State Sets Aside Wetlands Funds

Committing one-tenth of its remaining bond money to a single Ventura County project, the state Coastal Conservancy moved Thursday to restore one of Southern California’s largest seaside wetlands by earmarking $23 million to buy at least 500 acres at Ormond Beach near Oxnard.

In an emotional meeting at Ventura City Hall, the conservancy board honored an Ormond Beach activist and, in her memory, reserved the $23 million so it could move quickly once deals are reached to buy two large parcels adjacent to 265 acres the conservancy purchased last year.

Together, the 765 acres at Ormond Beach, an adjoining 900 acres of freshwater wetlands and the 1,500 acres of Mugu Lagoon may be Southern California’s largest coastal wetland, spanning nine miles from Port Hueneme to Point Mugu, according to the conservancy.

Experts see the Ventura County beach as the region’s “most important wetland restoration opportunity,” conservancy staffers reported.

“The Ormond Beach wetlands offer a unique opportunity in the highly developed landscape of Southern California to not just enhance, but also greatly increase, coastal wetlands.”

Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara), an ad hoc board member, urged colleagues to set aside funds to save and restore Ormond Beach, because if they waited, the oceanfront site might finally fall to development: Housing tracts, drag strips and a natural gas terminal have been proposed for the site over the years.

The development “pressure is not going to stop,” Jackson said.

There was no disagreement from the board or the audience of dozens of local officials and environmentalists. They had turned out to toast the proposed acquisition and to honor Roma Armbrust of Ventura, who with another retired teacher, Jean Harris, had worked since 1989 to preserve the beach.

Armbrust died two weeks ago, shortly after learning that the conservancy had agreed to bank the $23 million for Ormond Beach.

“Roma is a classic example of what this state is all about,” said board Chairman Paul Morabito. “You can’t truly love this state without loving the coast.”

Once restored, Ormond’s 765 acres would comprise an ecosystem that already includes a shallow freshwater lagoon and saltwater marshes that are a stopover for more than 200 migratory birds on the Pacific flyway.

The property includes a sand-dune habitat for insects, amphibians and mammals. At least six threatened or endangered species live at the site, including the western snowy plover and the California least tern, brown pelican and Belding’s savannah sparrow.

The conservancy’s action Thursday -- following state approval of the Ahmanson Ranch and the Ballona Wetlands purchases for a combined $290 million this month -- was aimed at easing concern that those deals would consume nearly all bond money targeted for Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

“There’s been a lot of angst about whether there is any money left,” said Peter Brand, the conservancy’s point man for Ventura County. “Our response is that there is, and the conservancy is putting its money where its mouth is.”

In fact, money for the Ormond purchase would come, at least initially, from the conservancy’s share of the $2.6-billion Proposition 40 bond approved in spring 2002. It did not come from the $3.4-billion approved in Proposition 50 last November, which was the chief source of the Ahmanson and Ballona funding.

From those two bonds, and another passed in 2000, the Coastal Conservancy received $630 million. It has about $230 million left, including the Ormond Beach funding, said conservancy spokesman Dick Wayman.

“We’re willing to spend $23 million on this if need be, but we’re looking for other contributors,” Wayman said. “Normally, we’d wait until everything is lined up to commit. But we wanted to assure Roma before she died that we were going to do this.”

Armbrust’s activist partner, Harris, said in an interview that voters approved water and wildlife bonds to preserve “precious lands. And Ormond Beach is a perfect example of what they were talking about.”

Most of the 500 acres targeted for purchase is farmland. About 280 acres are owned by the city of Oxnard and the Metropolitan Water District, and about 220 acres are owned by a sod farmer.

While setting aside the $23 million for Ormond, the conservancy board also set a one-year deadline for purchase. “This has got to happen sooner rather than later,” Brand said. “It’s a challenge to the sellers.”

The city of Oxnard declared its interest in selling again Thursday, and the water district board had previously authorized its staff to negotiate a sale. The managing partner at Southland Sod, Jurgen Gramckow, also told the board he was optimistic a deal could be reached.

The state Department of General Services has appraised both properties, and the conservancy has completed the first of two phases of a required environmental assessment on the property owned by Oxnard and the water district. Brand said no problems were detected in the first phase, but on-site inspections were just beginning to determine if toxins had leeched onto the property from an adjacent industrial site.

Indeed, restoration of Ormond Beach won’t be easy, because after a century of development the area is now a mix of industrial sites, degraded wetlands and farmland.

The wetlands once covered about 1,000 acres, but now cover about 250. Likewise, the lagoons of Ormond Beach have been used as a city dump, developed with a magnesium smelting plant and with an electrical generating plant.

In August, the conservancy approved funding of a restoration study that would show how the entire Ormond Beach area could be repaired and linked by water as an ecosystem.

But given the complexities of that task, “the Conservancy will require some time to complete all of the planning, environmental analysis, and other requirements that are need to construct the wetlands,” the staff reported.