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Stewards
The Ballona Wetlands make up the last coast marshes in Los Angeles County. During the past century, oil drilling, agriculture and the development of Marina del Rey and Venice have left the wetlands severely degraded and at a fraction of their original size. In this desperate state, the Ballona Wetlands need not only care and nurturing, but also hands-on restoration and a strong sense of community investment in their future. Friends of Ballona Wetlands, the primary organization fighting to protect Ballona, took the initiative and in 1994, launched an award-winning Volunteer Restoration Program that has provided crucial improvements to the wetland ecosystem while creating opportunities for environmental stewardship for the community. This program, under the direction of Mary Thomson, began the restoration of the dune area at the west end of the wetland, an integral part of this delicate ecosystem. The dunes could be prime habitat for hundreds of species, including the El Segundo Blue butterfly and the Silver Legless lizard. The legless lizard is a state listed species of concern due to loss of natural habitat, and the endangered El Segundo blue butterfly disappeared from the site years ago, but with our dune restoration, we hope to provide necessary habitat for this unique native wildlife. The restoration also addressed the most important problem facing the wetland habitat--non-native, exotic plants. Exotic plants are especially threatening to Ballona because they invade the fragile ecosystem and choke out native vegetation--natives that birds and other wildlife need for survival. In our program, volunteers remove harmful non-native, caring for the seedlings and nurturing their growth. Since 1994, our program has sponsored more than 55,000 volunteers from schools and community groups of all ages and from all parts of Los Angeles. These volunteers have donated over 200,000 hours of work. They have removed 5,000 40-gallon bags of trash, and 9,000 cubic yards of non-native plants. They have also helped buy, plant and nurture more than 600 plants and 125 native trees. They collect seeds in the spring, disperse them and in the winter, care for the new seedlings. We concentrate on on bringing in volunteers from under-served areas of Los Angeles, most of whom have never seen a wetland or the wildlife that inhabits it. We are not only able to educate these citizens about the importance of this rare ecosystem right here in urban Los Angeles, but we are also able to enrich their lives, in a positive community-based way. And, thanks to grants from the Urban Resource Partnership and the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, our outreach efforts have expanded for inclusion in school science curricula.
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