The last tidelands

The sliver of California's coastal wetlands that remains, unprotected by the Coastal Act, is in danger of development

According to Don May, Sierra Club and Earth Corps member in the Long Beach area, California's tidelands are at risk for development from San Francisco to San Diego. One of the key questions is how should we view tidelands that have been fallow for decades-should we open them up for commercial development or work to restore them to their original biological purposes?

Over the past century, we have destroyed more than 95 percent of the functional coastal wetlands we have in Southern California. That destruction has had a profound negative impact on our marine and avian ecosystems. It has contributed to the precipitous loss of our fishing industry and the decline of residential neighborhoods which have seen surrounding natural landscapes replaced by polluting industrial complexes.

Now developers are seeking access to our empty tidelands areas through a series of land swaps and redefinitions of our tidelands trusts. These are often in areas which are immune to the workings of the California Coastal Act, because our major port cities each hold their tidelands in trusts that have been exempted from the act.

This is a perilous loophole in the act, and could result in condos, highways, hotels, and retail shops proliferating in our tidelands areas. It is important for the Sierra Club, through its members, to direct the public debate into offering the most protection to our tidelands as we can.

We should restrict all commercial use in these areas strictly to those functions that can only be performed within our tidelands. We need to establish balance in all our tidelands areas, so that industry does not predominate to the point of excluding natural uses in any particular region.

Wherever possible, our vacant or fallow tidelands should be restored to natural conditions or be used as open space with an eye to future restoration. These are ecologically and socially important steps which could offer numerous economic benefits as well.

On Sept. 14, at the first meeting of Mayor Villaraigosa's new Harbor Commission, incoming commission president S. David Freeman suggested to a packed room in Wilmington that he has often seen that downtrodden communities are afraid to ask for what they really want and often settle for less. He also spoke of taking on the States Land Commission over tidelands issues.

We call on Sierra Club members throughout the Angeles Chapter to help us answer this challenge, and define a vision of what we want, without settling for less. One of the biggest current threats in California happens to be in the Los Angeles tidelands area. In the San Pedro area, a proposed Bridge to Breakwater Project poses significant environmental setbacks that could last an entire generation unless we can turn the project around.

Our Chapter has been a leader in the Club in establishing the statewide fight against LNG terminals. We could, again, be a leader in helping protect our tidelands from inappropriate development.

Tom Politeo is co-chair of the Angeles Chapter's Harbor Vision Task Force.

Take Action
Contact: Tom Politeo, 562-618-1127, or visit the Sierra Club Harbor Vision Task Force web page at: www.angeles.sierraclub.org/hvtf for more information or to help.

Attend the Army Corps' meeting on Bridge to Breakwater project, Oct. 11, 6pm-8:30pm, Los Angeles Harbor Hotel, 601 South Palos Verdes St., San Pedro, 90731. There will be an orientation meeting at 4:45pm at a location to be determined. Contact Tom Politeo for details.