Huntington Beach Wetlands

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.

Did you know? - Due to their lack of potentialfinancial benefits, wetlands have historically been the victim oflarge-scale draining efforts for real estate development, or floodingfor use as recreational lakes.
Wetlands provide a valuable flood control function, building levees helpreplace natural flood controls. Wetlands were very effective atfiltering and cleaning water, so to help with the ever increasingchallenge of decreasing water pollution (often from agricultural runofffrom the farms that replaced the wetlands in the first place), millionsof dollars have been invested on water purification plants and expensiveremediation measures.

The USA came to understand how biologically productive wetlands are, sothe USA passed laws limiting wetlands destruction, and createdrequirements that if a wetland had to be drained, developers at leasthad to offset the loss by creating artificial wetlands.

Did you know? -  Once part of a 165,000 acreSpanish land grant, the Bolsa Chica presently consists of approximately1550 acres of undeveloped coastal wetland and adjacent upland areas.Native Americans once lived on the upland mesas, gathering shellfish andother edibles from the wetlands. In 1900, the tidal nature of thewetland was essentially destroyed when the natural ocean inlet to thewetland was closed to improve duck hunting. Since then, the area hasbeen used for agriculture, cattle grazing, military coastal artilleryemplacements and oil production.

In 1973, as part of a controversial land swap, the State of Californiaacquired approximately 300 acres of wetlands adjacent to Pacific CoastHighway. A portion of this was restored by the state in 1979 to becomethe Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The remaining acreage was retainedin private hands. Planning for the construction of a massive marina,commercial and residential development was quickly underway. The planwas drastically reduced in 1989 through the settlement of a lawsuitfiled by the Amigos.

In 1997 the state acquired 880 acres of Bolsa Chica wetlands and another41 acres was acquired in 2005, bringing public ownership of the BolsaChica to over 1200 acres. Wetland restoration of nearly 600 acres ofBolsa Chica was begun in 2004.

In the summer of 2006 seawater flowed into the restored wetland for thefirst time in over 100 years. The Bolsa Chica wetland restoration wasthe largest coastal wetland restorations ever undertaken in SouthernCalifornia.