Millions Urged for Ormond Beach Wetlands

Moving to preserve one of the region’s last remaining seaside wetlands, California Coastal Conservancy executives recommended Friday that the state set aside millions of dollars to purchase up to 500 acres at Ormond Beach near Oxnard.

Executive officer Sam Schuchat is asking the conservancy board to earmark an unspecified amount of money on Oct. 23, so the state can move immediately once a final purchase price is reached for two large parcels adjoining 265 beachfront acres the state bought for nearly $10 million last year.

The extra cash would buy nearly 300 acres from the city of Oxnard and the Metropolitan Water District, and about 200 acres from a sod farmer.

Once restored, the entire 750-acre preserve would encompass an ecosystem that already includes a stopover for birds on the Pacific flyway and a sand-dune habitat for insects, amphibians and mammals.

The property includes more than one mile of beach and salt flats that were once natural wetlands and grasslands.

Its shallow freshwater lagoon and saltwater marshes are habitat for a variety of threatened and endangered birds.

“This land is critical for restoring the wetlands at Ormond Beach as a self-sustaining ecosystem at a size something close to its historic extent,” said Peter Brand, local point man for the conservancy.

The funding would come from two large environmental bonds passed by voters in recent years. Brand said he was confident the purchase would go forward.

“We know we’re close. But we still don’t have all the details worked out,” he said.

Preservationists said Friday that purchase of the extra 500 acres would cap a 20-year effort to create a wetlands preserve at Ormond Beach, the largest remaining tract of privately owned, undeveloped coastline in Ventura County.

‘“It’s been a long time coming,” said Jean Harris, an Oxnard environmentalist who has been pushing for the preservation of the wetlands since the 1980s.

“The conservancy board meeting will be in Ventura, so a lot of us will go and cheer them on.”

The state is expected to commit to the project in two weeks. After that, the purchase must still await completion of a land appraisal by the water district. Oxnard city officials must then agree that the appraisal is fair, Harris said. The state has completed its own economic analysis.

The water district and the state also are studying what toxic chemicals, if any, have leeched from a nearby metal recycling plant onto the land to be purchased, Harris said.

Already, the state has hired several engineering firms to study how to connect the restored Ormond wetlands to the adjacent Mugu wetlands to the south, she said.