NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

It was a great day. A fabulous day. A day as good as they get. It was Thursday, Aug. 24, and, as scheduled, the new tidal inlet was opened and tidal water returned to the center of Bolsa Chica for the first time in 107 years. This event marked the end of a 30-year battle to save the Bolsa Chica wetland and restore it to full tidal flushing.

A crowd had begun to gather as early as 5 a.m. People jammed the bike path bridge at the south end of Bolsa Chica State Beach, watching eagerly as bulldozers and backhoes scraped the last of the sand berm out of the inlet channel. The equipment retreated a few minutes before 6 a.m., and the crowd let out a cheer. They could see that, at long last, the water of the ocean was mingling with the water of the bay.

In the crowd were lots of members of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, the group that has worked the longest to save Bolsa Chica from development. We saw Shirley and Bob Dettloff, Margaret and Dave Carlberg, Jennifer and Jim Robins, Thomas Anderson and Brian Westcott. All are longtime activists. They joined Lou and me in a pre-dawn champagne toast to the culmination of so much community effort.

Also on hand were representatives of numerous public agencies, especially Jack Fancher of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Jack was the prime mover of the restoration project. With him was Bob Hoffman of the National Marine Fisheries Service. Bob (himself a Huntington Beach resident) brought calm persistence to a project that has taken years to accomplish. Representing the State Lands Commission was Jim Trout, a dedicated public servant who has worked on Bolsa Chica issues since the 1960s. From the Department of Fish and Game there was Terri Stewart. A longtime Bolsa Chica lover, Tom Yocom, who recently retired from the U.S. EPA, couldn’t stay away. There were probably many more there that morning — in the large crowd I couldn’t see everybody!

Councilman Gil Coerper came by, as did City Administrator Penny Culbreth-Graft. There were folks from the Bolsa Chica Conservancy and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. But mostly there were ordinary people, walkers and bikers and surfers, all oohing and aahing at the sight. There were even dolphins, just offshore, maybe watching us.

People rejoiced about the new bridge, an improvement that will keep Pacific Coast Highway open even after major winter storms. This had been a low spot in the old highway. Previously, this section of the highway would flood when high tides and winter storms coincided, and the highway would have to be closed between Warner Avenue and Seapointe Avenue.

But the opening of the inlet was only half of what made it such a great day. It was early that same morning that the Bolsa Chica loop trail reopened. The trail had been closed at the end of the boardwalk for more than a year as the restoration work created channels for the water, nesting islands for the birds and refuge basins for fish. The project also widened, raised and strengthened the trail system. Now there are elevated viewpoints along the trail. The views from these new spots are awesome.

Lou and I walked much of the rebuilt trail on Thursday morning. We were delighted to see huge numbers of terns, skimmers and shorebirds. We had been concerned that all the noise and dust of heavy earth-moving equipment might have driven off some of the scarcer species, but we found every species that we had any reason to worry about. There were meadowlarks singing on Rabbit Island. There were Belding’s Savannah Sparrows in the marsh. A special treat was a Loggerhead Shrike. This is a species that has declined so badly in Orange County that the only breeding populations left are at Bolsa Chica and at the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge. The best news was that the individual we saw on Thursday morning was a juvenile — proof that the species had bred at Bolsa Chica again this summer, despite all the construction equipment!

On Sunday, Lou and I walked other parts of the trail. We could hardly find a parking space in the main parking lot — the lot was full. At first we wondered if a special event was taking place that we hadn’t gotten word of. But a glance at the walk-bridge explained it all. We’ve never seen so many people enjoying Bolsa Chica.

We ran into three different groups of people we knew — not people who frequent Bolsa Chica, just regular people of Huntington Beach, all them of excited at the new habitat, the new vistas and the new public access. Very few of them were birders; most people were simply strolling or jogging. Some were taking pictures. There are many ways to take pleasure in this great new asset, this rare gem, this fabulous enlarged wetland that is now ours to enjoy.

There are many years of delight ahead for people to watch the newly restored wetland change, grow and thrive. The flowing water will sculpt the newly graded mudflats, which will soon be colonized by myriad worms, crabs, clams and other marine invertebrates. Fish and birds will find the new habitat and multiply madly. And soon new plants will cover the raw dirt banks of our magnificent Bolsa Chica, a treasure for all time.

VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and environmentalists. They can be reached at vicleipzig@aol.com.

-------------------------------------------------------------

QUESTION OF THE WEEK

Was saving the Bolsa Chica worth all the time and effort? Call our Reader’s Hotline at (714) 966-4691 or send e-mail to hbindependent@latimes.com. Please spell your name and include your hometown and phone number for verification purposes.