SOUNDING OFF:Back Bay: more than a city park

Our new Orange County supervisor, John Moorlach, is apparently not ready to reveal all of his plans regarding Orange County parks, but he does seem ready to reveal his proposal to offload at least one of our most important and successful county facilities, Upper Newport Bay Nature Preserve, simply to save money.

Moorlach is reviving the plan that was floated earlier but met with serious opposition, involving transfer of the responsibility for the bay to Newport Beach. Apparently he believes the city could do a better job than the county (and state) of managing the bay. He thinks parks should be run by the cities they’re in rather than by the county or state they’re in. Why does he believe this?

Upper Newport Bay is much more than a city park.

The county’s nature preserve and the state’s ecological reserve together provide a habitat for numerous local native species of birds, plants, mammals and other animals including several threatened and endangered species, and it is enormously important for migratory birds as well.

The existing management agencies — the state Department of Fish and Game and the County Division of Harbors, Beaches and Parks — are doing an excellent job of managing the bay in spite of their limited resources. They are, as always, in need of additional support so that they can expand their activities in habitat restoration, exotic species control, and trail maintenance. As an urban-edge nature preserve, the bay will always require constant attention and support in order to prevent vandalism, over-use, unregulated access, and invasion by exotic species of plants and animals.

The bay is also an invaluable educational asset serving the county and beyond, and as such, it should continue under the management of the county and the state. From the base of a magnificent interpretive center, the county staff and volunteers serve all age groups from a geographic area well beyond city boundaries, with guided tours, interpretive activities, exhibits, and various habitat-restoration programs. The nature preserve has a dedicated staff that has worked for years to build up a wonderful educational program for adults and children. The taxpayers have accepted the existing management arrangement, which has proven to be effective, secure, and in no need of radical change.

The proposal to transfer bay management to the city raises the possibility that the city will again consider hiring the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust to manage the bay. The trust is firmly under the control of the Irvine Co., with the same chairman of the board, and the organization has little or no experience in managing coastal wetlands or nature reserves in general. Many people worked hard and long to take the bay out of the Irvine Co.’s sphere of influence and its development mentality, so any such plan seems like a giant step backward and not in the interests of the bay or its users.

As with previous incarnations of this plan for transfer to city management, the public and the membership of Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends appear to have been left out of the discussions. I hope that eventually any decision-making process will be carried out openly and with full opportunities for public comment.

Moorlach should study the issues much more thoroughly before shooting from the hip with stop-gap measures to try to save money for the county by abdicating responsibility for this irreplaceable regional resource.