IRVINE : $100,000 Given to Rehabilitate Marsh

Joan Irvine Smith and her mother, Athalie R. Clarke, have given $100,000 to the California Coastal Conservancy to help rehabilitate the San Joaquin Marsh, the largest fresh-water wetlands in Orange County and a seasonal home to endangered and threatened birds.

Smith and Clarke have been donating large sums to environmental, educational and other causes since receiving a total of $255.8 million last year from the Irvine Co. The two settled an eight-year lawsuit against the company over the value of their 5.5% shares of the huge land development company.

The Coastal Conservancy hopes to use the $100,000 to help convert a series of duck ponds in the marsh into a stream-side woodland habitat, said Reed Holderman, resource enhancement manager for the Oakland-based state agency. Such stream-side woodlands are becoming rare in Southern California, Holderman said.

The Coastal Conservancy is working on a $10-million to $12-million marsh enhancement plan with the city and the University of California Natural Reserve System. Plans call for the marsh to be improved for endangered and threatened animals and plants by adding flowing water and removing non-native vegetation, such as cattails, that are clogging the ponds.

Developers will pay for most of the enhancement work in the marsh in exchange for nearby development rights, Irvine planner Steve Haubert said. But there will be a shortfall of about $750,000 for the conversion of the duck ponds, Holderman said.

The side of the marsh south of Campus Drive is owned and managed by the University of California Natural Reserve System. But most of the marsh north of Campus Drive is owned by the Irvine Co.

Under a 1988 agreement with the city and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the company is obligated to create 55 acres of wetlands at the marsh in exchange for future permission to destroy wetlands in the company’s proposed Spectrum 5 development. The company is not allowed to pave over the natural wetlands until artificially created wetlands in the San Joaquin Marsh are attracting wildlife.

The marsh and much of the surrounding areas were wetlands before development and the construction of the nearby San Diego Creek channel diverted natural runoff from the area, Haubert said.

To create wetlands in the marsh, the city, University of California and Coastal Conservancy have proposed drilling a well and building a series of berms to flush more water through the area.