New city administrator takes a tour of the Bolsa Chica

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

Louann and I recently gave our new city administrator, Penny

Culbreth-Graft and her husband, William, a tour of Bolsa Chica. The

weather, birds and fish were cooperative, so they got a good

introduction to one of this area’s ecological gems.

We started off at the boardwalk parking area on Pacific Coast

Highway, a mile and a half south of Warner Avenue. I bragged about

the number of terns (2,000 to 4,000 breeding pairs) that nest on the

tern islands and about the number of tern species (seven -- possibly

a world record) that breed there. We enjoyed Black Skimmers skimming

and Belding’s Savannah Sparrows (an endangered species) lurking in

the pickleweed.

Through the chain-link fence at the end of boardwalk, we looked

over the oil field. There is a lot less to see now than previously,

which is a positive step. So many oil pumps, power poles and other

oil field items have been removed recently that there has been a

dramatic improvement in appearance.

I did my best to explain the long and complex history of land

ownership at Bolsa. A long litany of oil field operators have worked

at Bolsa. But between Signal Oil in the old days and Aera Energy LLC

today, I’m sure that I missed a few.

Then we went off on what I call my periphery tour. If someone is

interested primarily birds or fish or plants, then I’ll just show

them the existing restored ecological reserve. But for people more

interested in political or land-use issues, the periphery tour is

just the ticket. You might want to try it, yourself.

First, we drove up Pacific Coast Highway to Warner Avenue to look

east across the channel at the lower bench of the Bolsa Chica Mesa.

This is the portion now protected by virtue of the California Coastal

Commission. Then we drove inland on Warner. Just as we passed Los

Patos Avenue, we could see the escarpment separating the upper and

lower benches of the mesa. We turned right at the traffic light at

Sandra Lee and followed it until it reached Los Patos. As we traveled

east on Los Patos, we got a look at the upper bench that will be the

focus of a Coastal Commission hearing on development coming up on

Aug. 12.

At Bolsa Chica Road, we drove a few hundred feet south to the gate

that now blocks vehicle access. At one time, traffic planners

intended to extend Bolsa Chica Road south across the mesa, then down

the bluff and across the wetlands to meet up with Garfield coming

from the east. This so-called Cross-gap Connector was never built,

thank heaven.

Heading back to Warner, we went further east to Graham, went

south, and turned right on Kennilworth Avenue. At the end of

Kennilworth, we looked across the rows of beans planted on 40 acres

currently owned by Shea Homes. This is the parcel formerly owned by

the Metropolitan Water District and sometimes referred to as the

switchyard parcel. Shea’s plans to build on this land conflict with

the goal that some have of using this land for a storm water

detention basin. I hope the Flood Control District can someday come

up with the funds necessary to buy out Shea.

Going back to Graham, we headed south to the end of the street.

Graham, Talbert Avenue and Springdale Street are three arterial

streets that simply dead end at Bolsa Chica. That is, they end with

no cul-de-sac, because it was once planned that they extend further

out into the wetlands to support the hundreds of additional houses

that had been planned on the wetlands. At the end of Graham is the

Fieldstone parcel, which is now owned by Hearthside Homes. It will

probably be sold to the state of California if its polychlorinated

biphenyls, or PCB, contamination issues can be resolved.

We proceeded via Slater Avenue to the end of Springdale. There, we

looked at the city’s flood control pump station and Springdale Pond.

I believe Hearthside Homes refers to this body of water as Signal

Pond. The water level was low and the pond was smelly. I’m afraid the

pond didn’t give a very good impression to the newcomers. I tried to

assure them that it was a significant body of freshwater that

provides ecosystem complexity in an otherwise saltwater environment.

I guess I’ll have to convert them into bird watchers in order to

convey to them how exciting it was to see all those phalaropes

spinning around on the pond surface.

At Talbert and Edwards Street, we paused to discuss the Edwards

Thumb portion of Bolsa Chica and the oil lease controlled by former

Councilman John Thomas. Then we visited two locations along the strip

of land many hope will someday be a linear county park extending from

Talbert all the way to Pacific Coast Highway. At the new children’s

recreation area along Seapoint Avenue, I bragged about the

community’s success in convincing the county to develop the park

primarily with native vegetation, rather than with traditional lawn

grass and nonnative trees and shrubs. The native plantings that the

county installed around the recreation area are thriving and

fragrant.

We concluded the tour back at the parking lot at Pacific Coast

Highway. Try this periphery tour drive yourself. You may see the

Bolsa Chica from a whole new perspective.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].