Huntington Beach Wetlands
A great place to visit and let the world go away!
Time For A Walk In The Wetlands
A recently opened tidal inlet at Bolsa Chica Wetlands, a multi-million dollar project, is helping restore this wetlands to its earlier state in which fresh salt water ebbs and flows daily from the ocean into the wetlands. In the fall and winter seasons, Lesser Scaups, Red-Breasted Mergansers, Ruddy Ducks and Common Loons come to visit. Tours are given on Saturday mornings, through several groups. Call the Amigos de Bolsa Chica (714) 840-1575 for tour information. A new trend in tourism involves participatory activities. If this is your thing, you can help clean up the Wetlands and make local friends on your visit to Huntington Beach. Saturday clean ups are sponsored by the Bolsa Chica Conservancy (714) 846-1114.
April and the sky was clear and cool
Great maps of what to look for in the wetlands
Sue's hair is blowing in the wind!
Did you know? - A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with moisture either permanently or seasonally. Such areas may also be covered partially or completely by shallow pools of water. Wetlands include swamps, marshes, and bogs, among others. The water found in wetlands can be saltwater, freshwater, or brackish. Wetlands are considered the most biologically diverse of all ecosystems.
So close to "civilization"
Did you know? - Due to their lack of potential
financial benefits, wetlands have historically been the victim of
large-scale draining efforts for real estate development, or flooding
for use as recreational lakes.
Wetlands provide a valuable flood control function, building levees help
replace natural flood controls. Wetlands were very effective at
filtering and cleaning water, so to help with the ever increasing
challenge of decreasing water pollution (often from agricultural runoff
from the farms that replaced the wetlands in the first place), millions
of dollars have been invested on water purification plants and expensive
remediation measures.
The USA came to understand how biologically productive wetlands are, so
the USA passed laws limiting wetlands destruction, and created
requirements that if a wetland had to be drained, developers at least
had to offset the loss by creating artificial wetlands.
Many specials of plants and animals are but a few feet away
How far can she walk? Miles and miles
Birds everywhere
Off she goes in a cloud of smoke and a hardy "Hi Yo Silver"
Trying to stay warm
Water flow is essential in the wetlands
Good solid engineering everywhere
Did you know? - Once part of a 165,000 acre
Spanish land grant, the Bolsa Chica presently consists of approximately
1550 acres of undeveloped coastal wetland and adjacent upland areas.
Native Americans once lived on the upland mesas, gathering shellfish and
other edibles from the wetlands. In 1900, the tidal nature of the
wetland was essentially destroyed when the natural ocean inlet to the
wetland was closed to improve duck hunting. Since then, the area has
been used for agriculture, cattle grazing, military coastal artillery
emplacements and oil production.
In 1973, as part of a controversial land swap, the State of California
acquired approximately 300 acres of wetlands adjacent to Pacific Coast
Highway. A portion of this was restored by the state in 1979 to become
the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The remaining acreage was retained
in private hands. Planning for the construction of a massive marina,
commercial and residential development was quickly underway. The plan
was drastically reduced in 1989 through the settlement of a lawsuit
filed by the Amigos.
In 1997 the state acquired 880 acres of Bolsa Chica wetlands and another
41 acres was acquired in 2005, bringing public ownership of the Bolsa
Chica to over 1200 acres. Wetland restoration of nearly 600 acres of
Bolsa Chica was begun in 2004.
In the summer of 2006 seawater flowed into the restored wetland for the
first time in over 100 years. The Bolsa Chica wetland restoration was
the largest coastal wetland restorations ever undertaken in Southern
California.
Keeping societies junk out of the wetlands is a full time job
The mountains are 70+ miles away
New plants
Keeping people out
Back in the carriage to head for home
A good exercise and a lot of fun