A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
August 8, 2008
3. Watersheds –
Tarp over part of Ballona Wetlands angers some environmentalists:
The
Draining of basin raises danger for endangered birds: Biologist says water district action exposed least terns to predators.
Orange County
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Tarp over part of Ballona Wetlands angers some environmentalists:
The
By Bob Pool, Staff Writer
Environmentalists were elated when the state made a blanket decision to save an all but extinct coastal plant.
But their joy evaporated when officials decided that the best way to preserve the endangered
Scientists at the state's Department of Fish and Game say a 200-foot-long tarp over the wetlands was necessary to kill off nonnative vegetation and create an open area to transplant the endangered, yellow-flowered milk vetch.
Horrified conservationists complain that the covering is killing frogs, squirrels, wetland mice and other animals along with the targeted weeds and ice plant. Some have threatened to rip off the covering if authorities refuse to do so.
On Thursday they appealed to the California Coastal Commission to halt the eradication project and to order the tarp's removal, while a new milk vetch rescue plan is worked out. Commissioners meeting in
Vandals attempted Thursday to remove the covering, prompting Fish and Game officials to step up patrols around the
Officials, in the meantime, have revoked Ballona Wetlands access permits for several conservationists who have voiced opposition to the vegetation eradication effort.
The ruckus concerns a fragile, silvery-leafed plant that was once thought to be extinct -- that is, until two clumps of the plant were discovered 11 years ago near
Ironically, the milk vetch preservation effort is a spinoff of a lawsuit filed five years ago by environmentalists protesting the Coastal Commission's approval of development plans for the
Activists Marcia Hanscom and Roy van de Hoek, co-directors of the Ballona Institute, lost in a lower court and settled the lawsuit when the Oxnard developer agreed to help pay for the reintroduction of the plant in wetland areas at Playa del Rey and Orange County's Bolsa Chica.
Hanscom and van de Hoek said they protested to local fish and game officials when they learned of the Ballona blanket plan.
Van de Hoek said he also confronted workers when they showed up last week to stake down the black plastic tarp.
"I was definitely passionate and very assertive, verbally, in saying it was a raping of the Earth and ruining of the wetlands. I said, 'I want to see what's under the tarp.' I wanted to tell the three guys they were killing animals and plants. So I did," van de Hoek said.
Van de Hoek is well-known to state and local officials. In 2006 he was charged with six counts of vandalism after he was seen cutting nonnative trees and shrubs in the 600-acre Ballona Wetlands area. Nine years earlier he had been convicted of misdemeanor vandalism for cutting down nonnative eucalyptus trees in the
In the Carrizo Plain case he was sentenced to community service -- which entailed removing nonnative plants from state parkland near
In revoking authorization for both van de Hoek and Hanscom to enter the Ballona Wetlands, Fish and Game lands program supervisor Karen Miner said, "Ballona Institute's activities have been determined to be incompatible with the department's management goals and objectives."
Other critics of the black tarp have described the vegetation eradication as "brutish and destructive" in Internet postings.
But the vegetation clearance is supported by others, including the Friends of Ballona Wetlands. That group has voiced its support to the Coastal Commission.
Otella Wruck, executive director of the 30-year-old Friends group, said the use of plastic coverings is a "standard practice" for such projects. She said a scientist who works with her organization helped Fish and Game officials pick the milk vetch relocation site.
Rick Mayfield, who manages the wetlands for the Department of Fish and Game, denied that animals are being harmed by the tarp covering.
Most animals moved out of the way when the covering was being installed, he said. Others actually like the shelter from the sun that the black plastic offers, Mayfield said Thursday.
The thick plastic "deprives the plants underneath of sunlight so no photosynthesis or reproduction occurs," Mayfield said of the weeds and ice plant. The aggressively invasive ice plant would choke out the transplanted milk vetch if it was allowed to remain, he said.
The state's longtime goal for the entire wetlands area is its restoration to a normal salt-water marsh, he said.
The tarp will remain in place through September, according to state officials.
Between September and next February the site will be monitored and any ice plant seedlings will be removed by hand. After that, the milk vetch will be returned to Playa del Rey.#
http://www.latimes.com/news/science/environment/la-me-tarp8-2008aug08,0,1213151.story
Draining of basin raises danger for endangered birds: Biologist says water district action exposed least terns to predators.
Orange County
By PAT BRENNAN
Endangered birds nesting in a water storage basin were left high and dry after a water district drained the basin too soon – possibly increasing the danger from coyotes and other ground-based predators.
The inadvertent mistake angered local birders, and will likely be investigated by the state Department of Fish and Game.
At least one active nest bearing an unhatched egg was observed on an island within the Burris storage basin in
"I just feel it's not showing good environmental stewardship," said Doug Willick, a wildlife biologist who, on his own time, has carefully observed and documented the birds at Burris for 25 years.
Willick said he was reluctant to be critical of the district, which has won numerous awards for its environmental and habitat programs.
"That's what they're there for – providing us with water – and that's a very admirable thing," Willick said. "But on the other hand, they still need to abide by the law."
District officials said Thursday there was no evidence the draw-down in water resulted in any harm to the birds, which, in any case, are subject to attacks from hawks and other aerial predators. Fishermen also sometimes trespass on the site, and bring along their dogs.
"We had been monitoring that area in the past few months, and we were aware that nesting was going on and thought the nesting had concluded," said Craig Miller, assistant general manager at the district. "We weren't aware of this one last nest. Had we known, we would have held off."
There was no sign of a least tern chick on the site Thursday, although it might have been hiding in the brush, he said.
Willick said he believes a second least tern nest, as well as two active nests belonging to black skimmers, listed by the state as a "species of special concern," also were on the island, although the district says the skimmer nests were no longer active when the draining began.
The district drained the basin in order to repair water pumps that are normally submerged, Miller said.
Access to the site is also blocked by a five-foot chain-link fence topped by barbed wire, he said.
The island, which has begun to attract numerous nesting shorebirds in recent years, drew its first nesting least terns in 2004.
Black skimmers and Forster's terns also have been nesting there, although the Forster's terns finished nesting earlier in the season this year.
Future modifications of the drainage basin could change the character of the site and the island, Miller said, so the district is looking into other ways to accommodate the birds. One idea is a floating island that would rise and fall with the water in the basin, although the proposal is so far only in preliminary stages and would have to be approved by wildlife agencies.
Willick posted a note about the incident on birder web chat sites, and said he has received several responses.
An associate wildlife biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game, Nancy Frost, said her agency would be looking into the matter, although no conclusions have been drawn yet.
She said the agency's enforcement staff will be "investigating to see if this is a concern we need to pursue further."#
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/district-water-nesting-2117941-basin-site
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