Huntington Beach Wetlands

21900 Pacific Coast Hwy, Huntington Beach, CA 92646;  http://www.hbwetlands.org

Google Earth Map Showing The Location Of Stop #1, Huntington Beach Wetlands, And The Approximate Location Of Nearby Faults And The Extent Of Historical Wetlands

Tens of millions of years ago, the California coastline was submerged beneath the ocean.  The development of the San Andreas Fault 20-25 million years ago changed the tectonics of the area, and, coupled with the latest set of Ice Ages (2 million years ago to now), caused our coastline to experience numerous transgressions (inundation of the sea) and regressions (retreat of the seas).  The formation of the Newport Inglewood Fault further uplifted the region to create the Bolsa Chica and Huntington Beach mesas and exposed thousands of feet of marine sediments formed during the marine transgressions and regressions.

The Santa Ana River watershed overs 3000 square miles – nearly 1/3 of Orange County.  In 1825 the Santa Ana River flooded, creating an eight-mile-long sandbar near Newport Bay.  This sandbar helped to protect some of the coastal wetlands in the area, including what is now Bolsa Chica.  Heavy rains in 1883-84 extended this sandbar, forming the Balboa peninsula. 

Today, the Huntington Beach Wetlands are the southern edge of a wetland area that extended from what is now Bolsa Chica south to near Newport Bay.  The current wetlands originated from a grassroots campaign in the 1970s formed to slow/stop the conversion of farmland into homes and to prevent further destruction of the remaining wetlands along the coast.  In 1996, the city of Huntington Beach created protective zoning for the area, which, in turn, lead to the preservation and conservation efforts we see today.  Currently, 118 acres of wetland habitat have been restored in four separate areas along the coast:  Talbert Marsh, Brookhurst Marsh, Magnolia Marsh, and Newland Marsh (in development).