Natural Perspectives

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

This is an active month for the Bolsa Chica. Last Friday, the State

Historical Resources Commission considered whether or not the mesa was

worthy of listing in the National Registry of Historic Places. Next

Tuesday, the Coastal Commission will decide whether or not to approve the

wetlands restoration plan.

First, here are some facts on the historical listing. The Bolsa Chica

is the only known site in the world where 8,000-year-old cog stones were

manufactured. These rock artifacts, which are thick, flat discs with

varying numbers of notches on their edges, are found in only two places

in the world: Southern California and the coastal region of Chile and

Peru. Here, cog stones are thought to have had ritual significance in a

religion that stretched inland as far as the Mojave Desert. However, cog

stones in varying states of manufacture have been found only on the Bolsa

Chica mesa, giving this site world-class archeological significance as

the only known site where these artifacts were made.

Evidence from archeological excavations conducted a number of years

ago showed that a broken notch on one of the unfinished stones was

repaired with asphaltum, or natural tar. This was a major clue that

structural strength of the notched edge was not important. Despite this

and many other important findings, the results of the excavation, which

was paid for by the landowner, now called Hearthside Homes, apparently

were never published. It’s almost as though the landowner didn’t want

publicity about the archeological importance of the site. Imagine that.

We are pleased that the commission voted to declare the mesa a

historical site. Now it is eligible for listing in the National Registry

of Historical Sites. Although this listing would not protect the mesa

from development, it would afford official recognition of the

significance of the archeological site. Wouldn’t that be nice? But it’s

not that easy. The landowner has the right to deny the listing and

they’ve been quoted in the press as saying they won’t allow it. Nothing

about the Bolsa Chica is easy.

The other major decision regarding the Bolsa Chica will profoundly

affect the wetlands and shape its future forever. Next week, the Coastal

Commission is scheduled to decide whether or not to do the right thing

with the wetlands and restore full tidal flushing. The preferred

alternative is a full tidal plan with a new ocean channel that would

bring life-giving seawater back to the degraded wetlands. This

restoration plan also would result in new a cordgrass habitat for highly

endangered light-footed clapper rails, a species that was driven out of

the Bolsa Chica when it was closed to tidal flushing a hundred years ago.

The restored rail habitat is one of the main reasons we support full

tidal restoration.

Admittedly, restoration is not a pretty sight. To achieve a good

restoration outcome, bulldozers will be used to grade the existing

low-quality habitat. The land will be sculpted to the desired contours

and water will be brought back to much of the wetlands for the first time

in over 100 years. In the short run, some low-quality wildlife habitat

will be destroyed. In the long run, the return of tidal flushing will

heal the land. Man can help in the process by planting cordgrass,

pickleweed, saltgrass and rare plants such as coastal woolyheads, which

currently grow on Rabbit Island. Eventually, greater numbers of desirable

species will live at the Bolsa Chica because the restored and improved

habitat will be able to support more plants, invertebrates, fish and

birds. The goal of this restoration is a greatly improved habitat for

target species such as the light-footed clapper rail, Southern

California’s most endangered bird.

The Bolsa Chica is also home to 10% of the U.S. population of

endangered Belding’s savannah sparrows. Some have opposed the preferred

alternative restoration plan due to temporary loss of habitat for these

sparrows. Even a temporary loss of habitat for them is undesirable. In an

effort to offset this loss during construction, other areas will be

managed to improve habitat and increase the density of the breeding

populations there. There is evidence that this will work. If memory

serves us correctly, a local landowner rototilled a degraded local

wetland a few years back in an illegal and futile attempt to reduce its

wetlands value. The next year, the pickleweed grew back with renewed

vigor, resulting in one of the densest breeding populations of Belding’s

savannah sparrows in town.

This encourages us to believe that the Bolsa Chica restoration can be

successfully managed to benefit sparrows as well as clapper rails.

Ultimately, the preferred alternative plan will result in an increase in

both the acreage and quality of pickleweed habitat, supporting as many as

133 additional breeding pairs of sparrows.

For this and many other reasons, we hope the Coastal Commission will

approve the restoration plan and let the healing of this historic

wetlands begin.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 [email protected] .