Restoring in the rain

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

After 22 years of weeding and picking up trash at the Bolsa Chica

wetlands, Vic and I finally have an opportunity to actually plant

some wetland vegetation there.

The Bolsa Chica Conservancy recently received a grant from the

Southern California Wetlands Recovery Project to restore native

vegetation to the area around their Interpretive Center. The goals of

the project are to increase plant diversity, improve habitat, prevent

trespassing on habitat areas and increase interpretive opportunities.

Vic and I met with Grace Adams, executive director of the

conservancy, and Brian Shelton, California Department of Fish and

Game biologist, to discuss various planting options. We decided to

begin the restoration project with the muted tidal salt flat next to

Warner Avenue. Bicyclists constantly cut across the mudflats has

crushed the fragile vegetation, which prevents establishment of lush

growth. Planting saltbush, coyote bush and spiny rush should

discourage casual trespass and provide high quality habitat.

Vic was thrilled at the thought of actually getting to do some

real in-the-ground restoration. The thrill lasted until he learned

that his job would be weeding and trash removal. He teaches on

Saturday mornings, and wouldn’t be available during the planting

time. I tried to soften the blow by assuring him that all good

restoration projects start with weed and debris removal and that his

role was essential to the project’s success. In this case, I wasn’t

just talking bovine fertilizer. We needed expert weed removal because

the section to be restored was an upper salt marsh strip with a lot

of pre-existing native vegetation.

The project area known as east cell was a former grassy upland

that was excavated by the Department of Fish and Game for a wetland

creation project in 1978. The Department of Fish and Game excavated

two cells and connected them to the Warner Channel by culverts to

provide tidal water. But there was a problem. The culverts were too

small and set too high to achieve any meaningful restoration. The

cells never got enough seawater flushing to grow a good crop of salt

marsh plants.

Nearly two years ago, the old culverts were replaced with larger

ones that were set deeper. This small change in culverts made a big

change in the health and vitality of the salt marsh plants growing in

the cells. The pickleweed, saltwort and sea lavender in the lower

marsh zone increased greatly in density after the restoration and

Belding’s savannah sparrows, an endangered species, began to show an

interest in the area. Now it was time to restore the upper salt marsh

there.

Vic and I were pleasantly surprised to see that about 80% of the

existing vegetation in the strip adjacent to Warner Avenue was

desirable natives. What looked like dead, brown weeds turned out upon

closer inspection to be mostly desirable native plants.

We had to do a surgical strike on the undesirable nonnative weeds

that were growing between the native plants. We stepped carefully

over the shoregrass, saltgrass and pickleweed to get to the

occasional spikeweed, sow thistle, black mustard, wild radish and

tumbleweed.

Laura Bandy, the conservancy’s education director, made a number

of forays to Home Depot, Armstrong Nursery and other places to gather

the needed tools and supplies. She and Grace rounded up volunteers

while I put out an e-mail to a few long-time members of the Amigos de

Bolsa Chica. All we needed were a few workers because hordes of

volunteers would quickly trample the existing native vegetation. On

Friday, I set out the new plants, carefully assessing where fresh

water would run off Warner Avenue. By planting in the runoff swales,

we could take advantage of that source of fresh water and perhaps

have a more successful project.

Wouldn’t it be wonderful to say that restoration day dawned with a

rosy hue, followed by a sky of cloudless blue? Yeah, sure. First it

was gray and cold, and then it rained.

Nevertheless we had a dozen people, about half of them college

students. We dug holes, added fresh water, placed the plants, added a

gelled time-release watering medium and backfilled the holes. We’ll

water the plants weekly at first to get them off to a good start,

then gradually taper off.

We had fun. We installed 45 plants in the pouring rain, some in

the upper marsh and some on the mudflats. By the time we were done

there was more mud on us than was left on the mudflats.

While we were planting on the mudflats and in the upper salt

marsh, Kelly Keller and the Bolsa Chica Stewards planted another 100

coastal sage scrub plants on the mesa as part of its decade-old

project. The stewards weren’t any drier or cleaner than we were. You

really have to be nuts to enjoy stuff like this.

Like the stewards, we’ll be planting from now until the end of the

rainy season. The Bolsa Chica will be a much healthier ecosystem

because of these restoration efforts and because of the many

volunteers who turn out rain or shine to restore their beloved Bolsa

Chica.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].