Health & Fitness
Take a Walk in the Ballona Wetlands
Take advantage of your only chance to walk in the wetlands!
The public is invited to tour areas of the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve several days this summer. You've driven by these fenced areas for years never really knowing what it's supposed to be. Now you can come on in, look around, and find out what this place is all about....but only on this guided free tour by Friends of Ballona Wetlands.
Staff or Docents of the Friends of Ballona Wetlands will guide you on easy and informative tours of the saltmarsh and dunes on various weekends this summer. See the schedule at http://www.ballonafriends.org/docs/calendar.pdf. You can also volunteer for the Friends' community restoration activities. Friends of Ballona Wetlands access to the saltmarsh is under special permit from the California Coastal Commission and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
The Saltmarsh and Dunes tour begins at 1 PM on the second Sunday, of each month at the parking lot behind Alkali Water (formerly Gordon's Market), 303 Culver Boulevard in Playa del Rey. The tour lasts about two hours (though you can leave early if you wish). Open House tours are also available on the second Saturday of each month, 2-4 PM, same place.
The Saltmarsh and Dunes are part of the last undeveloped remnants of the original historic Ballona Wetlands complex. Though bisected by roads, a historic railroad right-of-way and the Ballona Creek Flood Control Channel, the Saltmarsh remains at its original 2-foot elevation, which enables incoming tides to flood the landscape. This twice-daily ebb and flow of ocean water supports a unique assemblage of plants and animals dependent on regular tidal flushing and thus, is coastal dependent habitat that by law gets priority in the state's Coastal Zone. Wetland areas north of Ballona Creek were buried by soil dredge from Marina del Rey construction in the 1960s, and are too high in elevation (around 15 feet) to receive the incoming tides. The state's coming restoration of this area to tidal wetland will require excavation and relocation of one to three million cubic yards of dredged soil in order to restore the tidal wetland that formerly existed there.
Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!
www.ballonafriends.org
