LONG BEACH—The maintenance and management of environmentally sensitive areas in Long Beach will cost more money, as the local city council approved an amended agreement to pay Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewardship Inc. an extra $596,662 for its services. Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewardship manages and maintains environmentally sensitive areas, such as Golden Shore Marine Biological Reserve, Colorado Lagoon, Rainbow Lagoon, Rainbow Harbor and Marine Stadium.
The contract amendment was approved by Long Beach council members at their June 9 meeting.
Rainbow Harbor and Marine Stadium are among Long Beach’s most frequented destinations for recreational boaters.
The updated agreement, according to Long Beach city staff, is now worth $2,547,094 and will be in effect through June 30, 2021.
Los Cerritos Wetlands Stewardship will specifically provide cleaning services, debris removal and green enhancements at the following locations: Rainbow Harbor, Marine Stadium, Rainbow Lagoon, Colorado Lagoon, Golden Shore Marine Biological Reserve, Jack Dunster Biological Reserve, Sims Pond, Bluff Park Slopes, Bixby Annex Slopes and Appian Way planters.
Tidelands capital projects will also be tended to, as needed, according to a city staff report to council members.
“The scope of services and requirements for the covered areas are considered to be environmentally sensitive due to their proximity to wetlands, intertidal waterways and/or coastal areas, requiring a highly specialized and comprehensive type of maintenance, including maintenance of grounds and landscape, and bodies of water, including aquatic weed management, pond and culvert maintenance, and the capture and removal of waterborne debris,” city staff said in a report to council members.
Los Cerritos Wetlands occupies 500 acres of Long Beach and Seal Beach. The wetlands once measured 2,400 acres in size and was the estuary for the San Gabriel River, according to the Coastal Conservancy.
Coastal Conservancy staff added the Los Cerritos Wetlands remains a feeding ground and nesting site for various bird species, including Belding’s savannah sparrow, California least tern, loggerhead shrike, western snowy plover, peregrine falcon, burrowing owl, northern harrier, osprey and California brown pelican.
“[The Los Cerritos Wetlands] has been greatly reduced in size due to development and industrialization, especially in the form of oil operations, but the [Los Cerritos Wetlands] retains tremendous potential for enhancement and restoration,” Coastal Conservancy staff said in an August 2019 memo to the Los Cerritos Wetlands Authority. “The [Los Cerritos Wetlands] is one of the last opportunities for a large-scale tidal wetlands restoration project in Southern California.”
Some of the restoration goals include restoring a habitat for resident bird species and migratory birds along the Pacific Flyway, as well as public access.
Golden Shore Marine Biological Reserve is located near Catalina Landing in Downtown Long Beach; the Jack Dunster Marine Biological Reserve is located at Alamitos Bay’s Marine Stadium
One Response
In the Manila Dunes well-meaning folks removed non-native vegetation resulting in the draining of the very wetlands that we were paying to enhance. Now our once fixed dunes are now destabilized, wildlife has disappeared and erosion is out of control. Please learn from our mistake, don’t listen to Nativists.