I had been wondering what was going on along Pacific Coast Highway at the south end of Bolsa Chica State Beach. The entire road bed has been shifted to the east about 25 yards, a large berm has been constructed along the beach, and cranes and pile drivers have been putting concrete piles into the sand. I was not sure what was going on; I was thinking possibly they were raising the road since the section between Seapoint and Warner floods every time it rains hard and they have to completely close the road. John had said a neighbor told him the Bolsa Chica Amigos had lost out and another housing development was going in - which seemed crazy to me because that area is tidal (I think now they were referring to the mesa). TN at work, mentioned some restoration work going on - which I knew had been proposed in the past, but I had not heard was actually in the works. Finally, some signs were erected along the road construction site with a web address:
http://www.fws.gov/pacific/bolsachica/Wow! I had no idea - almost the entire area is set to be restored into tidal basins to mitigate wetlands loss in Long Beach and L.A. Harbor. There is going to have to a lot of clean-up, since much of the area was oil fields for so long. The small area at the front has been a state preserve for a long time, with walkways and a small interpretive center.
The downside is that the Coastal Commission approved 349 homes to be built on the mesa overlooking the wetlands, a far cry from the 1700 units originally proposed, but still, upscale homes many of which will probably commercial gardening services applying fertilizers and pesticides that will all be draining right into the wetlands in the runoff. There is still a section of field adjacent to the wetlands where another developer is proposing another tract of homes, already approved by the city council (grrrrr! they don't fool me by all being members of the Tree Society). I hope the following groups fare better at opposing the development than they did for the Mesa - I don't know why this city feels it has to cover every open acre with overpriced humongous houses.
I feel a bit silly not knowing about this - this is like two miles from my house, and my agency is on the steering committee, but in a different region and the person involved is clear down in the San Diego office.
The Amigos de Bolsa ChicaThe Bolsa Chica Land TrustThe Bolsa Chica Conservancy