Ballona Institute and Sierra Club on the Wrong Side of Nature, Again

At the March 10 Coastal Commission meeting, the Playa Del Rey-based Ballona Institute and their perpetual allies lined up on the wrong side of nature, again. For the umpteenth time in as many years, Institute principals Marcia Hanscom, Roy Van De Hoek and supporters spoke before the Commission, stumbling through disjointed, unsubstantiated or patently false assertions and fabricating them together into an incredible story of environmental tragedy, hoping to persuade the Commission to support their lifelong mission – to do nothing at Ballona. Thankfully, the Do-Nothings failed again.

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife, with assistance from the The Bay Foundation and local volunteers, proposed to remove several acres of invasive iceplant from the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in order to enhance the return of native wetland and upland vegetation. The proponents would use a tried and true method – called solarization – which employs tarps to deny sun from the iceplant and dry it out. The iceplant is then safely removed by hand or machine, freeing up bare ground for native wetland plants to recolonize, either naturally or with assistance. This has been accomplished at scores of sites statewide, large and small, including other areas in Ballona.

Ballona Institute and their supporters pleaded with Commissioners to save Pacific Chorus Frogs which reside in the affected area and, in their untruthful words, would be killed in massive numbers, never to return again. They also complained, as they always do, that their organizations were not notified in advance about the proposed project, and therefore were not afforded sufficient time to respond. Despite this assertion, Hanscom found time to brief several Commissioners the day prior to and the morning of the hearing. These Commissioners reported these ex-parte communications prior to the hearing, as required by law.

Not one of the dozen or so Do-Nothings offered a single alternative to the Department of Fish and Wildlife’s plan to use solarization. One would think one of them would at least propose to continue gradual, hand removal of living iceplant, followed by plantings of native plants. They did not. The Do-Nothings just continue to use up oxygen and public resources, offer no viable alternatives, and do nothing. The Commissioners saw this behavior in prior proceedings at Malibu Lagoon and Oxford Basin. Properly, they approved the restoration project.

Don’t take my word for it. You can listen to these people yourself on the Commission’s video archive of the meeting. Go to the Commission's video archive page at http://www.cal-span.org/media.php?folder[]=CCC and download the video file for the March 10, 2016 meeting, then fast forward to Item 25b: