Community Coalition Urges CDFW to Pause $400 Million Bulldozing Plan for LA's Ballona Wetlands

A coalition of community groups urge CDFW not to wipe out our local wildlife with a bulldozing project.

Actor James Cromwell speaks out against CDFW wetlands bulldozing project - photo by Natalie Ford

Egrets enjoying life at Ballona Wetlands, unaware there is a plan to destroy their home

Protest against plan to bulldoze LA's Ballona Wetlands

Least Bell’s Vireo - Vireo Bellii Pusillus

"Destruction Is Not Restoration" say Wildlife Experts

MARINA DEL REY, CA, UNITED STATES, November 10, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Defend Ballona Wetlands, Sierra Club, In Defense of Animals, and allied organizations today called on the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) to pause its plan, just released, to bulldoze and excavate the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and to consider a gentler alternative that protects the abundant wildlife already living there.

Critics say the plan would mean about a decade of heavy-machinery operation and the movement of about 2 million cubic yards of soil, at a cost of up to $400 million in public funds. LA's Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve — about one square mile, bought by the State in 2003 for $139 million to protect it — is home to about 1,700 species, including rare, threatened, and endangered wildlife who would lose their habitat.

“Destruction is not restoration,” said Marcia Hanscom, founder of the community coalition, Defend Ballona Wetlands. “We want this land protected, not
bulldozed.”

Among the wild animals whose habitat would be destroyed are: endangered Least Bell’s Vireos, endangered Belding’s Savannah Sparrows, Snowy Egrets, Great Egrets, White-tailed Kites, Short-eared Owls, Red-winged Blackbirds, Great Blue Herons, Green Herons, Burrowing Owls, Audubon Cottontail Rabbits, Gray Foxes, American Kestrals, Great Horned Owls and many other species, all of whom have been photographically documented at the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve. "Where are these wild animals going to go? This is their last remaining habitat. Almost everything else has been developed," said local resident, TV journalist and author Jane Velez-Mitchell. Velez-Mitchell and dozens of other local residents are holding a fundraiser on Sunday, December 6th near the wetlands to raise money to oppose this project.

This is CDFW's Second Attempt after a Judge Decertified the First

More than three years ago, on May 17, 2023, a Los Angeles Superior Court found the 2020 Final Environmental Impact Report for the project inadequate and decertified it in following judgment: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vAe1WdKtNDDZ1Lu4Amluhmp72uAUE5es/view

Case # 21STCP00240
Lawyer Bryan Pease
Ijadi & Pease
bryan@ijadipease.com

Now, CDFW has come back with another attempt, a Draft Revised EIR, limited by its own account to two issues: the 68,000 cubic feet per second flood-control design parameter, and CDFW’s commitment to further review if site conditions warrant reducing restoration goals or revising performance criteria.

The coalition notes that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has said since 2017 it will not permit a project designed for less than 68,000 cubic feet per second, while CDFW designed the project to only 46,000 cubic feet per second — an error the court noted.

Defend Ballona Wetlands has proposed a 20-point Gentle Restoration plan that, in the coalition’s view, would meet all the legitimate goals of restoration without heavy machinery and at a fraction of the cost. Sierra Club’s Chair of its Ballona Coastal Group, Susanne Cumming explaining that, “We must start with a full and updated baseline survey of flora and fauna and protection for rare, threatened, and endangered species. How can we know where to take any sort of action on the land without knowing what habitat and what species are there now and what we would be losing?”

The coalition noted that "CDFW is moving forward before completing the Land Management Plan for the Reserve,” which still has not been completed more than two decades after the Reserve was designated in 2005. “Deciding on such a significant alteration of the soils and habitat without completing the Land Management Plan, which is supposed to be a guiding document for the Ecological Reserve, places the rich biodiversity of the land at extreme risk,” explained Robert van de Hoek an environmental scientist with Ballona Wetlands Institute and former federal wildlife biologist.

The earlier joint review — the Draft EIS/EIR published in September 2017 by CDFW and the Army Corps — described abandoning or relocating SoCalGas wells and pipelines, and included seven potential well-relocation sites on SoCalGas land adjacent to the Reserve. The coalition says those relocated wells would still inject fossil gas piped in from Oklahoma and Texas and also draw on the same Playa del Rey Oil Field beneath the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve and beneath Playa del Rey: moving a wellhead does not move the field.

Among those opposed to this project, Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell who headlined a community gathering to stop the bulldozing plan.

The coalition urges CDFW to pause the bulldozing plan, complete the Land Management Plan, evaluate the Gentle Restoration plan on its merits, and give the
public a full and fair opportunity to comment. CDFW is convening an in-person public meeting on the Draft Revised EIR on Thursday, November 12, 2026, 6:00–7:00 p.m., Westchester Municipal Building, 7166 W. Manchester Ave., Los Angeles. Organizations in the coalition have sent letters to elected officials, seeking an extension of the public comment time period.

About Defend Ballona Wetlands is a community coalition which is dedicated to
the protection of the historical lands and wildlife of the greater Ballona Wetlands
ecosystem on the Los Angeles coast.

About the Sierra Club: Sierra Club is one of the oldest grass-roots organizations
working to protect the Earth and its wild inhabitants, and its Ballona Coastal Group
works within its geographical boundaries to protect nature and provide public access
opportunities for the enjoyment of nature to all.

Marcia Hanscom
Defend Ballona Wetlands
+1 310-210-6696

Oscar-nominated actor James Cromwell speaks about the plan to bulldoze the Ballona Wetlands.