Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve

 park, wetland, marsh, nature conservation park / area, estuary, ecological park

18000 CA-1
Huntington Beach, CA 92648
www.wildlife.ca.gov/Lands/Places-to-Visit/Bolsa-Chica-E...
www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=642

The Bolsa Chica State Ecological Reserve is a California wildlife reserve located in western Orange County, California surrounded by the city of Huntington Beach. Constitutionally, it is a state ecological reserve managed by the California Department of Fish and Game, designated to protect an estuarine tidal saltwater marsh habitat, with its resident threatened and endangered species. “Bolsa Chica” means “little pocket” in Spanish, as the area was once part of a historic Spanish land grant.
For years this one time saltwater oasis along side Pacific Coast Highway was just a desiccated oil field littered with drilling rigs.
Now waters lap sandy shoals next to Bolsa Chica State Beach as thousands of terns squawk and flutter, jammed together in a wall of white feathers and gray chick fuzz.
With every spawning grunion and nesting sparrow, the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach are springing back to life, fulfilling the dream of conservationists who fought for decades to save one of Southern California's most sensitive ecosystems.
By cutting through part of a parking lot and a century-old barrier created by duck hunters, engineers have reconnected the 367-acre tidal basin with the ocean.
Since then, a steady stream of sea creatures have found it's way to a revived saltwater home, bringing multitudes of hungry shorebirds with them.
The $147-million rebirth has restored populations of scallops followed by topsmelt, halibut, rays and small sharks.
Newly built nesting sites offer refuge for a number of endangered birds, such as the California least tern and the threatened western snowy plover. Endangered California brown pelicans are arriving in record numbers, sunning themselves on freshly added mud flats in a marine habitat that has nearly doubled in size.
The transformation of this swatch of undeveloped beachfront property follows nearly 40 years of acrimony and lawsuits between developers, nearby residents and the state and federal governments. Pitting environmental hopes against real estate ambitions, the protracted legal scrum ultimately scuttled plans for a marina and large waterfront neighborhood.
With rows of homes and active oil derricks at its edge, Bolsa Chica serves as a vital island for wetlands dwellers, and an unexpectedly peaceful spot for visitors.
Experts estimate that about 95% of California's coastal wetlands have been destroyed by development.
The restoration project, which rejuvenated more than three-fourths of Bolsa Chica's roughly 1,300 acres, is the largest of its kind west of the Mississippi.
As more animals are drawn to this recovering habitat (including a burgeoning tern population) they're forced to live on top of one another, occasionally crushing nests of eggs in their struggle for space.
Biology graduate students shivering in wetsuits wade through the tidal basin with giant nets, capturing and measuring marine life. By the end of 2008, managers of the site plan to open gates that will let more ocean water flow into shallower tidal areas.
Spindly stalks of cordgrass are expected to multiply, providing shelter for the endangered light-footed clapper rail, and 300,000 cubic yards of sand that has washed in from the adjacent beach, providing surprisingly fertile spawning grounds for burrowing grunion, will be dredged to keep the tidal channel clear.
In the meantime, Aera Energy Company continues to operate an oil field next to the basin, as elegant terns plummet headfirst into the water to snatch pipefish. Whenever the company pumps that 248-acre section dry of oil, that property too will be allowed to revert to its natural state.
As the ecosystem changes over the next five years, biologists are anticipating that as many as 60 fish species will settle in Bolsa Chica. (Of 135 species recently observed in the restored area, 27 are fish.) Divers transplanted eel grass from Cabrillo Beach in hopes of providing shelter to the shyer species of fish, such as pipefish and surf perch.
Eight state and federal agencies are overseeing the health of the recovering wetlands. Monitors regularly observe tidal patterns, fish populations, bird communities and vegetation growth, as occasional adjustments are made to water levels.
This fragile estuary was once fated to give way to about 6,000 homes.
Community groups' lawsuits and negotiations with coastal regulators whittled the proposed development to fewer than 500 homes.
Funds for the restoration effort, which came mostly from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as part of mitigation requirements for expansion, helped buy out 65 oil wells based on the price of oil at about $14 a barrel. With oil prices now so much higher than that, paying for the project today would have been impossible.
Environmental activists continue to fight to preserve nearby lands and Native American remains and artifacts found there.
Although the new tidal area remains closed to the public, longtime Bolsa Chica advocates envision connecting trails through the wetlands to the beach. Supporters also hope to build an interpretive center.
The creation of a flourishing salt marsh where an oil field previously has at long last become a reality.