Defend Ballona Wetlands: environmentalists banding together to stop senseless habitat destruction.

Egrets enjoying life at Ballona Wetlands, unaware there is a plan to destroy their home.

Fossil fuel activity near where endangered birds have been documented.

Several squad cars converge on an environmentalist documenting activity at Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.

Thursday News Conference to Announce Alternative Restoration Plan As Protests Against Bulldozing Continue.

LOS ANGELES, CA, USA, December 10, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The people of California are speaking up against a misguided project: the highly controversial proposal to bulldoze the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve in Playa del Rey, LA’s last coastal wetlands, home to 1.700 species of wildlife and flora, including threatened and endangered species. It is also a crucial landing spot for migratory birds. View documentation of wildlife at: https://defendballonawetlands.org/threatened-wildlife/

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s reckless plan (Options, 1, 2, and 3) would last about a decade and spend 250 million public dollars bulldozing more than 600 acres. This plan is falsely described as a restoration. In fact, it would obliterate the animal and plant species it purports to want to protect.

Here’s Another Option: Gentle Restoration, Option 4

Opponents of this counterfeit restoration are now offering an alternative plan. This gentle plan, known as Option 4, would achieve all the legitimate goals of restoration minus the destruction, chaos and extermination of fragile wildlife. Those goals include allowing mindful public access and fostering rehabilitation of the land to include more native species of wildlife and plants.

Thursday Afternoon News Conference to Announce Alternative, Gentle Restoration

This Gentle Restoration plan will be announced at a LIVE News Conference on Thursday, December 10th at 1pm pacific, carried by the JaneUnChained News Network and available for viewing LIVE here: https://bit.ly/3n273re

A simultaneous protest will reportedly be occurring at the site of SoCalGas construction work happening at the wetlands. This is the latest in a series of protests.

This 20 Point Plan Achieves Restoration without Obliteration

A team of environmentalists and community leaders, under the umbrella group DefendBallonaWetlands.org, have studied the area and developed Option 4, the Gentle Restoration Plan, into 20 main components. You can study the entire Option 4 plan here at:
https://bit.ly/372vMWT

Public Access Can Be Achieved NOW without Bulldozing

Bulldozing proponents claim that significant public access to the wetlands can be only be achieved by bulldozing the whole reserve, which would keep it off limits to the public for a decade. The Gentle Restoration Plan would allow public access immediately by simply unlocking the gates.

The Gentle Restoration Would Enhance Existing Trails

There are currently numerous existing trails that could be enhanced to create educational tours. Trained docents could lead visitors along trails while explaining the rich history of the indigenous tribes that once called these wetlands home. These tours, which could also be self-guided with audio guides, could educate children and other visitors about the many species which currently call these wetlands home. Instead of building a 300-car parking garage, which the bulldozing proponents want, the Gentle Restoration calls for efficient use of the many existing public parking lots near the wetlands.

Instead of Killing Wildlife, Let’s Foster Wildlife

Option 4, the Gentle Restoration, would not only avoid the decimation of the thousands of animals currently living inside these wetlands, it would actively foster the recovery of species that naturally thrive in a coastal ecological reserve.

Beautification Team

Bulldozing proponents paint the wetlands as rundown and dying. Actually, they are teeming with wildlife. The perimeter has been neglected which creates the impression of decay. The Gentle Restoration calls for a Trash and Beautification Team to significantly upgrade the wetlands’ perimeter with the planting of native wildflowers along the road edges.

Don’t Bulldoze Ballona

It is completely unnecessary to destroy the wetlands in order to save it. Critics say options 1, 2 and 3 amount to a counterfeit restoration that would achieve the goals of the fossil fuel industry which seeks to upgrade the gas storage facility under the wetlands. The public is now invited to examine the 20-point Gentle Restoration, which can be selected as Option 4, to achieve both genuine restoration and public access.

Marcia Hanscom
Defend Ballona Wetlands
+1 310-877-2634
email us here