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.
The good news is that once again, CIR is working on eradicating tamarisk in the rugged and beautiful watersheds of the Santa Ynez River and Sisquoc River.
Those familiar with the two rivers know how difficult they both are to access. Once off the “more easily” traveled roads and trails, we enter a world that only a small number of people have ever visited. It is a wild and largely untouched world back there, and yet just a few miles away as the condor soars.
