There was a commentary column in this paper last week with which we
strongly disagreed. It was by our boss, City Editor Danette Goulet. She
claimed that the Bolsa Chica restoration plan stinks.
Members of this community have fought for wetlands restoration for
more than two decades. We have battled wealthy developers who wanted to
convert the wetlands to a marina and build homes there. We have battled
misinformed members of the public who wanted a restoration plan that
spelled death for the wetlands. The last thing we thought we'd have to do
is fight our own editor.
In most businesses, disagreeing with the boss is not encouraged. But
in the newspaper business, hard-hitting controversy is the breath of
life. Besides, newspaper editors are among the strongest defenders of the
American tradition of freedom of speech. But when an editor writes a
column, it confuses the public. People might believe that it is the same
as an editorial reflecting the official opinion of the newspaper. We
assume that the Independent hasn't shifted its decades-long support
position for the restoration of the Bolsa Chica wetlands.
To put it gently, Goulet is misinformed. She seems to think that the
view at Bolsa Chica will be destroyed by the restoration project. She
probably thinks that surfing will be ruined at the site. However, as a
surfer herself, she ought to understand that the quality of surfing is
expected to improve as a result of the inlet. That's exactly what
happened when the Talbert Channel was created to benefit Talbert Marsh.
These restoration projects produce small inlets, on the same size scale
as the originals, and they form small offshore sand bars that improve
surf breaks.
Goulet thinks that what she sees when she looks at a modern beach is a
work of nature. In fact, the natural condition of our beaches was
enormously different from what we have today. The native sand dune
habitat that covered the back beach is essentially gone and the beach
sand is a sterile desert because of humans. There are now only small
remnant patches of the sand verbena and beach primrose that once must
have been an awesome sight along our coastline.
The beauty that Goulet can see from the mesa is man-made beauty, far
from the "treasure of nature" that she describes. We no longer have a
natural beach at Bolsa Chica, one that is teeming with shellfish, covered
with dune plants, and host to breeding birds such as snowy plovers and
least terns. In place of a natural sand dune is the man-made
