Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve (pronunciation: "Bah-yo-nuh" or "Buy-yo-nah") is a protected area that once served as the natural estuary for neighboring Ballona Creek. The site is located in Los Angeles County, California, just south of Marina del Rey. Ballona—the second-largest open space within the city limits of Los Angeles, behind Griffith Park—is owned by the state of California and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. The preserve is bisected generally east–west by the Ballona Creek channel and bordered by the 90 Marina freeway to the east.
Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve is one of the last significant wetlands or marshes left in Los Angeles County, wetlands being "areas that are periodically, seasonally or perennially flooded that also have specific types of vegetation." Ballona is a "fragile, self-sustaining bog, fed by both fresh and salt water…This and other major wetlands of the Los Angeles Basin, including Bixby Slough…have been largely filled in for urban development." The value of Ballona is that "wetlands teem with life and are among the earth's most productive environments."
Geography The original extent of Ballona Wetlands likely ranged between and . The wetlands can be roughly divided into five ecologically distinct areas: saltwater marsh (wetland fed by the ocean), freshwater marsh (wetland fed by creeks and streams), riparian corridor (creek bottomland), sand dunes and bluffs.
Habitat types present in the wetlands include coastal prairie, coastal willow woodland, coastal shrubland, salt pannes and pools, vernal pools, and coastal urban forests.
In addition to functioning as a tidal river estuary, Ballona Creek also acts as a flood control channel, and the construction of an estuarine harbor and port called Marina del Rey in the late 1950s, increased the urbanized estuary by .
Additional open space east of the wetlands was converted to agricultural uses by the early 20th century. Many of these farm fields became the private Hughes Airport with other fields staying under cultivation continuing well into the 1990s, when they became some of the last farm fields in the Los Angeles Basin. In the first decade of the 21st century the Hughes Airport land was developed as Playa Vista, a neighborhood east of Lincoln Boulevard.
Land rights
The remaining open space of what was once the vast Rancho la Ballona has been the subject of a battle between developers and environmentalists that has been ongoing for decades.
of estuarine wetland were included in the state acquisition, previously privately owned by Howard Hughes, his corporate heirs and the subsequent developers of Playa Vista. Numerous environmental lawsuits and the acquisition of a part of the Wetlands by the State of California has helped to protect nearly all the open space west of Lincoln Blvd. (including all of the remaining tidal wetlands).Ballona Wetland Restoration Project Description
Southern California Gas Company has a facility in Area B related to underground natural gas; oil drilling of the land took place in the 20th century and infrastructure from that era remains.
Ballona Freshwater Marsh Ballona Freshwater Marsh (BFM) is a marsh fed by water from the nearby Bluff Creek, a remnant of Centinela Creek. The freshwater marsh, located on the corner of Lincoln and Jefferson, was built in 2003 by the corporation that was building the adjacent Playa Vista neighborhood.
The land had previously been a derelict celery field that supported approximately 50 bird species. The creation of the Freshwater Marsh has been described as "wildly successful, providing rich native habitat and regulated access for people, where degraded land once dominated." Some 250 species of birds have now been recorded at the Freshwater Marsh.
Subdivisions
The Ballona Wetlands are typically divided into four sections for planning and study purposes.
Area A: West of Lincoln Boulevard, north of the creek Area B: West of Lincoln, south of the creek Area C: East of Lincoln, north of the creek, west of Marina Freeway Area D: Playa Vista neighborhood including Bluff Creek riparian corridor
Ecology and biodiversity "These marshes are more than for just the birds. They're also fish nurseries, water and air filtration systems, places for groundwater to refill aquifers, and buffer zones that help protect human homes and other property from floods."
Wetland flora includes pickleweed, alkali heath, saltgrass, salt marsh dodder, arrowgrass, glasswort, and upland species like coyote bush and goldenbush.
Common introduced species in the wetlands are crown daisy, Canary Island palm, ice plant, pampas grass, castor bean, ripgut brome, myoporum, wild mustard and wild radish.
Eight acres (32,000 m2) of sand dune habitat has been restored by Friends of Ballona Wetlands volunteers.
Orcutt's yellow pincushion (Chaenactis glabriuscula var. orcuttiana) is a rare native plant endemic to the coastal dunes of southern California that was newly discovered at Ballona in 2010.Sahagun, Louis (March 19, 2010) "Discovery of rare wildflower in Ballona Wetlands could halt recreation project." Los Angeles Times Retrieved 3 March 2018
Wildlife Ballona is recognized as an Important Birding Area by the Audubon Society and nearly 260 bird species across almost 50 taxonomical families have been observed visiting Ballona freshwater marsh alone. The total bird count for the immediate area hits 320 species when the survey area includes the wetlands, the nearby bluffs, parks and residential neighborhoods.
The Ballona Wetlands and the adjacent city-owned lagoons are a stop along the migratory Pacific Flyway. Migratory birds "rest and feed in wetlands, the only environment in which most species can find adequate food…Salt-water flooding offers birds a rich source of food, inviting both shore and land-dwelling migratory birds." Some 90 percent of wetlands in Los Angeles County have been destroyed, and "the missing wetlands are missing steppingstones in the Pacific Flyway—one of the largest north-south migrations of waterfowl in the world."
Birders visiting the marsh "often spot red-throated loons, herons, tree swallows, barn swallows, hummingbirds and red-tailed hawks who like to surf the air." The green heron, great blue heron and snowy egret are also frequent sights at Ballona (with urban woodland trees alongside roadsides and buildings serving as rookeries). The shorebirds visit to feed on "clams, snails, crabs, worms, and shrimp."
Birds generally uncommon to the area may appear in the Ballona watershed: "Here you'll see many surfbirds. Look for wandering tattlers, black oystercatchers, pelicans, scoters, loons and grebes. You may see the harlequin duck, Eastern kingbird and gray vireo, and there are many warblers, including the prairie warbler. Golden plovers, white-tailed kites and short-eared owls inhabit the mud flats." Rarities (such as the bald eagle that visited the winter of 1977–78) aside, the majority of the bird population at water's edge are "the more common plovers, willets, sanderlings, curlews and killdeer."Jones, Mark, "LA BALLONA WETLANDS: Ecosystem Vs. the Developers," Los Angeles Times, 1978-11-17, p. h1.
Bird species of special interest observed in the reserve include nesting pairs of Belding's Savannah sparrow and foraging California least terns.
The wetlands and surrounding waterways support a dozen species of dragonfly and a half-dozen additional damselflies. Five species of bumblebee, including Crotch's bumblebee (identified as a "species of greatest conservation need" by California Department of Fish and Wildlife), have been documented at the Wetlands. There are several reptile species present, including the San Diego legless lizard and a geographically isolated population of Southern Pacific rattlesnakes. A population of introduced red foxes was relocated in the 1990s; coyotes now regularly make themselves known in the wetlands, along the creek and in surrounding neighborhoods.
History
Tongva artifacts and ancient human remains were found during excavation of the Playa Vista site. "To the 2,000 or so remaining Gabrieleños…the Ballona Wetlands are sacred. They made their homes near the wetlands. They ate the fish hatched in its estuaries and hunted the wild rabbits. They used the rare pickleweed and other plants to make medicine. They buried their dead there."
Augustin Machado began to graze cattle on his land known as Rancho La Ballona in the 1820s. The origin of the placename Ballona is disputed and remains poorly understood.
During the expansion of Playa Del Rey in 1911, a California paper retold this history:
"The ocean frontage of La Ballona Rancho was known in early days as Ballona Slough. It consisted of marshy fields broken by sand dunes and lagoons of salt water, which were considered worthless as home for [anything but] duck and other game birds. In 1870 a native of Switzerland with the historic name of William Tell built a shack on the site of the present Del Rey Hotel, and named it Tell's Lookout. He furnished boats, guns and fishing tackle for his patrons. In 1877 Michael Duffy opened what he called Hunter's Cottage in Tell's old location. He furnished board as well as hunting outfits."
An "old-timer", who told stories about the area between 1876 and 1890, recalled, "There were but a few trees in the valley at that time and standing on the hills back of the depot, one could see the breakers rolling over the sand dunes at Playa Del Rey, about four miles south of Palms, which at that time was called William Tell's Lake."
A history of Santa Monica recalled "Duck shooting on Ballona laguna and boating on the laguna were popular pastimes. The boats on the laguna known as the Pollywog and the Mud Hen. Spanish games took place in the spring, when a channel was cut from the laguna to allow the overflow water to escape into the ocean, at the point now known as Playa del Rey."
The wetlands as they stood in 1887 were of interest because of the nascent plans for Port Ballona:
"Four miles southwest of Santa Monica, and ten miles southeast of Los Angeles, lying in the shelter of a low range of hills rising from the valley toward the sea, is a small narrow lake at the point where La Ballona creek debonches into the ocean. It is a true lake, for, although it lies close down upon the sand of the beach, a well-defined earth formation encloses it, and proves conclusively that it's water is not drawn by seepage from the sea. As has been said, the lake is exceedingly narrow. Its length along the shore is about two miles, and it varies in width from two hundred to six hundred feet. The water in it varies in depth, in ordinary times, from six inches to twenty feet.
Back of the lake there is a drift of sand-hills so common along the seacoast of Southern California, and behind these hills there stretch away for miles the low marsh lands of the Centinela ranch. La Ballona creek comes down through this marsh—which is, after all, only a wash of sediment from the hills and higher plains toward Los Angeles—and in the rainy season, the creek breaks through the sand-hills, and the waters overflow the lake and find an outlet to the ocean."
Also in 1887, "the great marsh of Ballona" was viewed as a resource for "persons living at Santa Monica."Kelp, "By the Kelp Beds: The Adventures of a Buncosteerer With a Reporter. How Santa Monica Got Rid of Gamblers--Talks with an Old BeachComber--Big Sharks--The Leopard Shark--Great Possibilities," Los Angeles Times, 1887-07-11, p. 10.