Dreaming of a Will Rogers Wetland: Trapped Ducklings Beg the Question: “What More Can Be Done for Rustic Creek Waterfowl?”

By MATTHEW MEYER | Reporter

Bird lovers and conservationists are fretting over conditions at Rustic Creek and Will Rogers State Beach this month, as ducks have started to lay their eggs upstream and hatchlings are once again getting trapped in Rustic Creek Storm Channel.

Ducklings follow their mothers down the creek and through the channel to the beachfront, but are getting stranded behind an artificial berm on the return trip to their nests.

Rustic Canyon resident Greg Willis has already rescued nearly a dozen of the trapped hatchlings, clambering down into the cement-walled channel to boost them over the berm. He did the same thing on numerous occasions last year, fearing that the ducklings wouldn’t survive for long if they were left alone in the channel, separated from their mothers and access to fresh water and exposed to the mid-day sun.

The berm at the center of the trouble was installed by LA County last year to divert urban runoff to the sewer system rather than allow it to flow to the beach. While the ducklings can use a small cement abutment to cross over the berm on their way down, they have no way of following their mothers over the obstacle on the return trip upstream.

After last year’s heroics, Willis and others advocated for a small walkway or ramp to allow ducklings safe passage over the berm. They received mixed messages from city and county agencies on that possibility.

After initially indicating they would explore a way to help the ducklings, an LA Sanitation spokesperson told the Palisadian-Post last year that their evaluation determined “no further intervention with the dam will be necessary.”

But with the same problem occurring for a second year in a row, Willis has once again called on the department to address the issue. So far, he hasn’t received any promises of action.

For now, Willis said he’d continue climbing into the channel to boost stranded ducklings, though he hopes enough public pressure will eventually mount in favor of a more practical, long-term solution.

The Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society looks poised to join that push, after Willis appeared at a recent meeting of the organization to bring their attention to the area.

The Society’s Education Chair, Laurel Hoctor, told the Post that while her organization is still gathering information before they make an official statement, “Greg risking his safety to rescue these ducklings is unacceptable.” Without Willis’ intervention, she said, the ducklings might not survive.

While Hoctor emphasized that resolving the trapped hatchling problem should be priority number one, she also said that Rustic Creek and the Will Rogers beachfront factor into a larger conversation about how to serve the coast’s waterfowl population as a whole.

In a perfect world, Hoctor explained, the large pond that forms on Will Rogers State Beach— where the creek meets the sand, between West Channel Road and Entrada Drive—would have a steady supply of fresh water, creating an estuary wetland habitat.

Healthy wetlands play a vital role for California’s waterfowl—not just ducks, but also the egrets, herons, pelicans, killdeer and other birds that rely on such habitats for food and safety, either locally or as they migrate along the coast.

If Will Rogers could become a “managed habitat” with a steady source of freshwater, she said, it would be a boon for the coast’s birdlife.

It’s possible the fresh water needed to form that wetland could once again come from Rustic Creek, where the berm now diverts water away for fears of urban runoff. Some conservationists believe further testing may actually prove that the diversion is unnecessary, but that’s purely speculative until tests are issued.

What is clear: The habitats are in short supply. Hoctor told the Post that California has lost more than 90 percent of its wetlands over the years.

That stark reality means the potential of even a small habitat on Will Rogers is one that conservationists deem worth fighting for.