Wetlands

A white Ford F150 pickup truck veered off Pacific Coast Highway into the Bolsa Chica wetlands Monday morning, police said. The driver was going south on PCH and plunged into the wetlands at 10:19 a.m., Huntington Beach police Sgt. Rob Warden said. The truck was on its side with the passenger side of the vehicle submerged in water near the south end of the wetlands. Authorities are investigating what caused the driver to go off the road, he said. Police did not provide the identity of the driver, but did say he was taken to the hospital.

County officials and a Huntington Beach environmental nonprofit have identified possible locations for a pair of booms to keep trash from flowing into the wetlands. Giatho Tran, a project engineer for the Orange County Flood Control Division, said his department has pinpointed spots in the Huntington Beach and Talbert flood control channels and is working with a boom manufacturer to come up with designs. The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy approached the county in 2010 after it finished a restoration project, which removed a levee that had previously stopped storm water from draining into the wetlands.

A state commission has reiterated its concern that the site for Poseidon Resources' proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant may contain wetlands. The California Coastal Commission, in a March 20 letter to Poseidon, requested a number of documents it called necessary to complete the Connecticut-based company's application for a coastal development permit. Among the requested items are data sheets that would indicate whether the land contains wetlands. The commission also asked for a tour with Poseidon officials, which it previously requested in May. Poseidon spokesman Brian Lochrie acknowledged that the company had not yet arranged a site visit.

The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, a nonprofit that has spent a quarter-century acquiring and preserving the city's coastal area, may soon obtain the last stretch of wetlands not yet marked for restoration. The California Department of Transportation, better known as Caltrans, announced Thursday that the 44-acre property at Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway had been declared surplus land. With that designation, Caltrans can sell the property to the California State Coastal Conservancy, which has expressed hopes of buying the marsh and donating it to the nonprofit.

Authorities in Huntington Beach pulled a Mitsubishi Lancer from the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve on Monday morning. No one was found inside the car nor in the water in the area. The airbags in the car had deployed. A passerby noticed the car in the shallow water off the road about 6:50 a.m. and called authorities. Huntington Beach lifeguards and firefighters searched the water and found no bodies in the area south of Warner Avenue on Pacific Coast Highway. "It's not a weekly occurrence, but it happens several times a year," said Huntington Police Department Lt. Brian Seitz.

Recently, I was walking at the Bolsa Chica wetlands. A group of photographers on the bridge had their attention fixed not on the clusters of birds gathering to fish, but on a thin line of white smoke rising about a half-mile in the distance, near the Brightwater trail. It appeared to be a fire, so I walked out to see what was going on. By the time I arrived, eight or so firefighters were on scene, a few dragging a water hose down from the upper trail to extinguish a small fire burning with waist-high flames.

Visitors to the Bolsa Chica Wetlands may encounter more rules and regulations, along with more educational material, in the near future, as a coalition of environmental groups is planning to fill the nature area with more signage. The Bolsa Chica Conservancy, a nonprofit dedicated to restoring and preserving the wetlands, called a meeting of representatives from the state, the county and other nonprofits June 18 to discuss ideas for the new signs. The current signage on the wetlands, Executive Director Grace Adams said, is old and outdated, and newly restored areas on the wetlands are in need of interpretive panels.

Governmental regulators have yet to hear back from a mobile home park owner who reportedly eliminated a protected wetlands while building a parking lot for mobile homes, but regulators added that penalties for failure can be significant. The deadline for a response to the California Coastal Commission is April 14, but that doesn’t mean Cabrillo Mobile Home Park owner Mills Land & Water Co. might not rack up possible fines in the meantime. “I have not spoken to them but they still have another week or so to get back to me,” said Andrew Willis, district enforcement analyst for the California Coastal Commission.

The Bolsa Chica wetlands are a source of pride for Huntington Beach. Many environmentalists worked hard to preserve the habitat, which is home to numerous birds, marine animals, trees and other vegetation. Sadly, though, the wetlands are also home to those without shelter. And not only do these clusters of homeless camps threaten the environment, more importantly some transients pose a menace to their neighbors. One Huntington Beach woman told us recently how an apparently mentally deranged man emerged out of the wetlands last month hurling obscenities and threats as he hammered on her trailer home with his fists.

Huntington Beach is jumping back into the controversial Bolsa Chica debate, considering whether to annex a scaled-down housing project on wetlands many city leaders spent years fighting to protect. What was once a plan to build more than 5,700 homes, a marina and several hundred acres of commercial buildings on the sprawling wetlands in north Huntington Beach has been cut back to a 384-unit luxury home project that leaves 90% of the wetlands available for open space and restoration.

The three nonprofit groups that oversee the Bolsa Chica wetlands and mesa recently banded together to educate the public about the area's natural resources. Amigos de Bolsa Chica, the Bolsa Chica Conservancy and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust hosted their annual Earth Day event Saturday at the reserve's interpretive center, where dozens of people learned about the area's history, animal life and vegetation as well as how to be more environmentally conscious. "The idea behind Earth Day is to get the whole community to have a better understanding of the world we live in, the natural resources, our connections to it, and what we do as individuals to live in it and protect it," said Grace Adams, executive director of the conservancy.

The Bolsa Chica Conservancy is seeking volunteers for its Eyes on Nest Sites public education and outreach program. The program incorporates wildlife observation and monitoring of the endangered California least tern and threatened Western snowy plover nest sites at the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve. The birds are threatened because of high losses of coastal strand habitat, which acts as nesting grounds. Volunteers are needed to help collect data and monitor these species. They will also educate visitors while on duty.

Ann Nghiem enjoys the transformation the Bolsa Chica Wetlands undergo each season. Like the wetlands, Nghiem, 18, has transformed in a year's time after participating in the inaugural session of the Bolsa Chica Conservancy's Youth Leadership in Environmental Action Program (YLEAP) last year, according to Michelle Moberly, communications and development manager. The yearlong youth leadership program teaches high school students about the wetlands, how to interact with large groups and other life skills.

With a measuring tape and notepad in hand, Gordon Smith jotted down the size of the windows at the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy building. The chairman of the nonprofit is looking to install some transparent vinyl veneers on the windows as part of the creation of an interpretive center at the facility, at Newland Street and Pacific Coast Highway. The building's 1,700-square-foot bare meeting room is on its way to being converted to a learning area, much like the one at the Bolsa Chica Conservancy interpretive center.

The Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is a refuge to many. It's where the endangered western snowy plover and the California least tern come to breed, where visitors snap photos of the fauna and flora, and on occasion, where even a few dolphins glide in the water. But the 1,200-acre wetlands would have been housing developments if not for the efforts of three nonprofits in the 1990s: the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, the Bolsa Chica Conservancy and the Bolsa Chica Land Trust. Conflicts have marred the groups' relations in the past, but they have come to realize the power in joining forces.

A white Ford F150 pickup truck veered off Pacific Coast Highway into the Bolsa Chica wetlands Monday morning, police said. The driver was going south on PCH and plunged into the wetlands at 10:19 a.m., Huntington Beach police Sgt. Rob Warden said. The truck was on its side with the passenger side of the vehicle submerged in water near the south end of the wetlands. Authorities are investigating what caused the driver to go off the road, he said. Police did not provide the identity of the driver, but did say he was taken to the hospital.

The two dolphins that found their way into the Bolsa Chica Wetlands on Friday had plenty of water and the option to leave any time, according to Pacific Marine Mammal Center spokeswoman Melissa Sciacca. "They were sort of choosing to be in that wetlands area," she said. The dolphins returned to the ocean around 2 p.m. Friday after spending the day in the wetlands near Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway. The Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach received a call at 7:30 a.m. about the dolphins.

Authorities in Huntington Beach pulled a Mitsubishi Lancer from the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve on Monday morning. No one was found inside the car nor in the water in the area. The airbags in the car had deployed. A passerby noticed the car in the shallow water off the road about 6:50 a.m. and called authorities. Huntington Beach lifeguards and firefighters searched the water and found no bodies in the area south of Warner Avenue on Pacific Coast Highway. "It's not a weekly occurrence, but it happens several times a year," said Huntington Police Department Lt. Brian Seitz.

The Huntington Beach City Council unanimously approved a property owner's plan to remove three oil tanks from the city's southeastern area at Monday's meeting, concluding a lengthy process that was drawn out by two appeals last year. Plains All American Pipeline, a Texas-based oil company, can now demolish three empty oil tanks and more than 2,342 feet of above-ground piping on its property at 21845 Magnolia St. after the proposal was approved with a 7-0 vote by the council. The matter passed without much discussion after Plains All American reached an agreement with the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy earlier Monday.

The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, a nonprofit that has spent a quarter-century acquiring and preserving the city's coastal area, may soon obtain the last stretch of wetlands not yet marked for restoration. The California Department of Transportation, better known as Caltrans, announced Thursday that the 44-acre property at Beach Boulevard and Pacific Coast Highway had been declared surplus land. With that designation, Caltrans can sell the property to the California State Coastal Conservancy, which has expressed hopes of buying the marsh and donating it to the nonprofit.