Before the rains After the rains

Water at Bolsa Chica
What would a wetlands be without water?  Early on, Bolsa Chica consisted of little pockets of land surrounded by water.  Freeman Creek, a freshwater source, ran into the area allowing farmers to grow crops and raise cattle.  But farming was difficult because Bolsa Chica also had a saltwater source-the Pacific Ocean.  When the Bolsa Chica Gun Club arrived in 1899 they took care of the saltwater problem by damning up the ocean inlet. Freshwater ducks were deemed tastier than saltwater ducks.  Not until the wetlands restoration project was completed in 2006 did the Bolsa Chica wetlands again receive direct tidal flushing from the Pacific Ocean.

Water Quality - Urban Runoff
The East Garden Grove-Wintersburg Flood Control Channel was built in the 1950's, running 12 miles from the inland cities of Anaheim and Garden Grove down to the coast at Bolsa Chica. The channel forever changed the landscape and ecosystem of Bolsa Chica, essentially cutting off the lower wetlands from the upper mesas. During winter rains, urban runoff accumulates in the channel and ends up at Bolsa Chica's tide gates. The runoff is not just water-it is debris, pollution, from all of the areas that drain into the channel.

What is so sad is that birds do not know the difference between clean and polluted water - they just know it's water. They don't know the pollution is hazardous to their health.  We must strive to be careful of what we put down our storm drains, or what we carelessly toss away, to protect the health of the birds and to protect the health of our environment