Bolsa Chica Wetlands and Mesa Tour

If you are looking for a way to get out of the house this weekend and stretch your legs, take a scenic drive on Pacific Coast Highway to Huntington Beach and take a free walking tour of the beautiful Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Stepping outside and experiencing the beauty and wildlife that resides in your local area serves as a great reminder that conservation starts at your front door, and that areas such as the Bolsa Chica Wetlands are just one of the many areas that are effected by pollution, as are the many species of bird life that can be seen there.

Per the website:

Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve is one of California's most significant coastal wetlands. This 300 acre sanctuary is a popular attraction for tourists and local residents. Other nearby wetlands include Newport Beach's Upper Newport Bay State Ecological Reserve and Ballona Wetlands near Playa del Rey. Visitors to Huntington Beach often look for a family-oriented outing that both educates and entertains the youngsters and adults.

Bolsa Chica Wetlands or Ecological Reserve features a 1.5 mile trail loop around a water inlet. Believed to be a popular hunting ground to native American tribes at one time, in the early 1900's it was transformed into the Bolsa Hunting Club, a prestigious duck and fowl hunting club with steep membership fees. A Los Angeles Red Car train system included a stop here. In World War II, a portion of the wetlands was used by troops to watch for enemy attacks. The facility is now a protected wetlands. The public can park for free in a paved lot and walk along trails, watching and learning about birds. Dogs, horses, pets and bicycle riding are prohibited.

The best place to observe wildlife is from the footbridge and trail adjacent to Pacific Coast Highway. Several volunteer groups offer free tours leaving the parking lot at this location.

Tours

The Amigos de Bolsa Chica tour is on the first Saturday of each month from 9 to 10:30 a.m. The Bolsa Chica Land Trust tour is on the third Sunday of each month from 10 a.m. to Noon. Meeting planners can arrange for private group tours by calling the numbers listed in the paragraph below.

Both tours follow a loop trail through the wetlands and are hosted by trained guides who discuss identification of birds, ecology and history of the wetlands. No reservations are required. Open to foot traffic. Trail parking is accessible from the northbound lane of Pacific Coast Highway one mile south of Warner (across from the Bolsa Chica State Beach entrance). For more information contact the Amigos de Bolsa Chica at 714-840-1575.

The Bolsa Chica Land Trust can be reached at 714-860-1001.For more information on the Bolsa Chica Wetlands, please visit: http://bolsachica.org, or http://www.amigosdebolsachica.org/tours.htm

California Water Overhaul Caps Use

The Mariner Cove Marina, at Bethel Island, Calif., a possible site for a canal around the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta.

LOS ANGELES — California lawmakers on Wednesday approved a series of bills that would vastly overhaul the state’s troubled water system. The water package is the most comprehensive to emerge from the state since the 1960s, when California last upgraded its system for what was a far smaller population of users.

Prompted by a protracted drought — which has reduced water supply, harmed the fishing industry and contributed to crop loss — environmentalists and agricultural interests have agreed to broad concessions.

The plan calls for a comprehensive ecosystem restoration in the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta — a collection of channels, natural habitats and islands at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers that is a major source of the state’s drinking water.

It also calls for new dams, aggressive water conservation goals and the monitoring of groundwater use, which other Western states already do. And it paves the way for a new canal — once the third rail of California’s byzantine water politics — that would move water from the north of the state to the south.

The series of bills, which Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has said he will sign, include an $11.1 billion bond issue, which voters will be asked to approve next November. The rest of the roughly $40 billion project would be paid for by localities, largely through new user fees.

The pressing sense among lawmakers that they needed to do something other than oversee the nation’s largest budget crisis provided Mr. Schwarzenegger with one of his largest — and most likely final — policy victories as governor.

“This is the most comprehensive water resources action that California has taken since the state water project in the ’60s,” said Richard Little, the director of the Keston Institute for Public Finance and Infrastructure Policyat the University of Southern California. “First of all, there is so much in it,” Mr. Little said. “And for the first time, they are tying ecosystem enhancement and environmental restoration directly to the infrastructure.

“Before, we always planned the projects and then mitigated the impacts,” he said. “Now it is all on coequal footing.”

Many environmentalists still believe that the bill’s penalties for misusing the water supply do not go far enough. But they won oversight of the ailing estuary, checks and balances on future dams and some mild penalties for failures to conserve water. Local agencies will also monitor groundwater.

Republicans in the state’s Central Valley, who object to water restrictions and always push for more conveyance from the north to the south, also had to back down. “This is a huge step forward for California,” said Laura Harnish, the regional director for the Environmental Defense Fund. “It marks big progress toward managing our water supply and ecosystem in a 21st-century manner.”

Oversight of the Delta canal “has been resisted for a number of years for political reasons,” she said. “We think today, that if there is a canal that is going to come, it is going to be of a size and operated in a manner that” environmental groups could tolerate.

Water usage has been at the center of a statewide battle for decades, particularly concerning the delta, which is near collapse because of overpumping. Further, a three-year drought and a federal order last year forcing water authorities to curtail the use of large pumps in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta to help preserve dying smelt has reduced water flows to agriculture and resulted in dust-bowl-like conditions for many farms.

In 2008, more than 100,000 acres of the 4.7 million in the Central Valley were left unplanted. Additionally, environmental problems in the Sacramento River have resulted in a collapse of the Chinook salmon population, closing salmon season off the coast of California and much of Oregon for two years in a row.

At the same time, the state has not built any new water infrastructure in years, even as the state’s population has increased, making it harder to move water north to south — the goal of proponents of a new canal — and to capture excess water in wet years to use in dry years.

Collecting data on groundwater levels — which many rural constituents have resisted because they fear such monitoring will lead to new restrictions and penalties — is likely to help the state better manage both water supply and the problems that can be caused by overuse of that groundwater.

However, the state will not be doing the monitoring, as environmentalists and the Schwarzenegger administration sought; it will be done by the local water authorities, and refusal to go along could result in the loss of local bond money.

Environmentalists also sought hard penalties on what they call “illegal diversions” of water, but that move proved too controversial among Democratic and Republican lawmakers, who threatened to bring down the whole package over its inclusion.

The administration now has to sell large bond offerings to the California public, which may be wary of taking on new debt at a time of great fiscal crisis. But such a move may presage other efforts to fix areas of the state’s infrastructure beyond its ailing water system.

(Article courtesy of NYTimes.com)

Still Using Plastic Bags?

Did you know that the current rate of plastic bags used and discarded is 1 million per minute?

Each one of these bags takes 450 years to photodegrade, and they do this by breaking down into smaller and smaller toxic bits, which contaminate soil and waterways, and become accidentally ingested by animals, thus entering into the food web.

One very simple, and even fashionable, way to reduce the number of plastic bags used per minute, and per year is to purchase a reusable bag.

Local chain stores such as Whole Foods and Trader Joe's offer colorful, reusable grocery bags, some that are made of recycled materials to some that are insulated to keep cold items from melting or defrosting if you have a long trek home, and even high-end reusable totes are being offered by companies such as Gracen, who sell their product in sets of two for prices that far out cost the grocery chain prices.

Another option for those who like to travel light, or may be prone to forgetting their reusable bag is the Chico Bag, which fits into a small, lightweight pouch that can be stored in your car, purse, or can even be personalized for company fundraisers or stocking stuffers.

If you're still not convinced that bringing your own reusable bag to the store every time you shop, whether it be for groceries or clothing, check out these facts provided by www.reusablebags.com:

• Single-use bags made of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) are the main culprit. Once brought into existence to tote your purchases, they will accumulate and persist on our planet for up to 1,000 years.

• In 2001, Ireland used 1.2 billion disposable plastic bags, or 316 per person. An extremely successful plastic bag tax, or PlasTax, introduced in 2002 reduced consumption by 90%.

• According to The Wall Street Journal, the U.S. goes through 100 billion plastic shopping bags annually. An estimated 12 million barrels of oil is required to make that many plastic bags.

• Plastic bags cause over 100,000 sea turtle and other marine animal deaths every year when animals mistake them for food.

• Each high-quality reusable bag you use has the potential to eliminate an average of 1,000 plastic bags over its lifetime. The bag will pay for itself if your grocery store offers a credit for bringing your own bags.

• Windblown plastic bags are so prevalent in Africa that a cottage industry has sprung up harvesting bags and using them to weave hats, and even bags. According to the BBC one group harvests 30,000 per month.