance of the ecosystem.�

The state stepped in four years ago and bought 880 acres for $25

million.

The project still needs approval from two other e and federal

agencies. The California State Lands Commission unanimously approved the

project at its meeting Wednesday morning. The project is expected to

begin in 2003 and take about three years to complete.

While the Coastal Commissions’s November decision was expected to be

the last major hurdle in the battle to return the lands to the western

snowy plovers and least terns, there are still a couple wars left to

wage.

Although a judge has upheld a California Coastal Commission decision

in August to bar construction on the lower area of the mesa, which is to

serve as a foraging area for wild birds, developer Hearthside Homes

continues to fight the rulings with hopes to build more than 300 homes

there.

But the more immediate battle for restoration advocates is the promise

of a fight from fellow environmentalist at the Surfrider Foundation, who

say they plan to block the project before it gains final approval.

“We’re basically opposed to armoring the coast,� said longtime

Surfrider member Bill Gregory. “If you armor the coast there’s a good

possibility you’ll lose sand down the coast. Just by the nature of

cutting the coast we’re losing beach.�

Surfrider is a national, nonprofit organization dedicated to

protecting the oceans, waves and beaches.

Gregory estimates that once the 360-foot inlet is cut and rock jetties

are built, about 1,000-feet of sandy beach will be lost from Pacific

Coast Highway out.

“It’s just an unnatural way of restoring the whole thing,� Gregory

argued. “We look at it as four ecosystems -- the ocean, shoreline,

wetlands and mesa -- those things should all be considered.�

But Dettloff would argue that introducing water is not only natural,

but necessary. Since the proposed inlet is where the ocean naturally

breaches, it is a natural choice.

Surfrider members have supported the restoration of Bolsa Chica, but

were in favor of the option that would not involve the construction of a

tidal inlet. The plan they supported would improve the Bolsa Chica

lowlands by introducing more seawater via Huntington Harbour.

“I think right now we’re reviewing our legal position through the

national chapter,� Gregory said. “We don’t believe they responded

properly to mitigation concerns and sand replenishment.�

* DANETTE GOULET is the assistant city editor. She can be reached at

(714) 965-7170 or by e-mail at o7 [email protected] .