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Victory in Court: Judge Halts Plan to Bulldoze Ballona Wetlands

Victory in Court: Judge Halts Plan to Bulldoze Ballona Wetlands

We’re thrilled to celebrate a huge court victory for an estimated 1 million animal residents of Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, including members of threatened and endangered species! The court ruled that the California Department of Fish & Wildlife improperly certified a destructive so-called “restoration” project that would have bulldozed Ballona Wetlands. Now, should they wish to proceed with their diabolical plans, these developers swayed by greed will have to start the approval process all over again, likely costing them millions of dollars.


In a detailed 67-page ruling, California Superior Court Judge James C. Chalfant told the California Department of Fish & Wildlife (CDFW) in no uncertain terms that it must correct dangerous flood risk calculation errors used to design the faulty “restoration” project. Judge Chalfant forbade the state from using flood risk standards that are not approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.


To resume the project, the state would need to spend millions on new design plans or give up its decade-long, $250 million industrial land overhaul entirely. Yet CDFW representatives say they still plan to pursue the misguided plan despite public outcry, as reported in the Los Angeles Times.


According to independent scientists, the CDFW has ignored the habitat needs of the animals who have returned to Ballona during the last 20 years. Many of the current species of plants and animals at Ballona have adapted to the conditions of having a sandbar straddled across the river’s mouth resulting in a mostly brackish and freshwater ecosystem. Animals like the Pacific chorus frog would suffer and die if more high-salinity saltwater was brought to the ecological reserve, as directed in the “restoration” scam.


Our sincere thanks go out to our supporters who contributed toward legal fees to help win this battle in court! We’re part of Defend Ballona Wetlands, the coalition behind three of six lawsuits brought against this controversial, irresponsible proposal to spend millions of public funds and nearly a decade bulldozing Los Angeles' most significant coastal wetlands.



We’ve been a leader in efforts against the obliteration of Ballona’s habitat, urging public officials, including California Gov. Gavin Newsom, to scrap this ill-conceived project. We have co-hosted in-person and online demonstrations, organized virtual town-hall meetings, spoken at neighborhood council meetings, testified at public hearings, and launched a pressure campaign to save the wetlands and the animals who reside there. 



We still support Defend Ballona Wetlands’ 20-point Gentle Restoration Plan that will achieve all the legitimate goals of restoration without bulldozing and killing the current animal residents.


You can help by calling, posting on social media, and signing and sharing our alert urging Gov. Newsom to immediately withdraw this deeply flawed project and stop spending public money on it.

You can support our work by donating

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