THE WETLANDS: ORANGE COUNTY’S EMBATTLED RESOURCE : Restoration Report Card

Every acre of wetlands damaged must be replaced under the nation’s “no net loss” rule. But attempts to create wetlands have had mixed results in Orange County. Some efforts have worked well, mainly salt marshes and larger projects handled by major developers. The most trouble has come in the creation of riparian woodlands--the willows, cottonwoods and underbrush that line creeks and streams. Projects fail because they were abandoned or suffered technical failures. The Times Orange County Edition asked Jack Fancher at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Jan Heppert and Mike Giusti at the California Department of Fish and Game to grade several restoration projects in the area.

Veeh Creek

Restoration Grade: D-

Size: 2.5 acres

Details: Planted in 1989, many trees are dead, and the rest are stunted. This wetlands was supposed to compensate for a lush area along San Diego Creek that was removed to widen Irvine Center Drive. The city of Irvine is responsible for the project. “This was supposed to be a simple and easy one. They just walked away from it,” Fancher says. “At least half of this thing is a total failure.” Apparently, the temporary irrigation system was pulled too soon, killing the trees. “We should be standing in the shade of trees here. We should have 15-foot tall willows filling this like a thicket, but instead we’re up to our knees in weeds and a few struggling mule fats,” Fancher said. Steve Bourke, the city’s landscape superintendent, said he is aware of problems, although he believes that parts are growing well. “I agree it’s not as successful as we all hoped,” he said. He said the city underestimated the amount of water needed. “It’s something of a new business for people like us unfamiliar with habitat restoration,” Bourke said.

Canada Gobernadero

Restoration Grade: A-

Size: 57 acres

Details: The largest project in the county, and considered one of the best, although it is still too young to call a success. Cropland once used to grow cauliflower, chili peppers and grapes is being turned into wooded wetlands to compensate for construction of Rancho Santa Margarita and a leg of the Foothill tollway. The Santa Margarita Co. is managing the project and spending about $1 million; the county tollway agency is providing $2.23 million. Some planting occurred two years ago, some this year. Also, as an experiment to create “instant” old growth, 57 established oaks and sycamores, some 60 feet tall, are being transplanted at a cost of $300,000. “If you talked to me 25 years ago about doing something like this, I’d say ‘get outta here.’ We weren’t as sensitive to the environment back then. But now we have to study a whole new book,” said Gilbert Aguirre, the company’s senior vice president of ranch operations. The success, they say, is due to fertile growing conditions as well as knowledge of the land by ranch employees, who have farmed it for decades.

Wm R. Mason Regional Park

Restoration Grade: C

Size: 25 acres

Details: Created by Los Alisos Development Co. to replace area destroyed to build Pacific Commercentre and Bake Parkway. It is one of the largest projects in the county and carries a $1-million price tag. Almost 20,000 trees were planted in early 1991. Growth is about average, but one large patch has died and others are turning yellow, perhaps from salty soil. “This site has begun to look pretty poor,” Fancher says. “It’s headed for a significant failure if they don’t get on it.” The developers disagree with the C grade, saying their consultants consider it largely successful. Francher, however, says some replanting is necessary and the developer must find out what is killing many of the trees. Los Alisos Vice President Emmet Berkery adds, “It’s our intention to stay and make sure from a maintenance and monitoring standpoint it will work.”

Upper Peters Canyon Wash

Restoration Grade: A-

Size: 5 acres

Details: Created by the Irvine Co. to compensate for wetlands destroyed to provide flood-control for the Tustin Ranch development. In 1989 and 1990, about 1,500 young willows, cottonwoods, sycamores and alders were planted in a grassy field. Some are now 30 feet tall, and a lush undergrowth has grown back on its own. The consultants originally had problems with salts in the soil and 10% of the trees had to be replanted. The The Irvine Co. spent about $50,000 per acre on the project. Although it is too early to judge a success, the project seems excellent so far, Fancher says.

Pacific Hills

Restoration Grade: F

Size: Six acres

Details: A failure due to neglect. Nearly all the plants and seedlings are dead, and there are piles of debris. Barratt America, located in San Diego, was required to plant it in 1989 and monitor it for five years. The trees are supposed to be a minimum of 12 feet by now, according to permit conditions. This project was compensation for a tributary to Oso Creek that the company graded illegally in 1988. A spokesman for Barratt America said the project was abandoned because the Pacific Hills site was foreclosed upon and is now owned by a bank. But state Fish and Game permits hold the original builder responsible.

Campus and University

Restoration Grade: A-

Size: 16.5 acres

Details: Located at Campus and University drives in Irvine. It took the Irvine Co. four years and about $400,000 to get it right. In 1988, it tried to cut costs by using its own agricultural division instead of wetlands experts, and the workers accidentally killed many trees with herdicide. In 1989, a failure in the irrigation system went undetected and trees died. The third planting was in 1990, with 13,000 trees, and growth has been excellent. “So far, so good this time,” Fancher says. “Now it’s so thick and uniform that some people complain it looks like an orchard.” This project is compensation for half a dozen small Irvine Co. developments and road projects that damaged wetlands.

Alicia Parkway

Restoration Grade: F

Size: 7 acres

Details: Located off Alicia Parkway, south of Laguna Niguel Regional Park, in Laguna Niguel. S & S Construction, a division of Shapell Industries, created a seven-acre wetlands along Aliso Creek. It was meant to replace 5.5 acres of lush wetlands removed during widening of Alicia Parkway to accommodate new homes. “It’s terrible,” Fancher said. “It’s a wetlands loss, and the existing natural wetland has been gone for a long time.” Shapell Industries could not be reached for comment.

SUCCESS ALONG THE SEA

Rebuilding a Salt Marsh

Restoring saltwater marshes along Orange County’s coast has been easier than trying to create freshwater wetlands inland, For example, an $800,000 volunteer-led project three years ago resurrected a dry, degraded salt marsh in Huntington Beach. The Talbert Marsh now teems with life.

High And Dry

1. Heavy equipment sculpted the land, cutting channels for good water circulation and creating tidal flats to provide foraging areas for birds.

2. Removing a flood control levee let vital tidewater reach the marsh again.

Wet and Wild

Plant and animal life flourished with the return of tidewater. More than 70 bird species now feed in the marsh, including three endangered ones. Several species of fish inhabit the marsh’s channels.

Source: Ira Mark Artz, wetlands specialist with Robert Bein, William Frost & Associates; Gary Gorman, executive director, Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy.

Research by MARLA CONE and DANNY SULLIVAN / Los Angeles Times