Ballona Wetlands

A Reprieve from the City

A great egret (formerly known as American egret) stands solitary against the autumn-colored pickleweed landscape in Ballona Wetlands.
” src=”https://palipost.com/story_photos/L-ballona.jpg” width=”199″ />

A great egret (formerly known as American egret) stands solitary against the autumn-colored pickleweed landscape in Ballona Wetlands.
Photo by Rich Schmitt, Staff Photographer

The sun rises over Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey, lighting the crimson pickleweed on a crisp October morning. Like the trees in a forest, the pickleweed has changed colors, marking the beginning of fall.
Great blue herons fly overhead, hungry for salt-marsh harvest mice that live in the pickleweed, while a black-bellied plover, newly arrived from Alaska, glides past.
Through the efforts of local activists and government officials, this tranquil nature reserve in the middle of Los Angeles was made possible. Five years ago, the state acquired more than 600 acres of Ballona Wetlands, located along Ballona Creek, through a partnership with the Trust for Public Land.
The California Department of Fish and Game and the State Lands Commission have jurisdiction over the wetlands, which are transected by Jefferson, Culver and Lincoln Boulevards and extend to the Marina Freeway.
“It’s something that many in L.A. don’t realize is here,” says Marcia Hanscom, co-director of the Ballona Institute, a nonprofit organization that provides research and exploration of Ballona Wetlands.
Unfortunately, that’s because the wetlands are still not easily accessible to the public, Hanscom says. There are no trails or interpretive signs, and the Ballona Creek levee (on the opposite side of the creek from the bike path) has “no trespassing” signs.
Despite that fact, Ballona Institute is striving to educate more people about the wetlands, which have saltwater and freshwater marshes, and are home to two endangered plants (the Lewis primrose and southern tarplant) and two endangered species (the California brown pelican and California least tern).
Earlier this year, the institute opened the Shallow Water Nature Store (221 Culver Blvd., Playa del Rey) to carry merchandise related to the wetlands, and the Ballona Institute Research Center and Archive (425 Culver), which has books and maps about the wetlands.
Ballona Institute co-director and ecologist Robert Jan “Roy” van de Hoek leads two-hour nature walks on the first Sunday of every month, and an average of 20 people attend. In addition, van de Hoek offers full-moon nature walks, bicycle tours and van and mini-bus tours. The institute plans to purchase an electric boat, so he can take people on tours along Ballona Creek, which flows through Culver City and empties into Santa Monica Bay.
This winter and spring, van de Hoek will be training docents to help him. The Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority awarded the institute a grant of $50,000 to train the docents and to create a pocket field guide with photos and information about the wildlife in Ballona.
Van de Hoek, who also works as a park supervisor for the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation, started leading tours around the perimeter of the wetlands 11 years ago when the property was privately owned. He sought to educate the community about the importance of Ballona’s ecology.
“I wanted to share my knowledge of nature through storytelling,” says van de Hoek, who graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in environmental biology and geography. He has worked as a scientist for the U.S. Forest Service and as a wildlife biologist and archeologist for the Department of Interior.
Van de Hoek is not paid for leading the walking tours and his passion for wildlife is evident on a recent fall day at Ballona, when he spies a whimbrel standing on a coastal rock.
“In Alaska, the whimbrel eats mosquitoes and other insects,” van de Hoek says. “Here, it feeds on a smorgasbord of marine animals: worms, snails and fiddler crab. It’s amazing how the whimbrel changes its diet.”
He then spots two striped mullet jumping out of Ballona Creek, and with equal enthusiasm, he explains how striped mullet grow to their full size in the creek and spawn in the ocean.
Van de Hoek also likes to inform visitors about the history of the wetlands, which once covered more than 2,000 acres. He points to trestles left from the Pacific Electric Railroad, which traveled through Ballona in the 1900s. He then relates how aviator Howard Hughes, who once owned part of the wetlands, built a hangar there in the 1940s to store his Spruce Goose, a flying boat he designed to aid in World War II efforts. The hangar is still in Playa Vista and is designated as an historical site.
Bringing out a map, van de Hoek shows how construction of Marina del Rey in the 1950s destroyed about half the wetlands. Today, homes and businesses cover other parts of the former wetlands. “We wanted to save everything left,” van de Hoek says.
He and Hanscom are actively involved in the future of the wetlands, as the state works on the Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project and considers five potential ways to rehabilitate the wetlands. The U.S. Army Corps. of Engineers is also looking at possibilities to restore Ballona Creek.
Hanscom says she and van de Hoek are not thrilled with any of the plans yet because they call for what they consider drastic changes.
“We would like to see a plan that is more respectful to the habitat. We believe it’s important to maintain the equilibrium that is already there,” Hanscom says. “The changes should be done in a slow, thoughtful way.”
This year, Hanscom and van de Hoek are also celebrating the fact that these 600 acres are now in the public’s hands. Ballona Institute will host a gala dinner on December 2 at the Ritz-Carlton in Marina del Rey to honor elected officials and journalists who helped preserve the wetlands, a family picnic in spring 2009 to honor community activists and an art event called Expressions of the Heart in fall 2009 to recognize the contributions of writers and artists.
“We’re celebrating that the land was acquired and to inform the public that there is more to be involved with,” Hanscom says. “We need to continue to have stewardship.”