{"id":30122,"date":"2021-02-08T08:50:11","date_gmt":"2021-02-08T08:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=132891"},"modified":"2021-02-08T08:50:11","modified_gmt":"2021-02-08T08:50:11","slug":"the-fight-to-save-ballona-wetlands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/02\/08\/the-fight-to-save-ballona-wetlands\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fight to Save Ballona Wetlands"},"content":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, California<\/em><\/p>\n

On January 29,\u00a0Defend Ballona Wetlands<\/em>\u00a0and two individuals, Molly Basler and Robert van de Hoek, filed\u00a0a lawsuit<\/a>\u00a0in Los Angeles Superior Court\u00a0challenging the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s (CDFW) approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) that they claim\u00a0would\u00a0allow for the \u201ccomplete destruction\u201d of the fragile Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n

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In 2000, California voters overwhelmingly approved Proposition 12, creating a $2.1 billion bond \u201cto spend on acquisition, development, and protection of recreational, cultural, and natural areas,\u201d according to the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

Twenty-five million dollars of the bond was\u00a0to be allocated \u201cto acquire, protect, and restore wetlands projects that are a minimum of 400 acres in size in any county with a population greater than 5,000,000,\u201d referring specifically to Ballona Wetlands.<\/p>\n

\u201cBallona Wetlands is currently home\u00a0to approximately 1,700 animal and plant species \u2013 some threatened and endangered, and the last remaining coastal wetlands in Los Angeles,\u201d\u00a0the petitioners noted.<\/p>\n

The CDFW claims the current Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve (BWER) project will \u201cenhance and establish\u201d native coastal wetlands and upland habitat on 566 of the reserve\u2019s 577 acres south of Marina del Rey and east of Playa del Rey.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt will restore ecological function to currently degraded wetlands, preserving sensitive habitat for future generations and build climate resilience on a coast vulnerable to sea level rise,\u201d the Department stated in a news release.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe project also advances the Newsom Administration\u2019s\u00a0Executive Order<\/a>\u00a0of October 7, 2020, focused on harnessing California\u2019s vast network of natural and working lands to fight climate change and protect biodiversity. See a\u00a0summary of the approved project<\/a>. A more detailed project description is found in the\u00a0final EIR<\/a>,\u201d the Department said.<\/p>\n

However, the petitioners\u00a0say the current \u201cmisguided project\u201d would instead \u201cmostly benefit SoCalGas, operators of a dangerous gas storage field under the reserve. \u00a0Ballona’s approximately 640 acres have been owned by the public since 2003 and are a treasured resource.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“Our Governor’s cabinet members just announced a series of initiatives that support ‘Nature Based Solutions’ to counter climate change. So, how does Governor Newsom justify a project to bulldoze and excavate more than 2.5 million cubic yards of soil, paving the way for a new fossil fuel infrastructure for the aging gas storage field under this ecological reserve?” asked attorney Bryan Pease.<\/p>\n

The petitioners claim CDFW failed to respond adequately to comments made by numerous organizations and community members \u2013 especially related to climate change and to endangered and other imperiled species at Ballona.<\/p>\n

“It’s outrageous CDFW did not address the fact that hundreds of acres, filled with plants, animals and soils, would be destroyed, even though they store \u00a0and sequester carbon now. Protecting carbon in place is crucial,\u201d\u00a0said\u00a0Molly Basler, a Climate Reality Leader, trained by Al Gore, and a candidate for LA City Council.<\/p>\n

\u201cYet, their plan would obliterate a mosaic of habitats so that a salt marsh might sequester carbon in 100 years? \u00a0We don’t have 100 years!” she exclaimed.<\/p>\n

Wildlife biologist Robert van de Hoek, who has\u00a0done field observations at Ballona for 30 years,\u00a0notes concerns raised by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service that are outlined in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

“The State cannot legally dismiss the many documented sightings of endangered species and species on the California List of Species of Special Concern. The law says they must address those species, and, in many cases, they did not. \u00a0The ‘Nature Based Solution’ at Ballona is to protect the landscape, not to experiment with it,” explained van de Hoek.<\/p>\n

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The petition also notes that in a related case\u00a0Defend Ballona Wetlands v. California State Coastal Conservancy,\u00a0<\/em>Case No. 20STCV29911, \u201cPetitioners are separately challenging the actions of the California Coastal Conservancy and its Executive Director, Sam Schuchat,\u00a0in having misspent more than $12,000,000 of this bond money researching ways to\u00a0destroy\u00a0<\/em>the wetlands, so that Schuchat\u2019s allies at SoCalGas\/Sempra can upgrade their storage facility for natural gas\u00a0under\u00a0<\/em>the wetlands, under the guise of \u2018restoration.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Schuchtat has a documented history of investing in the fossil fuel industry as seen at\u00a0https:\/\/www.laweekly.com\/why-does-a-coastal-conservancy-exec- own-piles-of-offshore-oil-stock\/.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

The lawsuit takes place at a critical time for endangered species and imperiled ecosystems\u00a0like\u00a0those found in the Ballona Wetlands, the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta\u00a0and elsewhere in California.<\/p>\n

At the same time that the CDFW is\u00a0promoting the \u201cbulldozer restoration\u201d of the Ballona Wetlands,\u00a0the same agency and the Department of Water Resources are\u00a0fast-tracking the Delta Tunnel, the most environmentally destructive public works project in California history.\u00a0The construction of the Delta Tunnel will hasten the extinction of Delta smelt, longfin smelt, winter-run and spring-run Chinook salmon, Central Valley steelhead and other fish species.<\/p>\n

For the third year in a row, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife found zero Delta Smelt\u00a0(Hypomesus transpacificus)\u00a0<\/em>in its 2020 Fall Midwater Trawl Survey throughout the Delta. Not only did the survey catch zero Delta Smelt, but it also found zero Sacramento Splittail, a native minnow that was removed from the Endangered Species list by the Bush administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll signs point to the Delta smelt as disappearing from the wild this year, or, perhaps, 2022,\u201d according to a\u00a0California Water Blog post<\/a>\u00a0by Peter Moyle, Karrigan B\u00f6rk, John Durand, T-C Hung and Andrew L. Rypel. \u201cIn case you had forgotten, the Delta smelt is an attractive, translucent little fish that eats plankton, has a one-year life cycle, and smells like cucumbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The zero Delta Smelt and Sacramento Splittail found in the survey reflect an ongoing collapse of pelagic (open water) fish species in the Delta that also includes Longfin Smelt, Striped Bass, Threadfin Shad and American Shad.<\/p>\n

The dramatic decline of Delta smelt and other species, when viewed over the period of 53 years since 1967 when the State Water Project went into operation, is simply chilling.<\/p>\n

Between 1967 and 2020, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife\u2019s (CDFW) Fall Midwater Trawl (FMWT) abundance indices (combined September, October, November and December surveys) for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad have declined by 99.7, 100, 99.96, 67.9, 100, and 95 percent, respectively, according to Bill Jennings, Executive Director of the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance (CSPA).<\/p>\n

\u201cTaken as five-year averages (1967-1971 vs. 2016-2020), the declines for striped bass, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, American shad, splittail and threadfin shad are 98.1, 99.8, 99.8, 26.2, 99.3 and 94.3 percent, respectively,\u201d said Jennings.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Mission\u00a0of the CDFW\u00a0is to \u201cmanage\u00a0California’s\u00a0diverse\u00a0fish,\u00a0wildlife, and plant resources, and the habitats upon which they depend, for their ecological values and for their use and enjoyment by the public.\u201d<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, whether\u00a0it\u2019s the \u201crestoration\u201d project in the Ballona Wetlands or the Delta Tunnel project and the likely extinction in the wild of the Delta Smelt this year,\u00a0the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and other state agencies have a lot to answer for. The CDFW under the \u201cleadership\u201d of Director Chuck Bonham appears to be completely violating its mission regarding\u00a0in its\u00a0management of both the Ballona Wetlands and the Delta, the largest estuary on the West Coast of the Americas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The post The Fight to Save Ballona Wetlands<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Los Angeles, California On January 29,\u00a0Defend Ballona Wetlands\u00a0and two individuals, Molly Basler and Robert van de Hoek, filed\u00a0a lawsuit\u00a0in Los Angeles Superior Court\u00a0challenging the California Department of Fish & Wildlife\u2019s (CDFW) approval of an environmental impact report (EIR) that they claim\u00a0would\u00a0allow for the \u201ccomplete destruction\u201d of the fragile Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in Los Angeles More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post The Fight to Save Ballona Wetlands<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1909,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30122"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1909"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30123,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30122\/revisions\/30123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}