Wetlands Proponents Celebrate Milestone Today

For Mary Parsell, this day has been decades in the making.

Along with hundreds of other community leaders and local nature-lovers the Conservation Chair of the El Dorado Audubon Society has been begging, battling and biding her time for the day that 100 acres of vital coastal marshland in Seal Beach would come under public stewardship so that it could one day be restored as a vital wetlands.

That day has come, and it’s time to celebrate.

Today, the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority will celebrate the purchase 100 acres of the former Hellman Ranch property near Gum Grove Park with a ceremony at 10 a.m. at First Street and PCH. Though the $5.1 million purchase took place in December, the celebration was put on hold following the of key contributors to the deal.

However, today begins a new chapter for the wetlands hope proponents of the wetlands restoration.

“My personal vision is for something like a smaller version of the Upper Newport Back Bay,” Parsell. “If you stand in Gum Grove Park, you can visualize what it could be.”

Seal Beach City Councilman Gordon Shanks doesn’t need to imagine what it could be. He’s already seen it.

“It’s going to take a long time to get it fully rehabbed, but when I first moved to Seal Beach (in 1968), the high tide came up to Gum Grove,” said Shanks. Over time the channel was damned, creating a little lake in Gum Grove Park that kids used to raft around on, he added. As silt and fill were dumped in the wetlands, it slowly dried into what it is today, he said. But with the low water table and the adjacent cooling channel, the potential is there to restore the wetlands.

“However, it’s going to be a long hard struggle,’ predicted Seal Beach City Councilman David Sloan.

The Hellman Ranch acquisition is a key part of the Los Cerritos Wetlands, a 200-acre parcel on both the Seal Beach and Long Beach sides if the San Gabriel River. It is home to a number of endangered and protected bird species such as the California Least Tern.

Less than a century ago, the wetlands included 2,400-acres of wildlife habitat. California lost 97 percent of its coastal wetlands over the last century, and the Los Cerritos Wetlands would be a rare reversal. The Rivers and Mountains Conservancy has funded a $450,000 restoration study for the area.

“It’s the last restorable estuary in Los Angeles County,” said Parsell. “What we are all trying for is the restoration of the remaining wetlands and estuary for a combination of fresh and saltwater wetlands. It’s very exciting.”

Ways to get involved in the wetlands restoration:

• Save Our Beach hosts clean-ups on the second Friday of each month, at 9 a.m. during various seasons. Volunteers can park at the lot just north of the intersection of 1st Street and Pacific Coast Highway in Long Beach. 

• Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust will offer land tours at 8 a.m. on the first Saturday of each month. Upcoming dates include Feb. 5, March 5, April 2 and May 7. Details are available by e-mailing ejlambe@verizon.net.

• The El Dorado Audubon Society holds Hellman Wetlands bird walks on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month at 8 a.m. To attend, RSVP to eldoradoaudbon@yahoo.com. The group also holds a bird and nature walk at Gum Grove Park, overlooking the wetlands, on the second Saturday of each month. The group meets at the park’s Avalon Street parking lot.