Celebrating a Wetlands Success Story

This is the second week of Coastweeks, part of a national celebration of America’s coasts and shorelines. The folks at the National Estuarine Reserve System have designated today as Estuaries Day to call attention to wetlands and estuaries in California and the nation.

Most of Southern California’s wetlands are estuarine salt marshes, which often include mud flats and one or more tidal channels. Estuaries form when fresh-water creeks and rivers meet the Pacific; the bodies of water produced have varying degrees of salinity.

Scientists say a high percentage of all sea life on the California coast originates in estuaries. Phenomenally nutritive waters of different salinities mix, creating an amazingly fecund environment. Estuaries are spawning and nursery habitats for fish, and important feeding and nesting areas for many species of native and migratory waterfowl. Beneath the surface of estuaries are oysters, clams, worms, snails, crabs and shrimp.

Southern California’s coastal wetlands have suffered severely from the pressures of the expanding metropolis. Estuaries have been drained, filled, built upon and even used as dumps. Between Point Conception and the Mexican border, about 75% of the south coast’s original estuaries have been destroyed.

One wetland spared from development is Upper Newport Bay in Orange County. In 1974, Orange County and the Irvine Corp. reached an agreement calling for public ownership of Upper Newport Bay, most of which has become a state-operated ecological reserve. The Upper Bay is a marked contrast to the huge marina complex, one of the world’s largest yacht harbors, of the Lower Bay--developments once planned for the Upper Bay. The preservation of Upper Newport Bay is one of Southern California conservationists’ success stories.

The wetland is a premier bird-watching spot. Plovers stand motionless on one leg, great blue herons pick their way carefully across the mud flats, flotillas of ducks patrol the shallows. Out of sight, mollusks, insects, fish and protozoa provide vital links in the complex food chain of the estuary.

This walk follows one-way Back Bay Road, which really should be closed to motorized traffic. However, on weekdays, there’s rarely much traffic; on weekends, there’s seldom more automobile traffic than bike traffic. The tideland is fragile; stay on established roads and trails.

Directions to the trailhead: From Pacific Coast Highway in Newport Beach, turn inland onto Jamboree Road, then left on Back Bay Drive. The one-way road follows the margin of the bay. Park along the road.

The hike: As you walk along the road, notice the various vegetation zones. Eel grass thrives in areas of almost constant submergence, cord grasses at a few feet above mean low tide, salt wort and pickleweed higher on the banks of the estuary. Keep an eye out for three of California’s endangered birds: Beldings Savanna sparrow, the California least tern, the light-footed clapper rail.

Old levees and an occasional trail let you walk out toward the main bodies of water. Also, a trail from UC Irvine runs along the west side of the reserve.