There is an IMPORTANT meeting tomorrow night, if you care at all about the 600+ acres of land at Ballona currently in state ownership....please read on....
You all have been key leaders in the (greater) Ballona Wetlands movement for some time. Our beloved wetlands ecosystem is again at risk -- and Playa Vista's reports for Phase 2 are not even out yet.
Unfortunately, while some of us have been working to get Ballona transferred into State Parks, which NEVER would have embarked on such an egregious process as being undertaken by some other government agencies (Dept. of Fish & Game, Coastal Conservancy (who has NO biologists on their staff) and Army Corps of Engineers), these who are in charge now are not doing what genuine ecology restoration advocates emplore:
"First, do no harm" -- Dr. Rudi Mattoni used to say this repeatedly when complaining about the freshwater marsh debacle.
After all of the work that we all did to remove the bulldozers from the Coastal Zone (they did enough damage in the "freshwater marsh") -- the state and federal agencies which are in charge of the "restoration" at Ballona are now threatening to bring these machines back INTO the coastal Zone at Ballona, in the name of "restoration" - and unfortunately, under the Coastal Act, "restoration" is a reason why wetlands *can* be destroyed. The only thing that can stop this is citizen outcry in significant amounts.
They want to dig out the wetlands and in the process will destroy much of the equilibrium currently there.
If any of these species are important to you, see them now, or speak for them, or forever hold your peace, as they will likely be extinguished, or at least severely diminished, from the Ballona area if the plans these government agencies are promoting are allowed to come to pass.
Great Blue Heron
White-tailed Kite
California King Snake
California Ground Squirrel
Pacific Tree Frog
this is just a small list of a FEW of those that will be extinguished, or at least very diminished....
Jonathan Coffin has documented by his photography some amazing creatures: spiders, butterflies, moths, insects of all sorts, many bird species -- many of which use the CURRENT upland areas. As you know, we have already LOST some huge upland areas, and, given the watery, estuary habitat of the Ballona Creek Estuary channel, the tidal waters of the various lagoons and the deep water of the Marina, we believe there is nearly enough watery area for this ecosystem as it is. There is NOT enough transition and upland habitat - certainly not enough to sacrifice the huge acreage that the plans call for.
All of you have been dedicated to community-based CITIZEN restoration, and I hope you will attend the meeting at Loyola tomorrow night at 5 pm. It is likely they won't allow much time for public comment, but at least SOME public outrage over this turn of events must be expressed.
Roy has been concerned about how things were going to turn out in this process for some time; he, being much more cynical than I, has turned out to be absolutely correct.
We must have more voices there than that of Roy, Jonathan and me. We have been dismissed in the past, as evidenced even further by DFG's revocation of our public access permit - perhaps they don't want us educating people about what is out there. Well, we have the photos, and can see with high-powered scopes from outside the state lands, and keeping us out, as Playa Vista did for so many years, will not stop us from protecting this land.
As Jonathan pointed out to me when we spoke last evening......(he had read the documents, I had not yet - and since I now have skimmed them, I am sufficiently outraged!)
It mattered not that during the "charette" process, our comments which resulted overwhelmingly in the public wanting MINIMAL upheaval of the region, have been completely ignored by the "Managers Group" (AKA "Agency Advisory Team") - agency reps meeting who have NOT allowed the public to attend their meeting, in spite of our requesting to do so - the "Project Management Team" and the "Science Advisory Committee" - which has had TWO solid habitat specialists - Joy Zedler and Wayne Ferren, - against mostly water quality experts who have spent VERY LITTLE time in the field in this or any other wetland, for that matter! (OK, Rich Ambrose has been in the field, but his bias is clear in all of the meetings we've attended.)
Jonathan calls their plans "Cataclysmic restoration" - and Roy agrees.
Anyway, you all KNOW the reasons we need these uplands and not to have everything turned into an extension of Santa Monica Bay (which is far larger than the postage-stamped size marsh ecosystem we have here, which needs preservation!) -- we've all spoked about pollinators and other lands besides the watery parts which are crucial to the system.
So, I hope you will attend - or ask someone else to attend on your behalf. We must join together for this important next step of protecting the Ballona Wetlands (and I'm sure the Ballona Wetlands Land Trust will be telling us soon of another opportunity for this, with Playa Vista Phase 2's next step on the horizon.)
Even if you speak for one minute or less at this meeting, your voice will be counted. They can't continue to ignore us all - even though they are clearly ignoring us from our charette participation. If they continue to do so, we can hold them accountable through our elected officials. These bureaucrats may not think they work for us; but they will listen when they receive calls from the elected officials, which will need to be the next step of this campaign.
Here is the link to the meeting agenda:
http://www.santamonicabay.org/smbay/Portals/0/ballona/Agenda%20Working%20Group%20Mtg%2020080917.pdf
Here is the link to the documents, where if you read carefully, you will see what the plans are - to dredge open and scar this entire landscape. The link, not being easy to even find, will show you what they have been planning in secret, while dump trucks are allowed to degrade the land (bringing in foreign soil), aerial planes are allowed to fly where rare White-tailed Kites are hovering, and other destructive activities are allowed to continue (maybe so they can say they really need to do this destruction? - so things can get "cleaned up"? - it all reminds me so much of Playa Vista's p.r. spin!)
http://www.santamonicabay.org/smbay/ProgramsProjects/HabitatRestorationProject/BallonaWetlandsRestoration/BallonaDocuments/tabid/153/Default.aspx
take special care ~
Marcia
Marcia Hanscom
Co-Director
Ballona Institute
www.ballonainstitute.org
www.celebrateballona.com
322 Culver Blvd., #317
Playa del Rey, CA 90293
(310) 823-7040 (telephone)
(310) 448-1219 (facsimile)
a biodiversity project of the International Humanities Center