"Environmentalists who worked for 30 years to restore a massive California wetland area, watched as the ocean flowed into historic tidal basin Thursday for the first time in more than a century." Not many wetlands have been restored in the world, or in California, "where 95 percent of saltwater marshes have been given over to development." (AP via CBS News)
Nature Bats last!
This is an incredible story. I went to the CBS website and the coverage by CBS is to be applauded.
I grew up in Oakland, CA, where a great deal of land was reclaimed” from wetlands. It is reassuring that some land is going back to its natural state and also providing natural water table management and certainly bringing about cleaner water and healthier aquifers.”
A friend wrote this to me in e-mail. EXCELLENT rep
I live 3 minutes from the Bolsa Chica Wetlands. Yes they were able to restore the ocean flow back into a small part of the wetlands, but oil companies are still drilling there and haven’t been able to clean the soil well enough to let ocean water back into most of the wetlands, yet.
Still, it has been an AMAZING process to get to this
point. At one time there were thousands of homes scheduled to be built there – something like 6500 homes. The legal battles have been carried on by the most dedicated group of environmentalists imaginable – they’ve hit many seemingly insurmountable roadblocks and
persevered through what seemed like completely impossible odds. This has taken 30 years of nonstop hard work to accomplish and it was never easy. My kids have been part of this for their entire lives – we walk there and stop in at the little information center. We’ve made donations and written letters throughout the years – hoping that this day would come when we’d know that the wetlands will definitely be restored and protected. It is a gorgeous place – full of all kinds of amazing birds.