Natural Perspectives -- Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray
There was a commentary column in this paper last week with which we
strongly disagreed. It was by our boss, City Editor Danette Goulet. She
claimed that the Bolsa Chica restoration plan stinks.
Members of this community have fought for wetlands restoration for
more than two decades. We have battled wealthy developers who wanted to
convert the wetlands to a marina and build homes there. We have battled
misinformed members of the public who wanted a restoration plan that
spelled death for the wetlands. The last thing we thought we’d have to do
is fight our own editor.
In most businesses, disagreeing with the boss is not encouraged. But
in the newspaper business, hard-hitting controversy is the breath of
life. Besides, newspaper editors are among the strongest defenders of the
American tradition of freedom of speech. But when an editor writes a
column, it confuses the public. People might believe that it is the same
as an editorial reflecting the official opinion of the newspaper. We
assume that the Independent hasn’t shifted its decades-long support
position for the restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.
To put it gently, Goulet is misinformed. She seems to think that the
view at Bolsa Chica will be destroyed by the restoration project. She
probably thinks that surfing will be ruined at the site. However, as a
surfer herself, she ought to understand that the quality of surfing is
expected to improve as a result of the inlet. That’s exactly what
happened when the Talbert Channel was created to benefit Talbert Marsh.
These restoration projects produce small inlets, on the same size scale
as the originals, and they form small offshore sand bars that improve
surf breaks.
Goulet thinks that what she sees when she looks at a modern beach is a
work of nature. In fact, the natural condition of our beaches was
enormously different from what we have today. The native sand dune
habitat that covered the back beach is essentially gone and the beach
sand is a sterile desert because of humans. There are now only small
remnant patches of the sand verbena and beach primrose that once must
have been an awesome sight along our coastline.
The beauty that Goulet can see from the mesa is man-made beauty, far
from the “treasure of nature” that she describes. We no longer have a
natural beach at Bolsa Chica, one that is teeming with shellfish, covered
with dune plants, and host to breeding birds such as snowy plovers and
least terns. In place of a natural sand dune is the man-made
infrastructure of a modern beach: driveways, parking lots, changing
rooms, bathrooms, and 60-foot high light standards, with a four-lane
highway separating the beach from the wetlands. We don’t consider this
totally beautiful. Even the expanse of glistening white dry sand that
makes up most of the visible surface of the beach is not natural. It was
originally vegetated sand dune. Its current status of ecological
sterility is due to decades of nightly grooming by gasoline-powered heavy
equipment. If you want to see a beautiful beach, go to Central California
and see one still in its native state.
Goulet may believe that the view of the beautiful ocean, with its
offshore oil wells, will be affected. It won’t. None of the inlet
structure will extend out to sea. Again, Talbert Channel serves as the
model for Bolsa Chica.
Goulet said that there were thousands of miles of wetlands along the
coast of California. Well, not quite. This is more misinformation. But
wetlands have been massively destroyed, as she acknowledges, with only a
fraction remaining. According to the California State Lands Commission,
California has lost 4.6 million acres of historic wetlands, a loss of
91%. In Southern California, 75% of historic wetlands are now gone and
the remaining 25% have been degraded to some extent. That’s a tremendous
loss of wetland habitat.
In contrast to the loss of coastal wetlands, there has actually been a
gain in beaches. The silting in of the old inlet, caused by installation
of the tide gates by the members of the gun-club a hundred years ago,
created more beach than was there before. In the process, it destroyed
the ebb and flow of tidal water-the lifeblood of the wetlands.
No, the real treasures of nature in this area are within Bolsa Chica
Ecological Reserve. And, yes, they are scarcer than the treasures of the
beach.
But being misinformed is easily passed over. What is harder for us to
understand is Goulet’s willingness to just give up the good fight. She
wrote that perhaps the Bolsa Chica “is an area destroyed by man and
that’s it.” Dead wrong. Bolsa Chica has tremendous restoration potential.
The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service believes that overall habitat value at
Bolsa Chica can be improved by a factor of four, and for many species, by
factors vastly greater than that.
Restoration will improve the scenic beauty of the Bolsa Chica by
removing oil wells and replacing dried up cells with productive wetland
habitat. Environmental professionals have worked conscientiously and
diligently to create a plan that will benefit fisheries and other
wildlife, while causing the least impact to beach goers. After nearly
three decades, we’re almost there. This is no time to throw a monkey
wrench into the works.
* VIC LEIPZIG PhD and LOU MURRAY PhD are Huntington Beach residents
and environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 vicleipzig@aol.comf7 .
All the latest on Orange County from Orange County.
Get our free TimesOC newsletter.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Daily Pilot.