Natural Perspectives

Vic Leipzig and Lou Murray

We took a walk around the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve last weekend.

The salt marsh plants looked glorious in their autumn colors of red and

brown. Ducks and grebes covered the shimmering waters, and the mudflats

were alive with shorebirds. We even saw a couple of gray smoothhound

sharks cruise by. People of all ages, sexes and races enjoyed a walk

around the loop trail.

We stepped onto the walk bridge feeling pride that our community has

such a wonderful, internationally recognized, natural asset. We felt

pride in the efforts of so many thousands of people who, over the years,

have worked to protect the Bolsa Chica from development. We even felt

pride in the California Department of Fish and Game for restoring the

wetlands, for building the walk bridge and trails back in 1978, and for

setting up informative display panels to help people understand the value

of the wetlands. That pride didn’t last long.

By the end of our walk, our satisfaction with the Department of Fish

and Game had given way to deep concern. Everywhere we looked, we saw

indications of neglect and disrepair. The Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

is falling apart.

The diagonal wooden struts under the walk bridge have been completely

chewed away at the water line. Shipworms are the likely culprits. The

walk bridge needs repair and the railing is in need of another coat of

paint.

At the end of the walk bridge, the gravel trail begins. But the first

100 yards or so are no longer covered by gravel. Only plain dirt is left

where the surface layer of decomposed granite has eroded away. The

problem with plain dirt is that rainfall erodes it even more quickly than

the decomposed granite surface. Serious gullies have developed, making

walking hazardous and exposing the trail to accelerated erosion.

Further along the trail, we found that the levy separating Inner Bolsa

Bay from the remnant of Freeman Creek was eroding badly next to the water

on the west side. Back in the early 1980s’s, Fish and Game had covered

that side of the levy with large rocks to protect against wind-generated

wave erosion. Over the years, those rocks have tumbled (or more likely

were thrown) down the embankment. In one spot, all the rocks are gone and

the levy is now exposed to the waves and weather. To move the rocks from

the water and put them back on the levy at this point would disturb

important rocky habitat, so new rocks need to be placed on the levy.

At two other points we came upon erosion of the trail surface that was

even worse than what we had seen before. Some of the gullies cutting

through the trail were enough to worry us about the safety of

pedestrians. We began picturing turned ankles and lawsuits.

But the worst was yet to come. As we crossed the tide gates and

returned to the parking lot on the Pacific Coast Highway side of the

loop, we found the trail even more hazardous. In places, virtually the

entire trail had collapsed after undermining of the asphalt by erosion.

Large holes gaped in the path. In other areas, the lip of the asphalt

trail was so undermined that it was collapsing into the wetland. Orange

conical road markers warned pedestrians of the danger in the worst spots,

but that isn’t enough. The asphalt pathway desperately needs

reconstruction.

The people of this community care about Bolsa Chica. The Bolsa Chica

Conservancy organizes well-attended monthly cleanups and led a massive

program of nonnative plant removal that eradicated great areas of ice

plant and returned the land to native wildflowers. The Bolsa Chica

Stewards have done wonders with restoration of coastal sage plantings on

the mesa. The Amigos de Bolsa Chica perform an annual cleanup of the tern

nesting islands. These groups, plus local Eagle Scouts, deserve the bulk

of the credit for what little maintenance and restoration occurs at the

Bolsa Chica. The last time the walk bridge was painted, it wasn’t even

Fish and Game that did it. It was a local Eagle Scout and his friends and

family. The last time the steps to the mesa were maintained, it was also

an Eagle Scout project.

This leads us to ask, “Where is the California Department of Fish and

Game?” They are the ones charged with oversight and maintenance of the

ecological reserve, but they seem to be paying little attention to it.

Why do they spend so much of their time and money at Upper Newport Bay,

while Bolsa Chica languishes like a poor stepsister? We need to get angry

and demand our fair share of attention.

Bolsa Chica has a new Fish and Game biologist, Brian Shelton. This

long-standing problem is not his fault. We’re sure that he’s as underpaid

and overworked as all the previous biologists who have been assigned to

this area. But that leaves the following big question. If Fish and Game

can’t even manage the current 300-acre ecological reserve, are they the

right agency to oversee the restored wetlands? We wonder if they’ll be

able to prove themselves worthy of managing an expanded wetlands that

will be more than three times larger than the one they currently seem

unable to manage.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

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