Location of Wetlands: 3842 Warner Avenue Huntington Beach, CA 92649
Hours: 7 days a week, 9-4
Length of Loop: 5.8 mi
Free Parking !
Arguably more interesting, or equally as interesting, than the current state of Bolsa Chica's wetlands is the history of how they came to be the way they are now. This area was once one where the Santa Ana River, referred to as Freeman Creek, met the ocean, forming brackish water and creating estuaries and swampland ideal for very unique organisms.
The first documented people to interact with these lands were groups of Native Americans, specifically the Tongva and the Acjachemen, who moved into the Bolsa Chica land seasonally adapting to the different native food sources. When the Spanish discovered the Americas they came into contact with the Tongva and eventually, in the 1700s, sought to colonize the California coast. Most of the natives that were living there died of disease and left little trace of their existence. Thus began a series of redistribution of the coastlands from the Spanish, to the Mexicans, to who are now referred to as the American settlers. It was these settlers, businessmen of the Los Angeles area, who bought the Bolsa Chica to use for duck hunting and formed the Bolsa Chica Gun Club. In 1895, after learning that the area wasn't as ideal as they had hoped because of the strong current from the ocean, the Club members hired a contractor to build a dam across Freeman Creek. Although there were gates build to allow freshwater to leave the dam, there was no longer any flow of water from the ocean converting the area into a freshwater ecosystem, devastating the lands' organisms. A channel was also built for flood prevention connecting the Bolsa Bay and the Anaheim Bay connecting the two waterways.
Aside from duck hunting, Bolsa Chica has also had an interesting array of uses including extraction of oil, drilled in 1940, as well as for the US Army in WWII for artillery battery.
There was a lot of debate and struggle to preserve the wetlands, a battle fought for by the Amigos de Bolsa Chica which came to join to form the Bolsa Chica Conservancy, after learning of desire to develop there. Eventually the state of California declared the wetlands as necessary to preserve on the basis of providing important habitat and breeding/nesting area to many different organisms. This jumpstarted to road to restoration as they set out to conduct a project that would re-connect the Pacific Ocean and the Santa Ana, one that was completed in 2006 and cost a whopping $147 million. Since then the conservancy and its volunteers have been working to restore native vegetation and reintroduce extirpated species to Bolsa Chica.
I ventured out to the Bolsa Chica reserve with my mom, about a 40 minute drive from where I live, eager to see success of their restoration efforts as well as permanent effects that the dam has had. I purchased a field guide, entitled Bolsa Chica Pocket Field Guide- An Introduction to Familiar Species, which was definitely a smart choice. I was excited at the chance to identify the different types of birds and vegetation (something I learned to do while traveling in Mexico) although most of the animals I saw were commonly seen year round.
Venturing around the first part of the trail I encountered restoration efforts of volunteers who were planting native vegetation, some common and some that were more rare because of high sensitivity to changing environments. The more rare were probably of the first to disappear when the dam was built.
[bladderpod]
We also saw volunteers clearing invasive vegetation common along the California coast such as ice plant that grows over native plants and competes for resources.
[volunteer clearing invasive plants]
[crystalline ice plant]
[closer look at a budding crystalline ice plant]
As we made our way further along the trail we noted that the shrubs were notably larger, growing from 1 ft to heights of 8-9 ft if not taller. We hypothesized that this was because of access to water and nutrients that can support taller plants. The first .7 mi of the trail we were walking along a fence which we came to learn housed the nests for the herons that inhabited the area, which became more apparent as we got closer and heard them chattering away. We were bummed that we couldn't walk into the nesting area but then again I am doing a project that reflects people's bad decision making skills and when it comes to trusting them to respect boundaries we humans do not have the best track record, and with that we trekked on.
[agave in the heron nesting area]
The area we came upon next was walking along what's known as the Bolsa Pocket, one of the areas impacted dramatically by the dam. The Bolsa Pocket, then a freshwater ecosystem, has been reintroduced to the ocean but sees little water flow from the tides. Because of the limited movement of water the area the marsh has high turbidity limited the amount of organisms the area can support because of access to sunlight. This marsh houses many small fish that are a food source to the many different birds of Bolsa Chica- a bird watcher's heaven !
[topsmelt]
[royal tern]
[long-billed dowitcher]
[great blue heron]
[double crested cormorant]
[canada goose]
[california least tern] -- endangered
[black-necked stilt]
As we rounded the channel we were able to see the effects of the oil rigs as well as the basin which connects to the ocean and provides homes for different types birds and aquatic animals than what we had seen upland. Another cool part of the inner bay trail was the snowy plover nesting area, again gated off from humans but lined with beautiful pink sand verbena. This area was a popular spot for photographers because of the rare birds it tends to attract and although we didn't get a picture, we did hear rumors of newly hatched birds.
[brown pelican in the bolsa chica inner bay]
[snowy plover nesting island]
[snowy egret in the bolsa chica inner bay]
[catch system for waste in the flood control channel]
[striped shore crab in the bolsa chica inner bay]
[spalding's savannah sparrow in the flood control channel]
[ruddy duck in the flood control channel]
[oil rigs along the sea wall]
[marbled godwit in the waters near an oil rig]
[great egret flying over the flood control channel]
[and probably the most exciting shot of the day was seeing a great blue heron standing only a few feet away]
Overall it was both heartbreaking and heartwarming to see the Bolsa Chica wetlands. Although it is sad to see the effects that the dam has had on Bolsa Chica, there is visible progress being made on restoring the wetlands to what they were before, or at least closer to it. For the first time in 100 years the wetlands have been reintroduced to ocean waters and hopefully we are able to save the 10% that is left of what these wetlands used to be. I'm excited to return and see how far along they come with continued efforts by the conservancy and its volunteers.
Sources of Information:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bolsa_Chica_Ecological_Reserve#History]
[http://orangecounty.about.com/od/attractions/ss/Explore-The-Bolsa-Chica-Wetlands-And-Ecological-Reserve_4.htm]
[http://bolsachica.org/the-wetlands/bolsa-chica-history/]
[http://anniepham325.blogspot.com/2011/11/impact.html]
Get Involved : Volunteer through the Amigos de Bolsa Chica on the last Saturday of every month from 9-11 am for a trash clean up OR on the second Sunday of every month from 9-12 am for native plant maintenance -- http://www.amigosdebolsachica.org/volunteers.htm
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