The Ballona Wetlands Restoration

The Freshwater Marsh

The picture above is the freshwater marsh of the Ballona Wetlands restoration project as viewed from the top of the West Bluffs looking north to east.  You can find the freshwater marsh on the west side of Lincoln Blvd just south of Jefferson. Already there are numerous species of wildlife beginning to reside at the freshwater marsh including Snowy Egrets. The day this series of photos were taken there were 4 of these stately birds on the west end of the freshwater marsh. 

In addition to Snowy Egrets, the freshwater marsh is home to Blue Herons, King Fishers, Least Terns, Red Tailed Hawks, Black Crows, California Gulls, brown pelicans, cormorants, gulls, terns, sandpipers and plovers at various times of the seasons. Fish include Long-jawed mudsucker, Shadow goby, Arrow goby, Cheekspot goby & the California killifish. Animals include Red Fox. 

A more detailed list of flora & fauna can be found at a web site called the Ballona Marine Preserve

During the dry season water comes from Centinela Creek. At other times the freshwater marsh will take on storm water runoff.  Storm water runoff from the hillsides, streets and sidewalks from the surrounding community passes through a series of filters adjacent to the marsh to remove solid particulates before it enters the marsh.  If the storm water entering the marsh raises the water to a level that exceeds it's capacity such as in an exceptionally wet season, the excess water would then flow into the two saltwater marshes before it eventually find it's way into Ballona creek through a new pipe installed at the western end of the marsh and finally into the ocean. Along the way each of the marshes would participate in cleansing the runoff before it eventually enters the ocean.  

Work on the restoration of the freshwater marsh is being done by the Playa Vista company after consultation with Friends of Ballona Wetlands, Heal the Bay and other prominent wetland ecologists and is being managed by the Ballona Wetlands Foundation1

Restoration of the entire Ballona marsh will be accomplished in several phases. The first phase of restoration is the freshwater marsh as seen above. 

The Ballona Restoration Project
Phase 2 will restore a much larger saltwater marsh that covers the middle and west ends of this region known as 'Area B'. (Both saltwater and freshwater marshes are in this area).  Restoration of the saltwater marsh will be accomplished by modifying flood gates that currently only allow water to pass into the Ballona creek adjacent to the marsh keeping it dry and the addition of another gated channel to the east. After modifying and adding new gates, a measured amount of salt water at high tide will be allowed to pass through the flood gates in the opposite direction into the marsh. This will allow this section of the Ballona marsh to become flooded with the oceans salt water thus creating the marsh. Care needs to taken though because of certain constraints includes the flooding of Culver Blvd. 

This is the area will be restored as a saltwater marsh
The planned restoration is expected to increase wetland habitat to about 250 acres plus an additional 99 acres of native terrestrial habitat (dunes, scrub, transitional freshwater marsh, transitional saltmarsh, native grassland and a plant nursery) for a total of approximately 340 acres.

Thus the Ballona Wetlands system will be comprised of five basic components:

1) The Saltmarsh
2) The Freshwater marsh
3) The Riparian corridor
4) The Bluffs and other uplands
5) The Dunes

Where is it? - The Ballona Wetlands has fairly limited access at this time. something we would like to see changed. The marsh can be viewed clearly from the West Bluffs which at the time is private property but still used frequently by the general public. Another way to view it is by Cabora Road which is an access road having mixed ownership. Cabora Road intersects with Lincoln and many people hike or ride bikes along it. From here you can get a wonderful view of the marsh and the restoration work. 

Tours - Various groups such as The Friends of Ballona also have regularly scheduled tours of the marsh by very knowledgeable people. For information on the tours available, see the Special Interests page here on Westchesterkids.org 

You can find more information by going to the Friends of Ballona Wetlands web site as well as the Ballona Wetlands Foundation web site.

Reference notes:
1 Through a court settlement with Friends of Ballona Wetlands, the freshwater marsh restoration is funded and directed by Playa Vista under the supervision of the Ballona Wetlands Foundation. The Ballona Wetlands Foundation was created to monitor compliance of the settlement. 

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