Editorial:

It was a bittersweet week in the history of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

Jan Vandersloot, the co-founder of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust and an environmental crusader for decades in Huntington Beach, died unexpectedly Nov. 4 at the age of 64.

Vandersloot’s friends and colleagues, still in shock over his death, described him as “unflappable,” “unrelenting” and a tireless defender of even the smallest strip of wetlands threatened by development.

The day of Vandersloot’s death, the state Legislature approved the Clean, and Reliable Drinking Water Supply Act of 2010, an $11.1-billion bond measure slated to go on the ballot next year. Included in the measure is $20 million specifically earmarked for protecting and restoring the Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

While it’s hard to pinpoint an exact cause-and-effect relationship, it appears safe to say that without the efforts of Vandersloot and others who fought for years to preserve the wetlands, that $20 million would not be in the package.

Anthropologist Margaret Mead famously wrote, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Over the last 30-plus years, the defenders of Bolsa Chica have proved that statement time and again.

Huntington Beach has a number of groups of thoughtful, committed citizens who have worked long hours without pay to protect our ecosystem. Sometimes, the groups have had a testy relationship — particularly the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, Vandersloot’s old group, and the Land Trust, which he co-founded after departing. But next year’s ballot measure serves as a reminder of how much has been accomplished.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, this $20 million in the bond, because Jan would have been so happy about that,” Connie Boardman, a fellow Land Trust member, told the Independent this week. “It’s really sad he wasn’t here to see this.”

True. But Vandersloot’s work on behalf of the environment has already changed Huntington Beach in countless ways, and that is legacy enough for any man.