In the top photograph, the blue color is the estuary of Ballona Wetlands. The green color is the salt marsh of pickleplant and the California Pacific Coastal Prairie of grasses and wildflowers of the Ballona Wetlands Ecosystem. Blue and Green making up a winter-spring landscape scene representing the last and largest natural open space of wild nature in coastal urban Los Angeles. The gray colors are urbanized zones of buildings. Photograph taken in 1998 during the El Nino Rainy Season.
In the lower photograph is a Marsh Hawk, also known as a Northern Harrier, soaring graceful and low to the ground in search of small mammals and reptiles. Gliding with an occasional wing-beat moving right then left with the air currents over the Ballona bluffs, then to a vernal pool atop the Ballona bluffs, and then down along Centinela Stream, over to Ballona Creek, over salt flats and down to the marsh of Area C, and then again over toward the bluffs in a patterned, time-immemorial routine of foraging for food, a space to lay her eggs, and then raise her nestling chicks. When resting, this Hawk alights on the ground, almost never resting on tree or bush, but rather preferring a patch of soiled-ground. When nesting, laying eggs and feeding their young, it is always on the ground in a grassy prairie and adjacent to wetlands.
LA TIMES for 11 years from 1979-1990 had an average of one article per year on Ballona.
LA
TIMES 1979 -May 18: Supervisors react Favorably to Plan for Development in County's Last Wetlands, by Claire Spiegel
LA
TIMES 1981 -August 29: Senate OKs Bill Allowing Development in Wetlands, by Bill Billiter
LA
TIMES 1981 -October 21: Study Asks Summa to Set Aside 171 Acres for Wildlife Refuge, by Richard O'Reilly
LA
TIMES 1981 -October 22: Ballona Property Guarded Against Public, Summa Says, by Richard O'Reilly
LA
TIMES 1982 -June 22, Editorial: Wetlands, A Path on Quicksand
LA
TIMES 1988 -March 1: Stakes Rise in Battle Over Playa Vista Development, Bill Boyarsky
LA
TIMES 1988 -March 2: State Jumps Into Battle Over Vast Playa Vista Plan, Bill Boyarsky & Jay Goldman
LA
TIMES 1988 -April 16: Growth vs. No-Growth Debate by Los Angeles Officals, by Ruth Galanter
LA
TIMES 1988 -October 3, Editorial: The Loss of the Wetlands
LA
TIMES 1990 -June 2: Deal Near to Protect Wetlands, Let Playa Vista Plan Proceed, Jeffrey Rabin
LA
TIMES 1990 -September 14: State, Developer Strike Deal to Save Wetlands, Jeffrey Rabin
Marcia
Hanscom Letter to Editor of Sacramento Bee (published August 17, 2000)
Roy
van de Hoek Letter to Editor of Sacramento Bee (also published August 17,
2000)
SNEAK
THIEVERY by JILL STEWART in New Times L.A. (August 23, 2000); Rob Roy says:
"Pulitzer Prize Quality Journalism"
THE
FINGER in New Times L.A. (August 30, 2000); "Rob Roy says: Pulitzer Prize
Quality Journalism"
Area
C Letter to State Parks and 10 Reasons to Free Area C
Area C Biopolitics
55
Private Property Signs Now at 60 Signs
Mary
Moore Article in Daily Breeze about Area C and Kathleen Connell: August
9, 2000
Dan
Walters Article in Sacramento Bee on Area C and Kathleen Connell: August
9, 2000
Letter
to the Editor of Sacramento Bee: August 10, 2000
Area C Natural History
Area
C Birds: Herons, Eagles, Hawks, Falcons, Owls, Warblers, and Sparrows
Area
C Rare Plants, Wildflowers, Native Plants, and Ecology
Poetry, Prose, and Science
for Area C Coastal Prairie
Walt
Whitman: Prairie & Plain
Poem on the GREEN HERON in Area C by Susan Suntree
Landscapes,
Ecology, Arts, Restoration, Recovery, & Research for Nature = LEARRRN
("learn")
To
"LEARRN" is to seek ideas and knowledge by discovery, exploration, and
adventure.
Three
individuals who did this had the name of John, namely John Muir and John
Lennon, and John Denver.
"Universe, Earth, Yosemite,
John Muir." Born on an island: Scotland.
"Imagine no country,"
John Lennon song. Born on an island: England.
"Come Dance on the West
Wind," John Denver song. Born on an island: Turtle Island.