Bolsa Chica Wetlands

Helicopters circled, crowds gathered to gawk and worry, and traffic snarled along Pacific Coast Highway as a disoriented dolphin circled in the shallow, murky waters of the Bolsa Chica wetlands Friday. The 7-foot dolphin - nicknamed Fred by some of the spectators - apparently swam mistakenly into the wetlands with five companions earlier in the week. While the dolphin's pod mates returned to sea, the one called Fred stayed behind. "They were probably chasing fish through the Huntington Harbour and lost their way," said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Helicopters circled, crowds gathered to gawk and worry, and traffic snarled along Pacific Coast Highway as a disoriented dolphin circled in the shallow, murky waters of the Bolsa Chica wetlands Friday. The 7-foot dolphin - nicknamed Fred by some of the spectators - apparently swam mistakenly into the wetlands with five companions earlier in the week. While the dolphin's pod mates returned to sea, the one called Fred stayed behind. "They were probably chasing fish through the Huntington Harbour and lost their way," said Dean Gomersall, animal care supervisor with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Regarding the letter by Jan Shomaker (June 19): I feel she is a bit too modest. She starts her letter: "As a resident of Huntington Beach . . ." and continues with a lot of drivel about what a wonderful contribution Sen. Marian Bergeson's Senate Bill 1517 is to the development of the Bolsa Chica wetlands. The ultimate consequence of the bill would be a multimillion-dollar giveaway of tax money to Signal Landmark in its endeavor to rape the wetlands. Why does Shomaker not start her letter thusly: "As president of the Huntington Beach-Fountain Valley Board of Realtors and one who has supported every major development in Huntington Beach . . ."

Despite the environmental community's pleas to "save it, don't pave it," the Huntington Beach City Council has approved plans to convert a former 5-acre archeological site near the Bolsa Chica wetlands into the city's first "green" housing development. "I'm sure every community has its cross to bear, and Bolsa Chica has been Huntington's for a long time," said Councilman Don Hansen, who voted to approve the project. "I find all the findings that were presented tonight adequate." But environmentalists who packed Tuesday's meeting raised concerns about building a 22-home development so close to the wetlands and argued that the area is of great ecological and historical importance.

In this new age of conservation, it is exciting to see developers opting to preserve natural habitats such as the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Why are people, including the County of Orange with its alternative plan, trying to impede Koll Real Estate Group's efforts to restore and protect our wetlands? I would not classify myself as a hard-core environmentalist, but I do know a good deal when I see one. The landowner is offering full funding to restore the wetlands, provide diversified housing and create much needed jobs and revenue for our community.

The future of Bolsa Chica could be decided within days, as two oil companies, a developer and government agencies try to hammer out an agreement allowing state purchase of the ecologically fragile wetlands next to Huntington Beach. Although officials had hoped to forge a pact by today, talks are now expected to continue into next week. State officials hope to buy 880 acres from landowner Koll Real Estate Group, which had planned 900 homes there. The land would become a major wetlands preserve.

Despite the environmental community's pleas to "save it, don't pave it," the Huntington Beach City Council has approved plans to convert a former 5-acre archeological site near the Bolsa Chica wetlands into the city's first "green" housing development. "I'm sure every community has its cross to bear, and Bolsa Chica has been Huntington's for a long time," said Councilman Don Hansen, who voted to approve the project. "I find all the findings that were presented tonight adequate." But environmentalists who packed Tuesday's meeting raised concerns about building a 22-home development so close to the wetlands and argued that the area is of great ecological and historical importance.

A free tour of the Bolsa Chica wetlands will be offered to the public today beginning at 9 a.m. Tours will be held every 20 minutes with the last one at 10:30 a.m. Tours are conducted by the docents of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica. The tours begin at the walk bridge, one mile south of Warner Avenue on Pacific Coast Highway. A variety of migratory birds are still making their winter homes at the wetlands. Binoculars and cameras are suggested.

The Amigos de Bolsa Chica, an environmental organization, has announced that it supports some sort of a new ocean inlet into the Bolsa Chica wetlands. But Adrianne Morrison, executive director of Amigos, said the organization is flexible. She said the Amigos group is not tied to the ocean-inlet specifics in the Koll Co.'s development proposal.

The future of the Bolsa Chica Wetlands is once again in public focus and the county of Orange has this time put forward an alternative development plan less dense than its forerunners. This is especially significant in that 2nd District Supervisor Harriett Wieder has been quoted as giving support to the less intense plan with its lowland recreational element. From my perspective as a three-term past president of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica (1983-85), I have to wonder what grand progress we might be making now in the 1990s on funding the wetlands restoration if the county's planning staff and supervisor Wieder had reached these same conclusions in the early 1980s when the county and the landowner were in lock step promoting a marina, hotel complex, and a waterfront residential community on the wetlands.

A memorial service for Orange County environmental activist Jan Vandersloot will be held at 1 p.m. Dec. 6 at Castaways Park, 700 Dover Drive, Newport Beach. Vandersloot, 64, who worked for the preservation of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, died Nov. 4.

Re "Restorations," editorial, July 26 It's no surprise that the Bolsa Chica wetlands are doing so splendidly. Wildlife, literally starved for food sources, will flock to restored wetlands, which are so desperately needed in California. Here at the Ballona Wetlands, where partial restoration has begun, the results are spectacular. At the dunes, we have replaced ice plant and weeds with native vegetation, some of which, no longer smothered by weeds, has popped up on its own after many years of hibernation.

Two years ago, the saltwater oasis off Pacific Coast Highway was a desiccated oil field littered with drilling rigs. Now, waters lap sandy shoals next to Bolsa Chica State Beach as thousands of terns squawk and flutter, jammed together in a wall of white feathers and gray chick fuzz.

Bolsa Chica: An article in Friday's California section on the state Coastal Commission's approval for Shea Homes to build on property once part of the Bolsa Chica wetlands stated that 175 homes will be built. The actual number has not been determined but will be fewer than that.

After years of bitter argument and compromises, the state Coastal Commission has cleared the way for a developer to build about 175 homes near the Bolsa Chica wetlands. It is a small victory for the developer, who had hoped to build 268 homes in what was once a part of the wetlands in Huntington Beach. But the vote most likely won't end the skirmishes between builders and preservationists.

The Orange County Board of Supervisors declared a local emergency Tuesday amid concern that a crumbling levee in Huntington Beach could fail in heavy rain, threatening as many as 400 homes and exposing the county to millions of dollars in liability. The levee forms the north side of a channel that slices through Huntington Beach near the environmentally sensitive Bolsa Chica wetlands.

Like seasoned actors in a long-running play, both sides feuding here over a 50-acre swath near Huntington Beach's Bolsa Chica wetlands had refined their speeches and memorized the other's lines. After all, both environmentalists and development backers had almost three decades of practice sparring before the state Coastal Commission over various slivers of Southern California's largest remaining wetlands.

The California Coastal Commission on Wednesday postponed deciding the fate of a housing development slated for 50 acres near the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Developer Shea Homes had asked for the delay after commission staff recommended that the project be shrunk from 38 to 17 acres. Commission attorneys said that under the Coastal Act, the only way to put off a decision was for Shea and the city to resubmit the proposal. Huntington Beach would also need to hold a public hearing on the project.