Wetlands Project Prompts a Wave of Protest : Environment: 300 surfers hold ‘paddle-out’ to oppose Bolsa Chica home-building plan involving a new ocean inlet and 650-foot jetties.

They lined up shoulder to shoulder and nose to fin.

For surfers to create this kind of congestion in the waters off Huntington Beach, it usually takes great waves. But on this cold, windy morning, it wasn’t the waves that attracted hundreds to Bolsa Chica State Beach--it was a threat to one of their favorite surf spots.

In a “paddle-out” staged by the Surfrider Foundation, several hundred surfers on Sunday protested a proposal by the Koll Co. to build nearly 5,000 homes at the Bolsa Chica mesa and wetlands.

To surfers, the proposal means more than a mere housing development near the coast. The project’s new ocean inlet and 650-foot-long jetties could alter the surf and erode the beaches at Bolsa Chica State Beach, a family spot that is popular with beginners and older surfers because of its gentle waves.

“Surfing is not a team sport, so when they get together and organize like this, you know something’s bothering them,” said Scott Jenkins, environmental director of Surfrider, a national surfing/environmental organization that boasts 24,000 members. “To them, this is like their back yard, their precious section of coast. They feel this project threatens something dear to them that they will not let go without a fight.”

The surfers gathered first for short speeches by Surfrider directors. Then, creating a human chain that was supposed to represent a jetty, an estimated 300 surfers, clad in wet suits, paddled 650 feet out to sea and congregated like bobbing seals in the water, waving their arms and shouting. “Looks like the 4th of July out there!” joked one surfer over a megaphone.

Advertised by flyer and word of mouth, the rally was a media event designed to show the surfers’ united front against the Koll Co. project.

State park employees said 160 cars entered the state beach Sunday morning, nearly all for the protest, much more than expected on a day with overcast weather and mediocre surf. Signs stuck in the sand proclaimed “Catch a Wave, Don’t Destroy One” and “Save Our Beach. No Jetties. No Inlet. No Koll Co.”

Koll Co. officials were not available for comment Sunday. But the landowners maintain their project is environmentally sound, as it will lead to restoration of Bolsa Chica’s degraded salt marshes.

The project’s proposed 250-foot-wide inlet and accompanying jetties are designed to increase tidal flushing in the wetlands--one of the last remaining salt marshes in Southern California.

Jenkins said a jetty forms a barrier, like a dam, that would erode beaches by preventing the southern drift of sand that naturally occurs. The new, steep-faced beach would compress and narrow the surf at Huntington Cliffs, he said, creating unsurfable, dangerous conditions--”9-1-1 waves” in surf jargon. On the positive side, the jetty would improve surf at its head, although the small area could only support about 10 surfers, Jenkins said.

According to the project environmental impact report, 30 feet of beach north of the inlet and 50 feet of shoreline 1 1/2 miles north of the Huntington Beach Pier may erode because of the jetty. The erosion could also undercut the Huntington Beach sea cliffs, the report says.

In exchange for constructing homes on the mesa and about 100 acres of wetlands, the builders have promised to pay about $30 million for restoration and preservation of the remaining wetlands. The builders would also be required to replenish the eroding beaches and build revetments to ensure that the sea cliffs aren’t undermined, according to the environmental report.

Bill Bediamol, 29, an American Airlines mechanic of Huntington Beach who has been surfing half his life, said he joined Sunday’s protest “to keep surfing alive out here.”

“If you start cutting off areas where people can surf, there will be more congestion and more accidents,” he said. “You mess with Mother Nature when you put something man-made up here.”

“I’m tired of them trying to develop the beaches,” added Dave Snider, 34, of Long Beach, who has been surfing the area for 20 years. “They are trying to take the ocean away from us. This would shut down so much surfing area and it’s so crowded here already, even on weekdays.”

A majority of the protesting surfers seemed to be in their late 20s to early 40s, but younger ones attended, too, like 13-year-old Charlie Dall. Charlie said he had never protested anything before but participated in the paddle-out because he fears the development will lead to more ocean pollution from runoff.

The future of the open land around the wetlands has been debated for about 30 years. The owners abandoned a previous proposal to build a marina there because of opposition and a lawsuit from local environmentalists.

The Surfrider Foundation has teamed with a fledgling group called Bolsa Chica Land Trust in an effort to buy or somehow acquire the Bolsa Chica property from its owners. The majority of the land is owned by Signal Bolsa Corp. and managed by the Koll Co. The value of the 1,000 acres has been estimated at $20,000 to $1 million an acre.

Surfrider Foundation directors said they hope they sent a message to local politicians and state and federal authorities. Before anything can be built, the landowners need approval of the Huntington Beach City Council, the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the California Coastal Commission.

It’s not the first time that the surfing group has rallied for an environmental cause. Off El Segundo, several hundred gathered in March to protest a Chevron refinery’s pending permit to discharge waste water into the ocean. Similar protests have also been held in France and England.

“This is a hallmark of the surfers’ environmental awareness in the ‘90s. In the old days, when (a surf area) got screwed up, they’d just go somewhere else. But there’s not many open beaches to run away to anymore,” Jenkins said. “Every loss of one is a precious loss to us.”