Bulldozer Blunder

In a major setback for the long-beleaguered Ballona Lagoon restoration project, a swath of delicate wetland area in Venice was damaged when a subcontractor assigned to clear away exotic vegetation mistakenly used bulldozers to shear away the east bank, project officials said Tuesday.

Instead of removing nonnative vegetation from one side of the canal by hand, the workers plowed through enough soil in their bulldozing two weeks ago to inflict what biologists said is serious damage to one of the last saltwater wetlands in a once-expansive system.

The workers were in a hurry to finish the clearing by Saturday, when much of the work has to stop because the California least tern, an endangered species, forages in that area, the officials said.

In the process, native pickleweed and sage plants lining eight acres of the bank were uprooted, and a six-year pilot project testing the growth of native vegetation was plowed over. Snakes, worms and other animals were harmed or killed, biologists said.

“If they were going in to maximize the destruction, they achieved that goal,” said Rimmon C. Fay, a marine biologist with the Inglewood-based Pacific Bio-Marine Labs.

Members of the Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve, a group working on the restoration along with the city and the California Coastal Conservancy, said they were shocked at the mistake. Preserve members and staff from Los Angeles City Councilwoman Ruth Galanter’s office said they had been told by the contractor that the subcontractor had accidentally caused the damage.

Neither the contractor, Concept Marine, nor the unidentified subcontractor could be reached for comment.

Project organizers said they will replace the native plants and return the lagoon to its natural state by this fall so the animals can return. A biologist has been hired to oversee the restoration, and a city inspector will regularly visit the site.

“The fact that the [subcontractor] got overzealous and took out the bank is unfortunate,” said Reed Holderman, who manages the resource enhancement program for the California Coastal Conservancy. “We wish it hadn’t happened, but we’re committed to restoring the native vegetation. The project is continuing and will benefit the lagoon in the long run, even though it looks like a mess right now.”

Dark, dank piles of mud line the east bank of the lagoon. Specks of white clamshells dot the overturned dirt as it sinks into the muddy water, a stark contrast to the untouched green banks sprinkled with yellow flowers on the other side of the canal.

“It’s madness, just sheer madness,” said Patricia McPherson, a local environmental activist. “Instead of removing the nonnative plants, they removed the native hillside.”

Some said the speed of the project put the local habitat in jeopardy.

“We have so few tidal wetlands left in Southern California, so any restoration we do should be done very gently and carefully, with respect for the life that is there,” said Kathy Knight, a local environmental activist. “Even if it took 10 years, we should have taken that long rather than bulldoze.”

But project leaders said the aim of the restoration should not get lost in an uproar over the blunder.

“[The damage] is going to be rectified,” said Iylene Weiss, founder of the Ballona Lagoon Marine Preserve. “There are some very emotional people who are concerned about the animals who might be destroyed or eliminated. These people don’t understand the difference between [that] and saving a wetlands from complete extinction.”

Members of the marine preserve have fought a 10-year battle to save the stagnant wetlands cluttered with broken concrete and other litter.

The $880,000 cleanup, which is being funded primarily by the city and the California Coastal Conservancy, couldn’t begin until the city bought part of the 16-acre lagoon from its previous owner.

The restoration includes the removal of a broken-down concrete oil platform off the east bank, the dredging of sediment to increase the flow of water and the creation of a deep pool for fish breeding. Mud flats will be expanded for birds to forage.

“What’s getting lost in all this anxiety and furor is the fact that the purpose of the project is to deepen the lagoon and improve tidal flushing,” Holderman said. “Without doing those two things, the lagoon is in an arrested state of development.”