Rising Tide Newsletter Summer 2022
BE SAFE Trips are Back and Sponsored by the Port of Long Beach
| The Port of Long Beach (in partnership with the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust) participated in Long Beach Parks, Recreation & Marine summer programming this year by sponsoring field trips to Los Cerritos Wetlands for kids who are enrolled in summer programs at Silverado, Drake, Seaside and Admiral Kidd Park (as well as other parks in Long Beach). On these wetlands field trips kids learn about the value of protecting wetlands and the role wetlands play in a functioning ecosystem. As part of the field trip experience, attendees help plant a wetlands plant which helps restore and bring our local wetlands back to life and they participate in an educational walk through Zedler Marsh where environmental educators help kids learn about wetlands plants, and animals. Sadly, due to COVID protocols, these popular field trips were canceled for the last couple of years, but now they are back! It was great to see our youth learning firsthand why it is important to protect our local wetlands while at the same time making memories and expanding their knowledge of an important ecosystem. You can check out the Los Cerritos Wetlands for yourself by attending a free-of-charge guided nature walk that takes place on the first Saturday of the month from 8:00 AM until 10:00 AM. Hosted by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust, there are three different tours that you can sign up for, the Heron Hike, Turtle Trek, and Raptor Ramble. For more information or to rsvp email Elizabeth The Los Cerritos Wetlands is a unique resource that provides the community with an opportunity to spend quality time in nature while also serving as important coastal habitat for threatened species. |
September is Coastal Clean-Up Month
| California Coastal Cleanup Day is Saturday, September 17, 2022, from 9 AM-Noon. Help remove the trash and plastic pollution at beaches and waterways throughout the state, including in Long Beach. The Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust urges you to join one of the coastal clean-up sites located near Los Cerritos Wetlands, such as those sponsored by Save Our Beach, or check out those in Long Beach sponsored by Heal the Bay and the El Dorado Nature Center at the Belmont Pier. You can find all the Coastal Cleanup sites here. It is a sad fact that trash from inland areas flows downstream to the coast, so cleaning up near the mouth of the San Gabriel River helps prevents more debris on our local beaches and wetlands. Close to 17,000 Californians participated in a neighborhood cleanup during September 2021, preventing over 150,000 pounds of trash from entering our stormwater systems and potentially polluting our coast and ocean. However you choose to participate, please do your part to keep our beaches and waterways clean and healthy! |
Final Reminder: Join us for a walk on August 6
| Our nature walks have been quite popular this year. People seem really happy to be able to do things together again, especially outside. So I urge you to sign up now to attend our August 6th Heron Hike nature walk. Join us, and educators from the environmental consulting firm Tidal Influence, on a wonderful nature walk at Los Cerritos Wetlands on Saturday, August 6th. The unusual Marketplace Marsh is an amazing feature of Los Cerritos Wetlands. Perhaps there will be water within Marketplace Marsh, but certainly there will be lots of interesting plants and animals that attendees will learn about along the way. Environmental educators will take participants on a walking tour that will take us to Marketplace Marsh on the City of Long Beach’s wetlands and over to the San Gabriel River to property held by the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority. We will likely come across great blue herons, as well as egrets and other water-loving wildlife. During this 2-mile urban hike, you will learn about the history of land acquisitions in Los Cerritos Wetlands, and leaders will show us some freshwater marsh habitats that few people have ever viewed. WHAT: Nature walk to Marketplace Marsh at Los Cerritos Wetlands. WHEN: Saturday, August 6th, 2022, at 8:00 AM. The parking lot gate will open at 7:45 AM and close at 8:10 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. WHERE: Meet in the driveway/parking area at the corner of 1st Street and PCH in Seal Beach. There will be signs. Close-toed shoes are required to attend the walk, and kids under 16 must be accompanied by an adult. Reserve your spot via our Eventbrite page. Feel free to send me an email if you have any questions. Hope to see you there! |
Meeting Re-Cap: We Learned a Lot
| We had a good meeting last Tuesday and I really appreciate all who attended what was our first in-person event in over TWO YEARS (held outside for extra safety.) Shout out to the Belmont Heights United Methodist Church for allowing us to meet in their courtyard, it was the perfect spot for a meeting. A highlight of the meeting was our program, led by Terry Watt who is an expert in general and specific planning. Terry helped attendees delve into the details of the new zoning (South East Area Specific Plan/SEASP) for the lands in and around Los Cerritos Wetlands and the pending development applications for that area. Since new zoning was approved, first by the City and then by the Coastal Commission, it is no surprise that development applications would follow. Some key take aways from Terry’s presentation are: Any development brought forward within SEASP must be reviewed and found to be “consistent” with City and Coastal Commission approved planning, zoning and other applicable requirements. That includes all new mitigation measures and policies that are now required within SEASP. Members of the public (and advocacy groups like the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust) can and should recommend improvements during the public review process to proposed development projects to help make them better. For example, my take away from our meeting is that reasonable improvements to help mitigate traffic impacts or impacts to wetlands would be welcome. For any building proposed to be over 5 stories high we can (and will) ask for wetlands improving considerations and incentives (additional “community benefits” are now required for developments trying to build beyond the new approved height limit of 5 stories). We can bring up other issues, as you or we think of them. For example at our meeting one gentlemen suggested that, since we are in a drought, water use for new development should be more efficient than the current existing water use. Reasonable suggestions to achieve low – or even net zero water use – should be appreciated. I know some people were unhappy to see the amount of development that is allowed under the new SEASP, but keep in mind even more height and density was on the table at one point and it was rejected. Furthermore, thanks to our advocacy, some important protections were won such as wetlands sensitive lighting for new development, a wetlands friendly plant palette for landscaping the area and new development will include a fund to protect and restore wetlands. Lastly there will be robust protective buffers, free from non-essential infrastructure, between development and Los Cerritos Wetlands to protect fragile plants and animals from the harmful hubbub that development and traffic will inevitably create. Stay tuned, as we learn more, we will share it with you. In the meantime thank you for caring about Los Cerritos Wetlands. The below map is an important reminder of what a vast wetlands area South East Long Beach once was (and Bolsa Chica too!) and how much has been lost forever to development. It is so very important to protect and restore what is left. With your help we have been successful and will keep at it. |