Volunteer to Help Restore Ballona Salt Marsh

The Bay Foundation has announced dates when YOU can help remove invasive iceplant from the Ballona Wetlands. Go to http://www.santamonicabay.org/... for details.

Iceplant infests formerly tidal areas of the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, due to tide gates that restrict incoming seawater. Iceplant won't grow in seawater, and the state's coming Ballona restoration will cure that problem.

The iceplant removal work has been ongoing for some time, and follows countless identical projects statewide aimed at eradicating the smothering weed from sensitive wetland habitat along the coast. Local environmental group Friends of Ballona Wetlands has been at the forefront of community restoration at Ballona for decades.

If you spend just an hour manually removing dead iceplant from a quarter acre of salt marsh, you'll get a firsthand education on why "community" restoration of the larger Ecological Reserve is impossible. With nearly 600 acres requiring tidal restoration, only large-scale mechanized grading with bulldozers, scrapers and excavators can accomplish the big job ahead in a realistic time frame. Don't be fooled by fringe eco-radicals who falsely claim otherwise.

Also visit ballonafriends.org to stay involved in preserving LA's largest coastal open space land.