Trip to Wetlands Ruined by 3 Oafs

On July 3, my pregnant wife, my 73-year-old mother-in-law (visiting us from Hamburg, Germany) and I stopped to visit the Bolsa Chica wetlands on our way to an early Independence Day celebration. The wetlands are, of course, a unique and fortuitous remnant of California’s past that will hopefully be around to grace our future.

With some effort, I managed to steer my little family away from the cans, bottles, litter and general debris rudely discarded by other visitors.

To add insult to injury, three men in a black pickup truck pulled in and began shoveling dirt and rubbish onto the middle of the parking lot.

Imagine--the middle of the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve parking lot was blatantly, deliberately and outrageously being used as garbage dump in broad daylight (5:45 p.m.) by three rude and totally inconsiderate oafs pouring out shovelful after shovelful of dirt!

I piled my family into our car, drove to the nearest phone and reported this affront to common decency to police. Unfortunately, it took at least 12 minutes to find a phone, so the chance that the three villains were apprehended is minimal.

What can be done to protect this last bit of natural California? Cannot some routine patrol visit this important area? Are the Bolsa Chica wetlands destined to become a landfill? Is all of California doomed to be buried in garbage?

LAWRENCE GOLDBERG, Laguna Hills