Natural Perspectives:

The tragic news spread through the environmental community like wildfire last week. I was utterly shocked when Vic told me the news. Indefatigable environmental activist Jan Vandersloot had passed away unexpectedly. Vandersloot was found slumped over his computer Nov. 4, dead of a possible heart attack. Our local wetlands have lost one of their most stalwart defenders.

Vandersloot was active in the Amigos de Bolsa Chica during the early decades of the battle to save Bolsa Chica, leaving the Amigos to help found the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. He fought to save the wetlands in south Huntington Beach as well, most recently the small parcel along Beach Boulevard that was bulldozed to create a parking lot. Vandersloot documented wetlands plants with his camera, always ready to write letters and go to court on behalf of wetlands under assault.

He was a great champion of San Diego Creek in Newport Beach as well, protesting clearing of native vegetation along the creek banks, vegetation that served a function as valuable wildlife habitat.

Vandersloot was the person who suggested placing the new ocean inlet for the full tidal basin at its present location. He later changed his mind about that and supported a muted tidal system instead of a fully tidal system. Vic took up the banner of the south inlet, and that is the plan that was implemented. But it was Vandersloot’s idea originally.

Vandersloot lived with his family in Newport Beach and practiced dermatology here in Huntington Beach. He was not only our friend, but at one time our dermatologist as well. He will be sorely missed.

The loss of Vandersloot comes right on the heels of another sad loss, that of Joel Pasco, a veterinarian who was instrumental in founding the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center at the Huntington Wetlands. A memorial service was held for him there Saturday.

We regret that Vandersloot and Pasco won’t be with us to see the many changes occurring at Bolsa Chica. The new pedestrian bridge at Warner Avenue should be completed in December. Construction began in September and should have been finished by now. But when the construction crew arrived, they found that non-native burrowing isopods had caused so much erosion of the banks that their survey was obsolete. The banks had eroded about five to six feet inland of what where their maps showed. The workers had to move the placement of pylons inland about six feet on each side of the banks of the channel. Uh oh, that meant that the bridge unit, which was being constructed off-site, would be too short. They had to redesign the bridge unit. Hence the delays.

But here’s a thought. If isopods have caused several feet of erosion of the banks over the past five years, what is going to happen in the next five years? Nothing has been done to stop their burrowing, so the banks are going to continue to erode. It won’t be many years before the erosion reaches the base of the pylons. We’re not engineers, but that doesn’t seem like a good thing. We sure hope that someone took this ongoing erosion into consideration in designing the bridge.

But there is some good news on the horizon about Bolsa Chica. The state legislature passed an $11.1-billion bond package last week called the Safe, Clean and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act.

This bond is the biggest thing that the state has done in regard to water supply since the 1960s. A large component of the bond measure is funding regarding the San Francisco Bay Delta. Passage of the bond measure would allow construction of a peripheral canal that will allow Sacramento River water to bypass the delta on its way to Southern California. This aspect of the bond is highly controversial among environmentalists, and there will be lots of opposition to it.

But the great news for us locally is that this bond measure also includes a $20-million earmark for the further restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands and uplands, including a planned Education and Restoration Center to be built by the Bolsa Chica Conservancy at Harriett M. Wieder Regional Park in Huntington Beach. But first, the bond measure must be voted on by the public. If it passes during the general election in November 2010, we’ll see a lot more good things happening at Bolsa Chica.

Meanwhile, the Bolsa Chica Conservancy is moving forward with the planning phase for the new center and holding a public workshop from 9 to 11 a.m. and 12:30 to 2:30 p.m. Saturday about this new center. The members would like input from the public about possible plans, which could include exhibit space, classrooms for lectures, laboratories for hands-on wetland science activities, a native plant garden and viewing platforms for observing birds in the wetlands below.

The workshop will be at Seapoint Avenue and Doral Drive, the proposed site for the center. The Orange County Board of Supervisors approved a lease option for this site in March between the Bolsa Chica Conservancy and OC Parks. To confirm attendance at the workshop, call (877) 265-7261 or e-mail [email protected]. We know Vandersloot will be there in spirit.

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