Ballona Wetlands: Restoring the Jefferson Trail

We joined a hundred volunteers this beautiful fall morning to plant 1200 native plant seedlings along Jefferson Boulevard, adjacent to the Ballona Freshwater Marsh.

Above: Marla places a native sage plant in the restoration area

Organized by Friends of Ballona Wetlands, the restoration event aimed to restore habitat damage caused by the pandemic-era RV encampment enabled by the previous area councilman.

Today’s healing effort was supported by the City through the efforts of new Councilwoman Traci Park, with support from the nonprofit Friends of Ballona Wetlands and the local Playa Del Rey citizen group, Friends of the Jungle.

District 11 Councilwoman Traci Park was instrumental in getting the RV encampment cleared and funding today’s restoration effort

The Ballona Freshwater Marsh is an urban runoff treatment wetlands constructed as part of the Playa Vista development. Maintenance is normally funded by fees on Playa Vista home sales. Hailed as one of L.A.’s premier birdwatching locations, the marsh habitat was severely impacted by the RV community allowed to remain there during the pandemic. Hundreds of feet of fencing and vegetation were destroyed during the occupation, and will be rebuilt with Conservancy and City grant funding, respectively.

Above: The Ballona Freshwater Marsh

In just 2 1/2 hours, volunteers placed 1200 new plants in the Jefferson-adjacent strip, which had been cleaned and prepared by EcoKai consultants, a contractor to the Ballona Wetlands Conservancy. The Conservancy is a nonprofit organization created specifically to manage the Freshwater Marsh. Conservancy Director Catherine Tyrell said, “the Conservancy and Friends of Ballona Wetlands will be maintaining the rehabilitation as we go forward with our talented project management contractor - EcoKai.”

Above and Below: Volunteers get safety and planting instructions from Friends of Ballona Wetlands master gardener Lisa Fimiani

EcoKai will nurture the new plantings during the coming months and restore the trail substrate and fencing. We all look forward to returning to the Marsh this coming Spring to see the newest ducklings emerge.

Below: The Jefferson Trail just one year ago

Enjoy your Ballona Wetlands!

Author’s disclosure of affiliations:

Dr. David W. Kay served on the Board of Directors of the non-profit Friends of Ballona Wetlands from 2007 until 2015, and served as Board President in 2012-13. He presently serves on the Board of Ballona Discovery Park in Playa Vista.

From 1984 to 2022, David was employed by Southern California Edison Company, exclusively in the company’s environmental services organizations. His many responsibilities included restoration of the 440-acre San Dieguito Wetlands near Del Mar. He retired in 2022 as Senior Manager for Project Environmental Licensing at the company.

David earned bachelor and masters degrees in biology and a doctorate in environmental science.

David is a staunch advocate for the state of California’s plans to restore the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve.

See Dr. Kay’s Patch contributor profile here.