Ballona Wetlands Group Organizes Walks, Cleanup

Friends of Ballona Wetlands is sponsoring monthly interpretive nature walks and volunteer cleanups of the 300-acre saltwater marsh.

The events are part of the organization’s outreach program teaching residents the importance of restoring and protecting the marsh, said Mary Thomson, the group’s volunteer director.

Birds inhabiting the wetlands include the great blue heron, the California least tern, the great egret and the snowy egret, Thomson said.

Volunteers will pick up trash and remove harmful nonnative vegetation, which they will replace with indigenous plants.

Friends of Ballona Wetlands was formed in 1978 to restore the area, the last wetlands in Los Angeles County.

The interpretive walks will be held the second Sunday of every month, from 1-3 p.m. The volunteer cleanups will be held every fourth Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon beginning Feb. 28.

Participants should meet at the Friends of Ballona Wetlands Restoration Center behind Gordon’s Market, 303 Culver Boulevard in Playa del Rey.

Further information is available from Mary Thomson at (310) 821-2057 or Roy Van de Hock at (818) 367-7417.