NATURAL PERSPECTIVES

We got an urgent phone call on Tuesday the 14th from Phil Smith, former executive director of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy. He said that contractors hired by the city were planning to fill a small wetland cell at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve the next morning.

I was prepared to lie down in front of the bulldozers. Vic, being the more rational of the two of us, called Grace Adams, the conservancy’s executive director. Grace told the construction foreman that it was illegal to fill wetlands and that there are endangered species that use the area. The foreman, although otherwise pleasant, said he didn’t have to listen to that (expletive deleted), and that he had a permit to do the work.

We didn’t think that the permit was adequate for what the city wanted to do. Their proposed work involves the city’s sewer line under Warner Avenue. The city is installing a new and improved sewer pipe, most of it in the centerline of Warner. But at the bridge where Warner crosses the channel between Huntington Harbour and Bolsa Chica, the plan is to run the pipe south of the bridge.

The contractor told Grace he needed to temporarily fill the East Cell wetlands south of Warner and west of the channel, up to 28 feet from the edge of Warner. That would fill pickleweed habitat that is used by endangered Belding’s Savannah Sparrows.

Vic set up a meeting Wednesday morning with me, Phil Smith, three guys from Public Works — Dave Webb, Travis Hopkins and Joe Dale — plus Dennis Dembik of Harris and Associates, and Basavalienganadoddi Chandrashekar, an engineer from the State Lands Commission. The commission is the official landowner of the Ecological Reserve.

The Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve isn’t within city jurisdiction (as we think it should be), but the city does have a right-of-way along Warner Avenue where the old sewer runs underground. Apparently, some consultant to the city had told them that the project could proceed on the basis of a negative declaration, that is, without need for an environmental impact report. The consultant must also have told them that there was no need for a permit from the Coastal Commission. When Coastal Commission staff heard about that, they had a pretty good chuckle.

City staff members said that the fill would be temporary and that they would re-contour the ground as it had been and replant vegetation. I tried to explain how sensitive the site was, how much work had gone into restoring it, and what a setback for restoration the fill would be. The city promised to see if they could reduce the impact by moving the project closer to Warner Avenue.

Phil called everyone he could think of who might be able to stop the work, including state Sen. Tom Harman. I contacted Marc Stirdivant, executive director of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which set off a howl of protest from the public to the City Council. Grace called the State Lands Commission. They put a stop-work hold on the project last Wednesday afternoon.

Grace and I paced off the city’s working revised plan as described to us. It would still extend 14 feet into the wetlands and affect naturally growing saltgrass, shoregrass, alkali heath, pickleweed, saltwort and sea lavender, as well as the coyote brush, saltbush, white sage and spiny rush that we had planted along Warner Avenue three years ago. Since it takes native plants about 2 to 3 years to get a good root system, the plantings are just now getting established.

City officials said they wouldn’t be working there long, only a few weeks, and that they’d “put everything back just like it was.” But look how long it took to get to where we are today. East Cell was scraped out of mesa uplands and restored to muted tidal flushing in 1978 by the Department of Fish and Game. Slowly, marsh plants reestablished themselves, but the project languished for lack of adequate tidal flushing.

In 2001, Tetratech replaced the 10-inch culverts with 12-inch culverts, and set the culverts two inches lower. The increased tidal flushing resulted in more lush plant growth, but unwanted pedestrian traffic across the wetland cell kept it from really thriving. Several years ago, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust installed fencing along Warner Avenue that greatly reduced trespass onto the wetlands.

With the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, I planted shrubs along Warner to further protect the cell from trespass, and planted pickleweed on the mudflat. Since the shoulder was about three-quarters native plants when we started, it was a challenge finding suitable spots for additional shrubs.

This year for the first time ever, saltwort stretched across the wetlands and reached the gravel shoulder of Warner Avenue. Shoregrass grew down from the shoulder to intertwine with the saltwort, forming an integrated network of native plants across the mudflats. It took 26 years to achieve this level of restoration, and now the city wants to destroy it.

This wetland destruction is not a done deal. Our understanding of the Coastal Act is that the city will need to get permits from the Coastal Commission before it can proceed. Hearings on the environmental impact will be conducted. Some of the proposed damage can be mitigated, but it would set restoration back by many years.

For now Bolsa Chica is safe, but threats are always present. We can never let down our guard.