Amigos Have Both Friends and Foes

Our thanks for the article on the Amigos de Bolsa Chica (“Wetlands’ Amigos Loses Some Old Friends,” Feb. 5). It provides valuable public information regarding the controversy surrounding the Bolsa Chica. The Amigos would like to clarify some issues raised in the article.

Under the coalition agreement, some wetlands development could occur, but only if stringent federal and state permits are granted, and only on 35 acres of wetlands. Should this occur, the restoration plan requires the creation of additional wetlands acreage. So ultimately, net wetlands acreage at Bolsa Chica will increase from 850 to more than 1,005 acres.

Only 20% of the property at Bolsa Chica is publicly owned. Our agreement through the coalition plan provides that more than 75% of the area, 794 additional acres, will be donated to the public and preserved as restored wetlands, open space or parks. Because 80% of the Bolsa Chica is privately owned, it is a significant gain the Amigos helped negotiate for the public’s benefit. The Amigos are the only environmental group that forged the coalition agreement.

The Amigos continues to work to fulfill our mission statement, that being the preservation and restoration of valuable wetlands habitat at Bolsa Chica. Our members and the public indicate that they overwhelmingly support this position.

We have consistently and publicly supported the efforts of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, Surfriders and others to identify alternative means to purchase or preserve areas at Bolsa Chica not protected by our agreement, whether that be by land swap, trade or purchase. The Amigos urge them to continue this important work.

It is unfortunate that some see the Amigos’ participation in the coalition as being in conflict with their own goals. We do not see our different positions as being in opposition; rather they are different approaches to a mutual concern--provided they do not jeopardize wetlands protection. The Amigos do not view these groups as “enemies,” and hope that better relationships can be built between the Surfriders, Bolsa Chica Land Trust and others based upon mutual respect and understanding.

CHUCK NELSON, President, Amigos de Bolsa Chica

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There are many “disgruntled” members of the Amigos de Bolsa Chica, and for good reason.

When I joined the Amigos several years ago, it was a gung-ho organization dedicated to saving the wetlands from massive development, and I was a gung-ho follower.

Since the coalition agreement of 1989, I have watched all this great environmental energy gradually dissipate into what has now become a group that gives the impression of being friends of the developer rather than friends of the wetlands. The people who heap praise and adulation on the Amigos, those who profess to admire their powers of negotiation are not, for the most part, environmentalists. Few people would consider Lucy Dunn or Jim Silva, for instance, in that category.

The Amigos tripped and stumbled in 1989 and a new environmental group, the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, has taken up where they left off. The Land Trust has pledged to try to save not only the wetlands, but the surrounding mesa as well. Sadly, the Amigos leadership is pushing the idea that the goals of the Land Trust cannot possibly be realized, again playing right into the developer’s hands.

The Amigos seem to resent the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, which is trying, with fresh ideas and fresh leadership, to accomplish what at one time was the Amigos’ goal--namely, to save the Bolsa Chica.

LOIS VACKAR, Huntington Beach

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“Wetlands’ Amigos Loses Some Old Friends” was very good. The Amigos were for 15 years a wonderful environmental group. Then they knuckled under to the developer and can no longer be considered an environmental group by true environmentalists.

They have publicly supported the demolition of the 50-year-old bunker that is on the mesa and is being considered as a historical site. They have publicly belittled the land swap that the (federal) Department of the Interior is trying to put together in an effort to save the wetlands, despite the fact that the bankrupt county gave the department six months to put the deal together and didn’t change the zoning from agricultural to residential. The fact that the project says that the domestic animals will be controlled by shrubbery should make an environmental group pause to wonder. Anybody know of a shrub that could keep the dogs and cats on the mesa homes out of the wetlands?

EILEEN MURPHY, Huntington Beach