It’s been great weather for frogs

You were probably smart enough to stay indoors where it was dry this

past weekend. Unfortunately, Vic and I don’t seem to have the sense

God gave a chicken. When it rains, we head outdoors to see how our

parks and wetlands are faring.

My excuse for getting wet this past Saturday was restoration day

at Shipley Nature Center. Our regular first Saturday of the month

restoration day was postponed until Jan. 8 due to holidays. We work

on our scheduled day, rain or shine. Actually, planting in the rain

is a lot of fun. Apparently a lot of other people thought so too,

because about 40 people showed up to help with Eagle Scout candidate

Cyril Thacket’s planting project on Saturday.

By the end of the day, I was soaked and muddy. I was more than

ready to stay indoors Sunday, but Vic got up early to check on the

high tide at Bolsa Chica. It was so spectacularly high, that he came

home to get me. We ended up staying out in the rain until noon. A

7.1-foot high tide combined with Friday’s rain had resulted in a

debris line that spilled over the top of the berm between the main

Bolsa Chica channel and the muted tidal cell just south of Warner

Avenue, west of the bridge. Monday’s tide will be even higher.

Combined with Sunday’s rainfall, that may result in even greater

flooding. I’ll be out to see it, but high tide will occur after our

column deadline.

Our most interesting stop this past Sunday was at Seagate Park

near Gothard and Ellis. Prior to development, a long swale had

cattails at the bottom, with weedy slopes on either side. There were

never many birds there and habitat quality was low.

During the development of the Seagate housing project, the slopes

were re-contoured, runoff from the housing project was diverted to

the wetlands, and a large grassy area was created for open space.

Seagate Park contains 4.2 acres of ecological habitat of which 1.6

acres are wetlands and willow woodlands. The grassy open space and

the trees in that area provide additional habitat for birds.

I hadn’t hiked down to the freshwater wetland restoration project

in that park for years, but we did so Sunday in the rain. I was

stunned at how well it had done. The trail meandered through a

sloping riparian corridor densely planted with healthy white alders,

sycamores and toyons. Water flowed through willow woodland at the

bottom of the slope. The woods were alive with birds busily foraging

in the light rain. We knew from our frog surveys of last spring that

this is now the best area in town to find Pacific tree frogs. This

mitigation restoration project, put in by development company PLC,

actually seems to have improved the habitat for wildlife.

At the height of the storm Sunday night, we took one more

reconnaissance tour, this time to see Blackbird Pond at Shipley

Nature Center. All of the trails through the willow woodlands were

already underwater as of Saturday. The nature center acts as a

floodwater retention basin, as do all of the lakes in Central Park.

When it rains, water pours down Goldenwest Street flowing downhill

from Ellis. On the west side of Goldenwest, the water flows into the

nature center. On Sunday night, a raging torrent was pouring down the

slope into Blackbird Pond, which had risen as high as I have ever

seen it. On the east side of Goldenwest, the water flows into Talbert

Lake. It was at a very high level as well.

The ducks and frogs love this weather. But people often do not.

The reason is simple. Floods can bring economic disaster with loss of

property and sometimes lives. Huntington Beach has sustained heavy

damage during previous floods. The floods of 1938, 1969, 1983, 1988,

and 1995 were hard on the city’s infrastructure and on residents. We

hope people come out of this series of rainstorms with no real

damage.

It’s important to keep in mind that many homes in town are below

the water level in the flood control channels. These homes are

protected by the Orange County Flood Control District, which is

woefully underfunded. The District has plans to upgrade the

Wintersburg Flood Control Channel, but they lack the funding to do

so. Consequently, they’ve had to stretch the planned renovations over

a 40-year period.

One of our alert readers forwarded a picture to us last week of a

major crack that has developed recently in the Wintersburg Channel

near the Shea Company “bean field” west of Graham Street. Let’s hope

that officials are keeping an eye on the channels and that funding is

available for necessary repairs.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

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