COMMUNITY COMMENTARY:

We read with interest the article about a visitor center at Bolsa Chica (“Park will get center,” March 19). There is definitely a need for a visitor center at the Bolsa Chica ecosystem that represents the various historical and ecological wonders of this magic place called the Bolsa Chica. A visitor center should include the community that worked to save the Bolsa Chica and exclude any political patronage.

Our vision and one we hope will eventually be the solution is to continue to save the rest of Bolsa Chica and renovate the Bolsa Chica State Beach facility. It offers immediate benefits, proximity to the wetlands, views of the mesa, ample parking, and no adverse impact to the habitats, such as more cement. All options should be explored, including our plans at Bolsa Chica State Beach. There are many of us in the community who are concerned about more cement at Bolsa Chica and the lack of openness of the process. Blocking ocean views and the hundreds of buses up Seapoint annually might not be the best options for the local community either. These items need to be vetted in the community before leases and contracts are handed out.

Also, the grass-roots organizations that sprung from the community to protect the Bolsa Chica such at the Amigo de Bolsa Chica and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and the thousands of people who dedicated their lives to saving Bolsa Chica should not have to continue to be victims to the political patronage that has plagued Bolsa Chica in the past. Lack of community collaboration and political patronage has cost the community and the Bolsa Chica ecosystem dearly over the last 30 plus years. The community deserves a collaborative and open approach to any visitor center at Bolsa Chica.

Additionally, one could and should question the logic of giving a government blessing to an entity with people who traditionally and currently have a financial interest in Bolsa Chica or who are developing housing projects on Bolsa Chica. Hearthside Homes, Sempra Energy and AERA energy are all very powerful, politically connected and can hinder efforts to saving the rest of the Bolsa Chica ecosystem. We know from experience. Their involvement through their positions on the board of the lessee makes the agreement suspect and rings of political patronage.

Let’s pull together and create a premier education destination right here at Bolsa Chica and do it so it represents the needs of the community and fully represents the history and ecology of Bolsa Chica. Any center should be placed at the right location, have the right footprint, and include the history of Bolsa Chica such as the Native American culture, World War II uses and, of course, the ecology, including the mudflats, mesa, wetlands and ocean, and birds, plants and marine mammals. No center should destroy more habit when other options are available. Furthermore, any visitor center should include the story of the groups that fought to save Bolsa Chica and avoid any sort of “greenwashing.” We can do better than that.

All three groups have top-notch education programs at Bolsa Chica. Any visitor center should be a community collaboration and not a political handout to the politically connected. This lease appears to be misplaced. Those financially connected to developing Bolsa Chica may not be the ones who can communicate to the next generation why it was saved, but the community that fought against them to save it certainly can.

PAUL ARMS is the Bolsa Chica Land Trust’s president.