State OKs Bolsa Chica Project

The State Lands Commission on Monday took what environmentalists hope will be a final step in the decades-long battle to restore the Bolsa Chica wetlands in Huntington Beach to their pristine condition of a century ago.

In a 3-0 vote, the commission -- a major administrator of the site -- granted a four-year lease to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is expected to start restoring about 550 acres Oct. 1.

“This is going to be one of the largest wetland restorations west of the Rockies, maybe the largest ever undertaken,” Jim Trout, a retired commission employee who spent more than 30 years working on a restoration deal, told the commission.

State Controller Steve Westly, chairman of the commission, called the plan terrific. Californians, he said, should be proud that valuable wetlands will be restored after being operated variously over the years as a duck shooting club and the site of oil and gas production.

It also was proposed as the site of 5,800 homes. “Fortunately,” Trout said, “we stopped that project.”

Last month, the State Coastal Conservancy voted to allocate $10 million to the $90-million project. The rest of the money has been provided by the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach as mitigation for being allowed to undertake various harbor improvements.

Planned for the massive restoration project, which is expected to be completed by June 2007, are the construction of a channel to reconnect the wetlands to the sea, several tidal basins, island habitats and pedestrian bridges to enable observation of the fish and birds the area supports.

An estimated 1,247 acres will ultimately be reclaimed under a long-term plan for Bolsa Chica, all but 42 of which are owned by the state and administered by the Lands Commission. The remaining land is owned by a private developer, who has indicated interest in selling it to the state.

“The wetlands is a good habitat,” said Shirley Detloff, a spokeswoman for Amigos de Bolsa Chica and longtime restoration advocate. “This will increase its habitat value 10 times over.”