Ballona Restoration: The Eagle Has Landed!

It took almost as long as the U.S. program that sent an astronaut to the moon and back. But, nothing worthwhile is instant, and so the Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for the Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project has finally splashed down and is ready for your comments.

I'll explain the process in more detail over the next week in a series of Patch essays, so stay tuned.

The DEIR, downloadable at https://nrm.dfg.ca.gov/FileHan..., presents three alternative plans for restoring the Ballona Wetlands, which was filled in and abused since Marina Del Rey was built in the 1950s.

First and best is Alternative No. 1, called the Full Tidal or Naturalized Creek (see artist's rendering), an elegant and visually stunning comprehensive restoration of the entire Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, which restores buried wetlands and enhances struggling wetland remnants. The Naturalized Creek plan (a) removes a part of the concrete Ballona Creek channel and lets the creek meander, (b) re-creates long lost wetlands north of the creek by removing fill dirt dumped there during past Marina construction, and (c) restores ocean tidewater to dried-up wetlands south of Culver Blvd. This plan maximizes the restoration of tidal wetlands, which can only exist near the coast and ocean. The bike path and improved public access to new wetlands are also included.

The second and third alternatives are watered-down versions of the Natural Creek plan, because the law requires a few different plans be considered. These plans should be rejected because they do not meet the restoration goals long-established for Ballona, upon the advice of our best scientific experts.

Also included is the legally-required "No Project" alternative, which should be soundly rejected. We taxpayers spent $140 million for Ballona lands, and to completely abandon restoration now would be a historical boner. Only a few local "Do Nothing" groups would even consider this insane option.

One alternative mentioned but not analyzed in detail in the DEIR (because it would be a complete waste of time) proposes a minimal non-tidal restoration using only hand tools and no earthmoving machinery. Talk about insane! The Do Nothings love this preposterous idea (indeed, it's theirs) and have already begun their Rebel Yell to stop the whole EIR process, as they have tried to do on many other great restoration projects that now grace our coastline.

Make your voice heard now by e-mailing BWERcomments@wildlife.ca.gov. Simply state that the EIR should be approved and that Alternative No. 1, the Natural Creek plan, should be the preferred alternative.

With that simple act, you've helped create the largest public open space area in L.A., second only to Griffith Park! Good work, citizens!

Visit ballonafriends.org to get more involved, and stay tuned to Marina Patch for my detailed essays on the DEIR process.