The Ballona Wetlands- A History of Tragedy and Success

The original ecology of the Ballona Creek Watershed

The Ballona Wetlands is a 600 acre ecological reserve, located near Playa Del Rey in Los Angeles County. It is the last wetlands in Los Angeles county and once filled the area from Venice to the Westchester Bluffs, but was lost through a century of development.

In the 1920's people in search of oil ravaged the land and polluted it to a point of disaster. In the 1930's the Ballona Creek was channeled and realigned, separating the wetlands from the creek, causing the loss of tidal influence on the habitat.

Ballona Wetland Acquisitions 
Courtesy of the Sierra Club

You would think that the situation could not get any worse, but it did. In the 1960's the construction of Marina Del Rey destroyed over 900 acres of the wetlands, and a majority of the remaining wetlands were filled with dredged soil that was left over from the creation of the harbor.


When Howard Hughes died in 1976 a majority of his land, which included a majority of the wetlands was quickly targeted by developers. The Summa Corporation Playa del Vista Plan, which proposed to develop 1,115 acres of the wetlands and open space, planed to only leave a minuscule 72 acres of wetlands to be restored.

The Ballona Freshwater Marsh with the
Playa Vista Development in the Background
(Image Property of SoCal Earth Science Blog)

When the Summa Corporation sold the development to Maguire Thomas Partners in 1990, the company negotiated with wetland supporters (Friends of the Ballona Wetlands). As a result of negotiations, a significant portion of the wetlands was saved. By 2003, around 600 acres of the wetlands were preserved. To this date, the Friends of the Ballona Wetlands are restoring the degraded wetlands, and The Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission has proposed a plan that will reconnect the Ballona Creek with the wetlands through the removal of the concrete levees encasing the creek.

For more information visit:
http://www.ballonafriends.org/