Envisioning Ballona: Is Big Change Coming to L.A.’s Biggest Wetland?

If the Ballona Wetlands had ears, they were burning earlier this month, and for good reason.

More than 150 environmentalists, academics, researchers and activists came to Loyola Marymount University to discuss the 600-acre Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. While the meeting was supposed to be all about science, there was an underlying tension: The coastal wetland is due for a remodeling and people do not agree about how extensive the remake should be.There is a range of alternatives being proposed for developing and restoring the wetlands. The go-slow approach views Ballona as a viable habitat now. Other, more sweeping plans envision scouring out the man-made water channels to improve habitat, removing some of the concrete aqueduct to increase tidal flushing and bulldozing some seasonal marsh. That would make the area wetter year-round by removing fill dumped in Ballona during development of neighboring land. Some of that removed fill would be used to create additional uplands.

At the heart of the debate is general agreement that much of Southern California’s remaining wetlands are worth preserving, and Ballona represents the greatest opportunity in Los Angeles County for such preservation. Wetlands provide habitat and breeding grounds for birds and fish, improve water quality and provide flood control and recreation.

Consider: In the 240 years since Father Junipero Serra started the mission system, California has lost 91 percent of its coastal marshes to development, and Southern California has lost 95 percent. Statewide, there are only 184,000 acres remaining of some 2 million acres of coastal marsh.

In 2004, the 600 acres at Ballona were saved when a large portion of what is left of the 2,000-acre historic marsh and some of its uplands were bought by the state. They are now administered by the California Department of Fish and Game as an ecological reserve. The State Coastal Conservancy and the California State Lands Commission are participating partners with the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission in the planning and restoration of the wetlands.

Last week’s Ballona Wetlands Science and Research Symposium was convened by the restoration commission to report on the first phase of its baseline-monitoring program, which has collected physical, chemical, biological, bird, mammal, fish and human use data about the wetlands. This data and continued monitoring will be used to plan how to best develop adaptive, long-term restoration and monitoring plans for the wetlands.

Among the more accessible scientific reports was the baseline bird survey by biologist Dan Cooper. He found about 100 bird species, including 80 water birds, and 60 species that were nesting/breeding in or near the reserve.  Among the species were Belding’s savannah sparrow, which is “the reserve’s famous rare species that is now common,” he said.

Gone, however, are the California quail, the northern pintail and American avocet, which were common before development replaced open land. Other species that were found in 2010 but not in unaffiliated surveys in 1980 and 1990 include the peregrine falcon, least Bell’s vireo, which are so-called federal or state special status species, as well as the Canada goose, merlin, Cassin’s kingbird, and yellow warbler, lesser goldfinch and Allen’s hummingbird.

The next big step in the process will be the development of an environmental impact report; that could begin as early as January, when the restoration commission will issue a Notice of Preparation and a Notice of Intent under state and federal environmental protection laws.

The EIR, which could take up to two years to complete, will include public hearings and opportunities for public comment.