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| A
great blue heron enjoying the Ballona wetlands.
Photo: Professor Howard Towner, LMU & Friends
of Ballona Wetlands |
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| A
portion of Ballona, the only
remaining large coastal wetlands ecosystem
in Los Angeles County. Photo: Professor
Howard Towner, LMU & Friends
of Ballona Wetlands |
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Nearly
500 acres of open space and wetland in Los Angeles
County spared development
In
September, the Davis administration announced
the purchase of 192 acres of the Ballona Wetlands
for $140 million. The Trust for Public Land
facilitated the sale of the wetlands and open
space from Playa Vista to the state of California,
and, along with the purchase, Senate Bill 666
(Bowen) was signed into law. This bill transferred
management and ownership of the approximately
65 acre parcel east of Lincoln Blvd. and north
of Ballona Creek to the California Department
of Resources. As a result, there will never
be any development west of Lincoln Blvd. and
there will never be any development of approximately
483 acres of contiguous open space and wetland.
As
the battle for Ballona has raged over the last
few decades, the local community has been more
and more successful in reclaiming
the wetlands from the threat of future development.
In the mid 1980s, few would have dreamed
that the final wetlands area would be nearly
500
acres. Now that dream is a reality: a coastal
wetland with numerous endangered species,
amazing biodiversity and beauty, a nursery
for Santa
Monica Bay marine life, and a treasure that
will be owned and enjoyed by the people of
California in perpetuity.
The
complex sale of the wetlands never would have
happened without the 30 years of remarkable
effort by Ruth Lansford and
the Friends of Ballona, the dogged persistence
of Marcia Hanscom and the Wetlands Action
Network
and the Sierra Club, and the leadership
of former Councilperson Ruth Galanter at the
City. Environment Now brought the environmental
community
together, and the purchase also depended
on the Ballona Wetlands Foundation, the Santa
Monica BayKeeper, the Ballona Wetlands
Land
Trust, the leadership and clout of Resources
Secretary Mary Nichols, and so many others.
This purchase never could have happened
without an unprecedented coalition of environmental
groups pushing for the sale of the land
and
the preservation and restoration of all
483 acres. Although no one in the environmental
community was happy about the high cost of
the wetlands, thirty years from now, when our
children and grandchildren visit the wetlands,
no one will care what California paid for this
precious and unique resource.
After
30 years of strife, litigation, land ownership
changes,
and continual habitat degradation, the
State, environmental community, and local community
will now begin discussions on wetland
restoration.
Heal the Bay plans to be integrally involved
in the restoration efforts every step
of the way. |
