Upper Newport Bay : Friends of Ecological Preserve Are No Friends of Developers

Cleopatra once sailed in regal splendor on Upper Newport Bay, its waters representing the Nile in an early version of the film classic.

In “All Quiet on the Western Front,” the bay’s muddy shorelines became Flanders.

But those pictures were filmed years ago, when development had not altered the pristine horizons that served as convenient stand-ins for more exotic locations.

Development finally stopped below the cliffs at the edge of the wetlands in 1975, when an agreement was reached by the Irvine Co., the City of Newport Beach, the County of Orange and the state Department of Fish and Game to preserve 752 acres as an ecological reserve.

Now the wetlands are threatened again, preservationists say, by proposals before the Orange County Planning Commission requesting approval to widen and extend University Drive --which runs along the north side of the estuary through unincorporated Santa Ana Heights--and to build houses and an office building near the shoreline.

Critics say the widening is unnecessary, arguing that there will be 16 lanes of roadway through the area when the 10 lanes of the Corona del Mar Freeway, now under construction, are added to the six existing lanes of Bristol Street there.

And if the houses and offices are built, part of the wetlands would be lost and another section paved over, said Fran Robinson, a member of Friends of Newport Bay, an activist group working to preserve the bay.

“We don’t need it, we don’t want it and we’re going to fight it,” she said Saturday as she passed leaflets to people entering the estuary to take a nature tour.

Residents of Santa Ana Heights said last week that they intend to muster political clout to stop the road-widening project.

Robinson said her group will appeal to the California Coastal Commission to prevent the construction. She said the organization also hopes to persuade officials to scale back the other developments. The Coastal Commission is the final arbiter in disputes over construction projects along the shore.

Along with the Sierra Club and the Orange County Foundation for the Preservation of Public Property, the Friends of Newport Bay was one of the groups instrumental in the fight to preserve the wetlands.

The group is entering its 17th year of sponsoring educational tours of the wetlands’ ecological system--a program that began before the area was dedicated as public land.

Along each stop of the tours, which are conducted once a month from October through March by the organization, nature guides encourage participants to become sensitive to the importance of keeping the bay habitat the way it is.

Between demonstrations of how to distinguish edible wild celery from poisonous hemlock, which looks very similar, the guides outline the symbiotic relationship of wildlife to plant life.

“The easiest way to get rid of a living thing is to get rid of its habitat,” said Carl Wilcox, a Fish and Game biologist who oversees the restoration efforts under way in the bay.

The state has appropriated $3.5 million for the past two years for restoration of the wetlands, which have been partly filled in with sediment from the Santa Ana River, and Gov. George Deukmejian has included an additional $2.7 million in his 1985-86 budget.

The funds are being used for dredging, reconstruction of shoreline and construction of catch basins to prevent further erosion, among other things, Wilcox said.

“All this state money is being appropriated to restore the wetlands and now (the county) wants to destroy its future,” Robinson said.