Local activists protest Ducheny bill

Eron Ben-Yehuda

Local environmental activists joined a demonstration in Long Beach on

Sunday to oppose a state bill that threatens wetlands.

About 50 preservationists spent the morning standing alongside Pacific

Coast Highway -- some waving protest signs, others dressed as frogs -- to

raise awareness about Assembly Bill 2310, which would expand the types of

development that could be built on degraded wetlands and other sensitive

habitats.

“Every wetland is in peril because of this,” said resident Joe Racano,

who was joined by members of Huntington Beach Tomorrow, Amigos de Bolsa

Chica and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust.

Introduced by Assemblywoman Denise Ducheny (D-San Diego), the proposed

law is a direct challenge to an April court ruling that strictly

interpreted the 1972 Coastal Act to prevent the relocation of a

eucalyptus grove from the Bolsa Chica mesa, where a developer plans to

build more than 1,200 homes.

The decision has cast doubt on the previously widespread practice of

trying to balance the importance of the habitat with the benefits brought

by development, Ducheny said. Previously when wetlands were filled, they

were replaced by larger, similar habitats created or restored elsewhere,

she said.

“We don’t want to be so narrow that good projects may not happen,” she

said.

Demonstrators said wetlands are irreplaceable.

“Don’t you know that we’re all one ecosystem here?” asked Eileen Murphy,

a land trust member.

The bill is expected to be voted on by the state Legislature no sooner

than June, Ducheny said.