Cindy Kimmick, Board President
The Ballona Wetlands, in the coastal area of Los Angeles, were once an extensive expanse of marshes, mud flats, salt pans and sand dunes that covered about 2,000 acres and stretched from Playa del Rey to Venice and inland to the Baldwin Hills. Ballona Creek originally meandered through willows and native habitat, but was cemented into a straight, concrete channel nearly 100 years ago.
Pampas grass is an invasive species in the Ballona Wetlands.
I grew up in West Los Angeles, and my father worked in Culver City at Hughes Aircraft (adjacent to Ballona Creek) in the 1960’s.
My mother learned to drive in the extensive Hughes Aircraft parking lots (they bordered a 1.8 mile private runway), and I vividly remember watching the numerous burrowing owl population miraculously appearing in front of their dens as we made endless loops around the huge, empty lot on the weekends.
The owls seemed to pop into existence out of nowhere as we drove by, and by the time we’d been around the loop a few times, all of the myriad burrows on the hillside had little feathered sentinels silently watching our progression.
The Ballona Wetlands today look very different than when I was a child in the 1960’s when the western portion of the wetlands – once home to abundant fish and waterfowl – was being filled in to build Marina del Rey.
The Ballona Wetlands before our work began.
Development continued, and while the owls seemed to do alright next to the parking lot, I remember wondering where the owls were going to go when the Culver City Hughes aircraft facility was slated for development.
Part of the area was preserved, and today, the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, owned by the State of California and managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife is about 600 acres in size. Invasive plants, or weeds, are present in much of the Reserve, crowding out native plants and providing little sustenance for local wildlife.
My daughters went to summer camp at the Star EcoStation in Culver City, first as campers, then as councillors, and one of their favorite activities was trekking to the nearby Ballona Wetlands.
Because of this, we were all very pleased to hear that Channel Islands Restoration recently completed Phase I of a project to remove pampas grass the Reserve.
Pampas grass has a striking appearance and has been a popular ornamental in California. It can grow to 10 feet tall, with large showy plumes. Native to the plains of Argentina, pampas grass is invasive in California, producing thousands of seeds a year, and is difficult to remove because of its sharp, sawlike blades.
CIR will return to the Ballona Wetlands in about a year, to plant native willow trees and other native plants to complete the project. We are hopeful that rare birds such as least Bell’s vireo will utilize the wetland habitat after the native vegetation has become established.
The wetlands after brush work has been completed.
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