NATURAL PERSPECTIVES:

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the first in a two-part series about the coming year.

Good morning and Happy New Year. Instead of the traditional summary of events of the past year, Lou and I want to take a look forward to some of the changes we expect to come to Huntington Beach in 2009.

Dredging at B.C.

Sometime in 2009, a dredging operation will begin at Bolsa Chica. The reason is that the new inlet at the south end gradually accumulates sand that washes in from the beach. This accumulation is typical of inlets like this and is part of the reason that natural inlets tend to close off periodically, only to be opened again after major storms. It’s important to keep this inlet open. Fish and marine invertebrate wildlife would die if not for the constant ebb and flow of tidal water. And the nearby human residents would not be happy with stagnant puddles, either. During the construction phase of the Bolsa Chica restoration project, funds were set aside in anticipation for this dredging, so it will not be costing us taxpayers anything.

Plumbing at BCC

In December, pipeline work began in the parking lot at the Bolsa Chica Conservancy’s interpretive center. From its beginnings, the center has been without a supply of running water. There were water and sewer lines only a few yards away under Warner Avenue, but a variety of factors have kept the conservancy from tying in to those lines. Part of the problem was that the lines in the street belong to the city of Huntington Beach while the Conservancy building sits just outside the city limits on land that is under the jurisdiction of the County of Orange. This is a bigger deal than a reasonable person might imagine.

Anyway, resolution of political issues finally has allowed the conservancy to proceed with this long anticipated project. Later this year, internal plumbing will be installed to connect the building with the water and sewer lines. At long last, there will be water at the interpretive center. Just like real civilization. And it has taken “only” 14 years!

Restoration at wetlands

Wetland restoration at the Huntington Beach wetlands got started at the end of 2008 and will continue into the coming year, or at least until March, when work will have to stop — finished or not — because of the nesting of endangered Belding’s Savannah Sparrows. If no sparrows are present, work can continue until mid-April if they’re not finished yet. Whether or not work gets done before nesting season will depend in part on how many “mud days” are called due to rain. When the ground is muddy, the heavy equipment can’t work. So in this case, a La Niña year of low rainfall would be good for at least this project.

Flood control levees on the ocean side of the Talbert Channel and the Huntington Channel are being lowered so that tidewater can wash over the wetlands the way it did in centuries past. This project has been a long time coming. Although to us it seems like only yesterday, it was back in ’88 or ’89 that Talbert Marsh was restored. Twenty years seems like a long time to wait for the next phase. We hope that it won’t take another 20 years to get the segment of the Huntington Wetlands that abuts Beach Boulevard restored.

We hope that 2009 brings a cleaner, safer, healthier environment to us all! But hope alone won’t do it. As environmentalists, we all must remain involved and must stay committed to continued improvements to the natural world around us.

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