Ballona Wetlands: UCLA Symposium to Discuss Restoration Project

The UCLA Department of Geography is sponsoring a symposium on the State of California's Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project on Tuesday, April 13, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. PDT. The symposium will be delivered via Live streaming on Zoom. Those interested may register at this Link.

The symposium, entitled Ballona Wetlands and the Future of Southern California Coastal Conservation, will feature the following participants: Dr. Richard Ambrose, Professor, UCLA Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Institute of the Environment and Sustainability; Dr. David Jacobs, Professor, UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Dr. Shelley Luce, President and Chief Executive Officer, Heal the Bay; David McNeill, Executive Officer, Baldwin Hills Conservancy.

Above: The southern half of the Ballona Wetlands is in fairly good shape, ecologically, and will receive only minor tidal channel enhancements from the CDFW project. Gas company service roads will also be removed and restored as part of the project.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife has certified the final environmental document for the project to restore the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, the largest coastal wetland complex in Los Angeles County. The project will enhance and establish native coastal wetlands and upland habitat on 566 of the reserve’s 577 acres south of Marina del Rey and east of Playa del Rey, restoring ecological function to currently degraded wetlands and providing a critical buffer against the effects of sea level rise. Exhaustive details on the project plans and the environmental impacts can be found at this CDFW webpage.

The project enjoys broad community support, but a few activists have sued to stop it. That litigation must wind through the courts over the next couple of years before the restoration can begin.

The project is supported by a coalition of established environmental advocacy groups, including : Ballona Creek Renaissance, Emerald Necklace – Amigos de los Rios, Environment California, Environmental Action Committee of West Marin, Friends of Ballona Wetlands, Friends of Madrona Marsh, Friends of the Los Angeles River, Heal the Bay, LMU Center for Urban Resilience, Los Angeles Waterkeeper, Ocean Conservancy, River LA, 7th Generation Advisors, Surfrider Foundation, Theodore Payne Foundation, The River Project, The Trust for Public Land, Trout Unlimited – South Coast Chapter, Wildcoast.

Above: This 200 acre expanse of weedy, dry fill dirt south of Fiji Way, which buried wetlands when the Marina was constructed, will be dug out by the CDFW restoration project and replaced with lush tidal wetlands, native upland plants and perimeter foot paths. Activists want to leave it alone.

The CDFW project not only will create, enhance and restore native wetland and upland habitats throughout the ecological reserve, but will also create a network of bike- and foot paths around the perimeters of the reserve.

Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!

Author’s note of transparency:

Dr. David W. Kay served on the Board of Directors of the non-profit Friends of Ballona Wetlands from 2007 until 2015, and served as Board President in 2012-13. He presently serves on the Board of Ballona Discovery Park in Playa Vista.

Since 1984, David has been employed by Southern California Edison Company, exclusively in the company’s environmental services organizations. His many responsibilities included restoration of the 440-acre San Dieguito Wetlands near Del Mar. He is presently Senior Manager for Project Environmental Licensing at the company. David earned bachelor and masters degrees in biology and a doctorate in environmental science.

David is a staunch advocate for the state of California’s plans to restore the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.

See Dr. Kay’s Patch contributor profile here.