Approval of Funding Puts Estuary Cleanup on Fast Track : Environment: Coastal Conservancy is expected to grant $400,000 for Ventura River project. Phase I--clearing of invasive plants--could begin in July.

A decades-long push to restore the Ventura River estuary is now on the fast track after the California Coastal Conservancy announced that it expects to fund the first $400,000 of the program in June, Ventura officials said.

Workers could begin as early as July on the first phase of the restoration: digging up invasive plants that are choking out native shrubs and replacing them with native plant species.

If the work goes according to plan and the large cadre of people who have volunteered to help comes through, the invading exotic plants could be removed in time to plant new growth before the rainy season begins in the fall.

Future phases of the Estuary Enhancement and Management Plan would not only continue monitoring the plants but would remove feral animals and establish a wilderness park complete with a visitor center and amphitheater.

The restoration comes not a moment too soon, said Reed Holderman, restoration manager for the Coastal Conservancy.

“We’re at a turning point for the estuary,” Holderman said. “The exotics could take over and we would have a rough road to get back to a native environment.”

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Ten years from now, invading plants such as the giant Kikuyu grass, castor bean and ice plant could be so well established that they would become nearly impossible to control, he said.

“If we wait too long it could become prohibitively expensive, so now is the time,” he said. “It’s now or never.”

The city of Ventura and the California Department of Parks and Recreation want it to begin now. Mary Lou Schill, who is overseeing the matter for the city, said the cleanup timeline has been “accelerated.”

“We always expected funding, but we hadn’t envisioned moving so quickly,” she said.

City planners are scrutinizing the restoration project for unintended environmental harm and will present their findings at a hearing April 21. The City Council could approve the final plan as soon as June 20.

The Coastal Conservancy board will hear the request for funding on June 23. And it is expected to be approved, Holderman said. After the conservancy funds the first $400,000, the city and state parks are expected together to contribute another $260,000 in cash and services to the project, Holderman said.

Steve Treanor, the state parks district superintendent, said the project will protect the river mouth and its rare wetlands.

“This falls right into our charge to protect the natural resources of our properties,” Treanor said. State parks owns part of the property at Emma Wood State Beach being restored. The city owns the other portion of the 110 acres in the restoration area, including Seaside Wilderness Park on the western bank of the estuary.

The historic effort marks the first time that three public agencies have joined together for such an effort, said Mark Capelli, executive director of Friends of the Ventura River. The environmental group has pushed for river protection and restoration for 20 years.

“The ramifications of this plan are profound,” he said. “But I guess I always had the belief that at some point, people would realize there was a valuable resource in our midst.”

Capelli, a lecturer on coastal ecology at UC Santa Barbara and an expert on the Ventura River, predicted that the new wilderness area will become a popular site.

“It will be a major attraction for both visitors and residents,” he said.

The Ventura River estuary, the point where river meets the sea, has long suffered pollution from storm drains, a sewage treatment plant and a homeless encampment. The restoration project does not address these problems.

Instead, the project focuses on cleaning up the area and developing a wilderness park.

Phase I of the plan includes removing the plants that are choking out the native willows and other shrubs that provide food and shelter to native wildlife.

Schill said the city has already received promises from the Boy Scouts, the Audubon Society and many other environmentalists to participate in the cleanup.

The work will be led by biologists or other experts in the field.

Phase I also includes a plan to monitor the new growth to see that native plants take hold and continue to remove exotic plants that return.

In Phase II, feral cats and other animals will be removed and a wooden trail will be built to protect the sand dunes. A visitors center and an amphitheater are also planned for this phase.

Phase III will concentrate on restoring the second mouth of the river, and trails will be linked between the estuary and the second mouth. The plans call for removing the earth fill beneath a railroad bridge built in 1970 and building a new bridge to span the riverbed.

Schill said the city would like the project to be completed within the next decade.

Although environmentalists and public officials are delighted by the plan, they agree it does not tackle the thorniest issue in complete restoration of the Ventura River: removing the 100 homeless people living below the Main Street Bridge.

For now, said City Councilman Tom Buford, as long as the homeless stay north of the bridge, the restoration plan can get started. “At this point, what we do upstream, I don’t know.”

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FYI

The Ventura River Estuary Enhancement and Management Plan will be presented at a meeting 7:30 p.m., April 21, at Ventura City Hall, 501 Poli St. For more information, call Mary Lou Schill, 654-7809.