HUNTINGTON BEACH : Grants to Be Used for Wetlands Center

Aided by two grants totaling $10,000, the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy plans to erect a $12,000 visitors’ center this summer at the wetlands site, near Brookhurst Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

Gordon W. Smith, chairman of the nonprofit conservancy, said the Long Beach-based McDonnell Douglas Employees Foundation donated $6,600. The McDonnell Douglas Foundation in St. Louis chipped in another $3,400, Smith said.

McDonnell Douglas has a major facility in Huntington Beach and is one of the city’s biggest employers.

“We are buying a trailer, similar to those used on construction sites, and it will be a combination office and visitors’ center,” Smith said. “We’re going to build a deck that will serve as an observation platform. We hope to have the center open in July.”

The center will provide educational displays to help visitors understand the importance of wetlands, Smith said.

“It’s going to be, essentially, a nature center focusing on the ecology of wetlands,” Smith said. “We’ll have a display showing the history of this wetlands, and there will also be displays about the (1990 Huntington Beach) oil spill and its effect on these wetlands.”

The conservancy also plans to offer tours of the wetlands conducted by volunteers from the center, Smith said.

The 25-acre Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy is on the inland side of Pacific Coast Highway, between Brookhurst and the Santa Ana River. The private conservancy purchased the land and in 1989 restored it to wetlands condition.

The wetlands serve as a nesting or feeding site to a wide range of species, including two endangered birds, the Belding’s savannah sparrow and the least tern.

Information Point Visitors’ Center Site, Huntington Beach Wetlands