Conservation group wins major national award

The Amigos de Bolsa Chica conservation group received a major award from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Fisheries Service, the agency announced Thursday. The Sustainable Fisheries Leadership Awards went to eight individuals and groups in the country this year, honoring those who protect fish or aquatic natural resources.

The group won the Coastal Habitat Restoration Award for its efforts to preserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands, culminating in the construction of a tidal inlet that connected a portion of the wetlands with the Pacific Ocean for the first time in more than a century. State Sen. Tom Harman, a member of the group, sponsored them for the award, which is in its second year.

“I am thrilled that the Amigos de Bolsa Chica is going to be honored with a national award that recognizes their membership for their years of vigorous effort to preserve the Bolsa Chica wetlands,” Harman said in a statement released Wednesday.

Board members were thrilled as well. Former Mayor Shirley Detloff, a founding member and current board member, said that the national recognition was a wonderful surprise that vindicated decades of work.

“We started before we had a Coastal Act,” Detloff said. “We didn’t have the laws to protect wetlands then. For many of us, it was most of our adult lives. To see that it’s been nationally recognized is amazing.”

Federal officials were impressed by the way the Amigos de Bolsa Chica fought an uphill battle over so many years to protect seriously threatened wetlands, said Laurel Bryant, executive director of the federal agency’s Marine Fisheries Advisory Committee. Bryant noted that 90% of the wetlands once in California are already gone.

“They have gone through a 30-year timeline, four different governors, and gosh knows how many citizens in and out of the organization,” she said. “And there’s an enormous amount of economic pressure they faced. I think that’s just impressive.”

From seeing water flow back into the wetlands in August, to holding a major conference on the future of the Bolsa Chica in March, to finding out about the award in the last two weeks, it has been a great year for the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, Detloff said. With larger political battles won, the group became a nonprofit two years ago and is moving on to a new role, she said.

“The goals now are education and management,” she said. “Making sure there will always be the finances to take care of this resource, and making sure through the management task force that what should be done out there is being done.”

Detloff and board president Thomas Anderson will travel to Washington, D.C., to receive the awards in person at a ceremony on June 7. Bryant called it an occasion to encourage positive practices in America’s fisheries.

“There’s an awful lot of users of the resources out there that are really doing some good things, and that is never recognized,” Bryant said. “We need people that create better ways of doing business, that invest in our resources, that move stewardship and sustainability forward.”