As an organization, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust has come a long way from that first group of citizens who gathered in someone’s living room to begin the conversation of how they, ordinary people, could work together to advocate for the protection and preservation of rapidly vanishing coastal wetlands. Fast forward to today, when almost half of Los Cerritos Wetlands are safely in the public’s hands, and the conversation is more and more about how best to restore and rehabilitate them.
That is good news, and it is important to take the time to celebrate it.
Of course there is bad news for the environment these days, and much of it is emanating from Washington D.C. These are concerning times for those of us who care about our nation’s parks, wilderness areas, and open spaces. I worry about their safety and their future. However, much can be done to protect the environment at the local level, and with your help, we are persevering here in our cities, where it will be more important than ever to emerge as leaders in climate science and conservation. Despite the current regressive environmental policies at the federal level, we are excited about our progress locally, as plans move forward to transfer more of Los Cerritos Wetlands into the public trust and restore them. We celebrate our innovative programs for the public to experience our wetlands, as well as the expansion of our outdoor education for local school children. We’re also proud that our city has implemented a ban of many polystyrene products, keeping harmful pollution out of our fragile wetlands and coastal ecosystems. These are the local victories that will uplift and sustain us during these challenging times.
The fight to protect and restore Los Cerritos Wetlands will continue into the new year and beyond. We are grateful in the knowledge that we will prevail because of the partnership and support of our members. I urge you to affirm or renew your commitment to the restoration, exploration, and defense of Los Cerritos Wetlands by making a tax deductible donation to the Land Trust today.
Donations of up to $6,000 to Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust will be matched dollar-to-dollar through December 31, 2019.
To donate click here.
Don’t forget. We have two interesting
community events coming up in January.
Wetlands Nature Walk on Saturday, January 4th, 2020
Join us and our partners, educators from the biological consulting company, Tidal Influence, on our Heron Hike to the Marketplace Marsh and back at Los Cerritos Wetlands on Saturday, January 4th.
Our walk begins with a brief orientation to our wetlands. We will discuss the history and ownership of various parcels within Los Cerritos Wetlands. We will then walk towards the levee and discuss the reintroduction of the tides. After that, using oil roads, we will walk to the old bridge on the levee and discuss the San Gabriel River and the future of bringing water back into the land. Then we will view the City-owned lands, including Marketplace Marsh. After that, we will head back to our meeting place, Bring binoculars, if you have them; we will observe many different kinds of interesting wildlife.
Parking lot gate will open at 7:45 am and close at 8:15 am. No latecomers can be admitted for the tour, and all participants must stay for the entire tour, which will end by 10:00 am.
Meet in the driveway/parking area at the corner of 1st Street and PCH in Seal Beach. Close-toed shoes required; and kids under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.
For more information email Elizabeth or download this hike flyer.
Draft Environmental Impact Report status update meeting for comprehensive restoration planning
The group running the planning effort for the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority’s comprehensive planning process will be hosting a status update meeting on January 23, 2020 at the Recreation Park Community Center at 4900 E. 7th St in Long Beach, CA 90804. The meeting starts at 6:30PM, and I urge you to attend. At the meeting you will learn about the next steps for our local wetlands. Look for additional details in upcoming emails, or for further information contact LCWA@tidalinfluence.com.
Please join the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust for a very special screening and program on Sunday, September 29.
Advance purchase tickets for this event are $10. Tickets bought day of event are $12. To buy tickets click HERE.
“Artifishal” is a film about people, rivers and the fight for the future of wild fish and the environment that supports them. It explores wild salmon’s slide towards extinction, threats posed by fish hatcheries and fish farms, and our continued loss of faith in nature.
Come early and mingle. Directly following the screening, attendees are invited to stay and hear from Colin Kelly, Senior Staff Attorney for Orange County Coastkeeper. He will update us on our own local marine ecosystems and threats due to proposed aquaculture off our local coastline.
Doors open at 10:30 a.m.
Screening of “Artifishal” begins at 11:00 a.m. (duration 75 minutes)
Special guest speaker Colin Kelly, Senior Staff Attorney- Orange County Coastkeeper begins at 12:20 p.m.
Measure W, the Safe Clean Water Program, was passed in 2018. Los Angeles County is currently in the process of implementing the numerous Measure W programs that will help improve and protect water quality.
Click here to send a letter to our Los Angeles County Board of Supervisor to encourage Measure W implementation will address local flood risks and other nature-based priorities.
Don’t forget to attend tonight’s wetlands restoration planning workshop hosted by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority (LCWA). There was some confusion about the date and location in my previous email so I want to confirm that the workshop will be at 7:00 p.m. on March 21st (tonight) at the Community Center in Recreation Park at 4900 E. 7th St. in Long Beach.
At the workshop you will be able to give input about the plan to restore Los Cerritos Wetlands, so we hope you will attend and spread the word.
The LCWA’s consulting team, lead by Environmental Science Associates (ESA), will run the workshop where they will review the status of the planning effort and provide an overview of the steps ahead.
This next phase of the planning effort will build on the Final Conceptual Restoration Plan, which will then result in a Program Environmental Impact Report-the next step towards a comprehensive restoration framework for Los Cerritos Wetlands. Previously the LCWA identified existing opportunities and constraints for restoration, public access and interpretation. The LCWA Board of Directors adopted the final Los Cerritos Wetlands Conceptual Restoration Plan in August 2015.
Using information contained in the Final Wetlands Conceptual Restoration Plan, the comprehensive planning process will result in a restoration design for the entire Los Cerritos Wetlands complex. That alternative will be studied, and potential impacts analyzed.
What: Public Scoping Meeting for the Los Cerritos Wetlands Restoration Plan
Where: Community Center in Recreation Park, 4900 E 7th Street, Long Beach
When: Thursday, March 21st, 7:00 – 8:30 p.m.
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority is a joint powers authority composed of the City of Seal Beach, the City of Long Beach, the State Coastal Conservancy and the Lower Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. The ESA consulting team also includes Altman Environmental Consulting and Coastal Restoration Consultants.
Hope to see you at the meeting.
The City of Long Beach is developing its first ever Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) and we hope you will be a part of the process. The CAAP will help to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, prepare the community for the impacts of climate change, improve quality of life, and enhance economic vitality in Long Beach. Long Beach will need to be a more sustainable and resilient city in the face of climate change impacts such as air pollution, extreme heat, drought, coastal storm surge, and sea level rise.
The CAAP will provide a framework for creating or updating policies, programs, practices, and incentives for Long Beach residents and businesses to reduce the City’s GHG footprint and ensure the community and physical assets are better protected from the impacts of climate change. Residents, business owners, students, and other community stakeholders are encouraged to get involved by providing input and sharing ideas, priorities, and solutions to help establish and achieve the City’s climate goals.
It’s good news that the City of Long Beach is preparing for climate change, and you should do your part and participate. To that end, Long Beach has prepared a climate change survey that I urge you to fill out in order to share with the City your views and concerns.
Particularly sobering, in my opinion, are the maps of sea level rise impacts on the City of Long Beach by 2100.
Thankfully, our local wetlands can help mitigate the impacts of climate change. Wetlands absorb water from high tides, which reduces the consequences of flooding. Wetlands provide food and shelter to fragile species who are already stressed by having to go longer distances to search for food, as well as lessened or displaced food sources. Also thankfully, as comprehensive restoration planning moves forward for Los Cerritos Wetlands, how to plan for and make wetlands resilient to climate change will be part of the conversation. For further details check out the Opportunities and Constraints Report of the Los Cerritos Wetlands Conceptual Restoration Plan.
Then please help the City of Long Beach by taking their Climate Action and Adaptation Plan Survey. It will take just a few minutes of your time and your participation will make a difference.
Today’s Raptor Ramble guided nature walk has been canceled due to rain. We hope to see you at our next walk- save the date of Saturday, March 2. More information coming soon to this page. If you haven’t already, please sign up to help us protect, preserve and share the Los Cerritos Wetlands with our community. Hit the “Action Sign Up” button to join us!
I’ve been to a lot of Coastal Commission meetings over the course of my career, and I’m always grateful for the oversight of the Coastal Commission, that extra layer of protection the Commission provides for protecting California’s unique and fragile coastal zone. No Coastal Commission meeting is ever the same, and that applies to last Thursday’s meeting where the Commissioners met in Newport Beach to decide the fate of the proposed wetlands mitigation bank and land swap
As those of you who receive these emails likely already know, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust supports this proposal because it provides a unique opportunity to restore our local wetlands and move them into the public trust. But that proposal comes at a price; and that price is, yes, consolidated oil drilling and more oil drilling adjacent to Los Cerritos Wetlands. We looked hard at the project, asked a lot of questions; but at the end of the day, we thought the benefits the project brought to our cause outweighed the downside. And the Coastal Commission staff thought so too; after they reviewed the project, adding 25 additional conditions, they recommended approval.
Ultimately, after a hearing that lasted over 6 hours, the Coastal Commissioners agreed with their staff recommendations (and us, Audubon, Bolsa Chica Land Trust and the Trust for Public Land) and voted 6 to 3 to approve the project. I have said it before and will say it again: those who opposed the project have legitimate and credible concerns. We understand them, and as part of our due diligence, have done our best to incorporate solutions to those concerns into our support (shorter timeline to get wells off the wetlands, extra soil remediation, and contamination monitoring). We know that didn’t go far enough to satisfy the project opponents, and we respect that.
Now we believe we need to move forward, with all of us who care about Los Cerritos Wetlands working to ensure the ultimate outcome is the best that it can be. None of us is perfect and none of us knows for sure how this will all work out. The one thing I am sure of, however, is that everyone has been working and will continue to work in good faith to protect this fragile ecosystem. And I hope that allies that found themselves on different sides of this issue will come together again in our shared advocacy, because our mutual goals of restoring our local wetlands are greater than our differences about how to get there.
Check out the final document of what was approved by the Coastal Commission, including the 25 additional conditions added by Coastal Commission staff.
Additionally, I urge you to check out coverage by the Press Telegram, LBReport, Grunion Gazette and Long Beach Post of the Coastal Commission meeting, testimony, and vote.
As you are likely aware, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust supports the mitigation bank and land swap proposed by Beach Oil Mineral Partners (BOM).
We support this project because it includes comprehensive wetlands and habitat restoration, provides unique public access opportunities, consolidates oil operations offsite, and will transfer ownership of a substantial portion of Los Cerritos Wetlands into the public domain.
We now have an additional reason to support the project and that is the substantially shorter timeline, just agreed to, in which the wetlands will move into the public trust.
Beach Oil Mineral (BOM) the project proponents, have agreed to the Coastal Commission’s vision of accelerating the “project phasing timeline”. That means that instead of removing 50% of their wetlands oil infrastructure in 20 years and the remaining 50% in 40 years; BOM will remove 50% in 10 years and the remaining 50% in 20 years. That is a much shorter timeline in which BOM will reduce their footprint of oil operations to approximately 10 acres from their current 187 acres. We cheer the accelerated transformation of this highly degraded landscape into a restored functioning wetlands and uplands.
The Coastal Commission staff report and the conditions they are recommending to the Coastal Commissioners for their approval of the project are numerous and have been accepted and agreed upon by BOM.
We urge you to send a letter of support to the Coastal Commission for the project. If you write a support letter, I encourage you to add a couple of additional points like those we made in our letter of support to the Coastal Commission. Deadline to submit a letter to the Coastal Commission is this Friday, December 7th, by 5:00PM.
For those of you that can, I also urge you to attend the Coastal Commission hearing on December 13th in Newport Beach. It will be an important hearing, one that will shape the future of Los Cerritos Wetlands for decades to come. So please make time to join me at that meeting. It will be an interesting day; your attendance will make a big difference; and the project proponents will spring for your lunch. For more information about the meeting and the transportation arrangements, email heather@altmanenvironmental.com.
We know there are differences of opinion about this matter, and perhaps there always will be. However, it is my sincere hope that we will all operate from a place of respect for each other’s views. After all, our goals are shared.
We have a deep appreciation for all who have taken time out of their lives to advocate with us for the protection and restoration of Los Cerritos Wetlands. We have made great strides, and with your partnership and the support of the community, we will continue to do so.
We hope you have a happy Thanksgiving holiday and are able to spend time with family and friends.
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust is thankful for you and your care and concern for our local wetlands. As an organization we have come a long way from that first group of citizens who gathered in someone’s living room to begin the conversation of how they, ordinary people, could work together to advocate for the protection and preservation of Los Cerritos Wetlands. Fast forward to today where almost half our wetlands are safely in the public’s hands, and the conversation is more and more about how best to restore and rehabilitate them.
That is good news, and it is important to take the time to celebrate it.
With appreciation for your support and vision of a fully restored Los Cerritos Wetlands,
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Lambe,
Executive Director
Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust
P.S. Cooling temperatures mean the wetlands will be at their best for our upcoming walk to check out the Marketplace Marsh within Los Cerritos Wetlands.
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust is a proud endorser of Measure W, the Safe Clean Water Parcel Tax.
Measure W will modernize Los Angeles County’s 100-year-old water system in order to better protect public health and our environment, and to maximize a cleaner, locally controlled water supply.
The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust supports Measure W for the following reasons.
Measure W reduces harmful pollution that regularly flows into our local wetlands.
Each year, many marine mammals, seabirds, and fish die, either from mistakenly eating plastic garbage and other toxins, or ensnaring themselves. Annually, over 4000 tons of trash and plastic gets cleaned from our beaches. Stormwater picks up chemicals from pesticides, fertilizers, plastics, metals from our cars, pet waste, and other contaminants as it flows over the streets and other developed areas into our rivers, streams, and the ocean, threatening public health and marine life. That’s why beach closures follow nearly every heavy rain.
Measure W will enhance and redesign existing green spaces (and create new ones), so that we can recharge our groundwater and capture runoff through diversion structures, infiltration chambers, and pre-treatment systems. Developing new projects and updating our current infrastructure system, specifically for stormwater, will improve our ability to cope with the changing climate, increasing demand, and other pressures.
Measure W helps make our community more resilient against the impacts of extreme weather. Droughts, followed by historic rain, are here to stay. Therefore, a smarter water system will prepare our region for the effects of a changing climate. As extreme weather becomes the new normal, we need to decrease our reliance on imported water that we pay to bring into L.A. County.
Measure W will capture valuable rainwater before it runs into our rivers and ocean.
Every year, L.A. County loses over 100 billion gallons of water, enough to meet the annual needs of more than 2 million people. Because so much of our region is paved over, too much precious rainfall is lost to the ocean before we can capture it for use. When we experience heavy rains, our system captures only a fraction of rainfall.
For the reasons above and more, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust endorses Measure W, and we hope you agree. I urget you to learn more about Measure W and read the ballot language. Then please share with your friends and neighbors the importance of voting for Measure W to support clean water– for our local wetlands, for our community and for our future.
