Finding the right path

Conservationists, environmentalists and architects want to put surfers in line — literally.

A glimpse of a perfect “A-frame” wave at Lower Trestles can send surfers power-walking to the beach, in some cases straight across sensitive wetlands.

“They’re very singular-minded; they want shortest distance between two points,” said Steve Long, the former chief lifeguard at Trestles and father of famed big-wave surfer Greg Long said.

A proposed path to Lower Trestles is designed to keep them off the sensitive habitat.

But this path could potentially run across wetlands, the holy Grail of Southern California habitat. Planners must strike this kind of careful balance between resource conservation and recreation when establishing official beach access.

“It’s ironic, that a more formal constructed path might be the best thing for the environment, except maybe denying human access all together,” said Alix Ogilvie, a design fellow for Architecture for Humanity, the group organizing a design competition to find the best solution.

The habitat near Trestles is ultra-sensitive; this was one of the reasons that opponents to the 241 Toll Road extension were able to kill the project.

At the mouth of San Mateo Creek sits the 160-acre Trestles Wetlands Natural Preserve. It has a freshwater lagoon and plant communities including coastal sage scrub, willow woodland, a sycamore/cottonwood stand and marsh wetlands.

The fastest route to Lowers is directly though a marsh that’s passable during the dry season. Surfers have already carved out paths there.

When the marsh is wet, beachgoers must walk about 200 feet south to a narrow divide in the brush, where the wetlands turn into an upland coastal sage scrub habitat.

That divide is the most natural place to pass, said Dave Pryor, senior environmental scientist for the California State Parks Orange Coast District.

But the design competition leaves open the possibility that a path will be built directly to the beach, over the wetlands.

It may be the most expeditious route, especially if it must be compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Pryor would rather use the current path through the divide and to protect the wetlands as much as possible.

“It is the perfect boundary and that’s why man, from a long time ago, decided ‘Hey, I can’t bog through this wet stuff, I’m going to go right at the boundary and go around the wetlands,’” he said.

A path over the wetlands can be done in an environmentally sensitive manner, said Long, who was also the superintendent for San Onofre State Beach.

A boardwalk over the marsh could look something like the one over the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

“We definitely want it to be low-impact materials, not just your typical piles of concrete you might see on the Huntington Boardwalk,” said Mark Rauscher, assistant environmental director at the Surfrider Foundation, a partner in the design competition.

Judges have 104 entries to sift through to find the most environmentally sensitive design.

One of their criteria will be the best use of interpretive signs describing the ecology.

A path over the wetlands could provide the perfect place for them. “Lord knows we have to educate people. That is a very special area,” Long said.

MIKE REICHER writes for OCLNN.com.