The purpose of this Blog Site is to make it easier for busy, Pro-Environment Ballona folks to get brief, reliable up-to-dates, and scientific information.
Read or Listen / your choice.
Our Trusted Blog Contributors generally support a wildlife friendly, slow, careful, predominantly freshwater restoration, not an industrial scale bulldozing that would open Ballona to the sea:
Patricia McPherson, President: GrassrootsCoalition.org - Watch her on YouTube (28 min) - Read her at How To Drain Wetland & Get Away With It - The Betrayal of the Public's Trust
Dr. Margot Griswold: www.laaudubon.org Watch her on YouTube Video 4 min Read her at State's Plan for the Ballona Wetlands - Dr. Margot Griswold's Article in LA Audubon Society's WESTERN TANAGER NEWS Vol. 87, No.2.pdf (1 megabyte download)
Richard Harmel: Nature’s Rights, Thomas Lindsey, CELDF.Org
John Tommy Rosas: Tongva Most Likely Descendant YouTube Video Read him at Tongva Village Saangna Lands Waters Ballona Part Sacred Native American Site Registered John Tommy Rosas Tribal Leader Tongva Ancestral Territorial Tribal Nation (TATTN)
Tina and Jessa Calderon: Indigenous Rights
Jonathan Coffin: Ballona Wildlife Photos on Flickr
Rick Pine: Ballona Wildlife Photos of seerixpix
Cindy Hardin: Los Angeles Audubon Society, Director of Outdoor Education
Walter Lamb: Ballona Wetlands Land Trust
Jill Stewart: Carbon Sequestration
Paul Hawken: DrawDown, Is it possible to reverse global warming? Watch at YouTube
Jeanette Vosburg: Theme and Freshwater capture Ballona Flyover - Watch at YouTube
To dig deeper go to: GrassrootsCoalition.Org / SaveBallona.Org website
You will find 100’s of pages of present day scientific information by internationally known authorities as well as historical studies reaching back a few years to thousands of years ago. There are citations, external links, and information gleaned from Public Information Requests, Historical Photo Archives and Articles by respected journalist.
BALLONA ADVOCATES share...
- the love of wildlife, plant life, clean water, clean air, healthy food, indigenous fire management, full disclosure of health and safe issues. We generally oppose pesticides.
- the belief that all races, nationalities, religions, linguistics, cultural origins and backgrounds deserve respect.
- the belief that we should “take only what you need". This is beautifully spelled out in "Braiding Sweetgrass" by author Robin Wall Kimmerer.
- the belief that the “Rights of Nature” should become part of our way of life. Richard Harmel, one of our bloggers is focused on "Rights of Nature".
- the belief that what we see on the surface reveals only a portion of our planet but the unseen below the surface is equally important in a wetland, an ocean, a forest or our backyard. Anyone of them can be a carbon storage sink. Jill Stewart has drilled down on this. More about Mycorrhiza at Wikipedia
Links to books in print, electronically or audio:
- Finding the Mother Tree, Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest by Suzanne Sumard - View on Amazon - The Wood Wide Web - Watch at YouTube 4 min 23 sec
- Braiding Sweetgrass, Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teaching of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer - View on Amazon
- As Long As Grass Grows, The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock by Dino Gillo-Whitaker - View on Amazon
- Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken - View on Amazon.com Drawdown: Is it possible to reverse global warming? Watch at YouTube 11 min 36 sec
- Water Security In The Age of SGMA: A deep dive into the impacts of SGMA on agriculture, land, insurance, investment and more in California now and into the future. Glossary: Sustainable Groundwater Management Act SGMA; Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem GDE; and Groundwater Sustainability Plan GSP; and Santa Monica Groundwater Sustainability Plan SMGSP - Read more at Aquaoso.com page on California's SGMA
Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve (BWER) Concerns:
- Playa Vista's THROW AWAY OF BILLIONS OF GALLONS FRESHWATER ANNUALLY to storm drains, Hyperion, Ballona Channel and the ocean.
- How much water did Playa Vista promised to clean and put back into Ballona’s Ecological Reserve annually, and how much they actually do. Ballona is a GDE Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem that relies on this freshwater. We need accurate statistics.
- Enforcement of Playa Vista’s signed covenants by Local Agencies to DO THE RIGHT THING now and in the future.
- Provisions for cleanup and infusion of the Ballona Watershed Stormwater into our three aquifers: Ballona-Silverado-Bellflower.
- Saltwater intrusion statistics for Ballona's three Aquifers.
- Subsidence statistics for the lower Ballona Watershed.
- SoCalGas noxious fumes, escaping methane, bad air quality, danger of explosion, possibility of illnesses and death.
LATER
Water is everything - unique to earth, most flexible molecule
Bring in the ocean
Drill down
Complex systems
Plants & Animals are sentient
Importance of Fire
GSP - Groundwater Sustainability Plan
GDE - Groundwater Dependent Ecosystem
Respect Patricia’s and Margot’s knowledge without burdening them with the responsibility for knowing everything.
Provide a guide to what Trust means.