Tell city officials you oppose any destruction or development in or around the wetlands. A huge pile of waste asphalt rock was dumped on the site which was ordered removed by the CCC. Jacob inspects the perimeter, finding "artifacts", old bottles & newspapers dated 1950's or before. Small pockets of Los Cerritos Wetlands still exist This is what you can't see from the road, this clearly shows how nice a restoration could be.	Latest news!!! Appeal to the California Coastal Commission is now in progress.  Click here to see the staff report recommending a "substantial issue".  This issue will be heard at the next California Coastal meeting June 11th, 2010 (if the land owner does not ask for a delay).  We need letters of support written to the Coastal Commission and people to attend the meeting if possible.  Here is the info: June 2010 Draft Agenda Marina del Rey Hotel 13534 Bali Way Marina del Rey, CA 90292 (562) 972-9854 9:00 a.m., FRIDAY, JUNE 11, 2010 Adenda item #9. COASTAL PERMIT APPLICATIONS a. Application No. A-5-LOB-10-15 (2H Properties, Long Beach) Appeal by Commissioners Shallenberger & Wan, Los Cerritos Wetlands Trust (Elizabeth Lambe, Executive Director), Thomas Marchese, Heather Altman, Mary Suttie, David Robertson, El Dorado Audubon Society (Mary Parsell), and Our Town – Long Beach (Joan Hawley McGrath, Sandie Van Horn, Pat Towner, Cindy Crawford, Tarin Olsen, Kerrie Aley, Allan Songer & Brenda McMillan) from decision of City of Long Beach granting permit with conditions to 2H Properties approved (after-the-fact) for importing 1,000 cu.yds. of soil to re-establish and maintain cap over existing landfill (in response to Coastal Commission Emergency Permit 5-09-068-G), and allow weed abatement and remediation, at 6400 Loynes Drive, Long Beach, Los Angeles County. (CP-LB)   Sample letter to Coastal:   Attn:  Commission Staff   I support the appeal (A-5-LOB-10-15, 2H Properties, Long Beach, June 11th agenda item #9a) by Commissioners Shallenberger & Wan, Los Cerritos Wetlands Trust, Thomas Marchese, Heather Altman, Mary Suttie, David Robertson, El Dorado Audubon Society and Our Town Long Beach.    I am in agreement that the permit lacks an enforceable habitat protection and restoration plan; instead I would like an appropriate enforceable plan including re-vegetation to prevent erosion and 5 year monitoring.  I believe this is important to protect Alamitos Bay from water runoff pollution.    The area is adjacent to Los Cerritos Wetlands and the LCP designates this as a future brackish pond restoration which I fully support.  Although we all know this land is filled, it still has displayed wetlands qualities over the years and is frequented by wildlife typical of a wetlands area, therefore I strongly feel the LCP is correct in it’s designation of brackish pond restoration and should be treated as an important wetlands.   Thank you very much for your consideration on this matter.    Sincerely, Your name & address   Mail to: California Coastal Commission 200 Oceangate, 10th Floor Long Beach, CA 90802-4416   Or email to awillis@coastal.ca.gov   If you could please attend the Coastal Commission meeting on June 11th it would really help.  We need to make an in-person presence on this issue.  You don’t need to be a resident of Long Beach or even of California to participate in letter writing or meetings – the coast belongs to everyone!    Thanks!  ----------------------------------------------- Recent news articles about the Coastal Commission appeal: March 12, 2010, Long Beach Press Telegram, "New hearing ordered on restoration of graded area near Los Cerritos Wetlands":  http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_14665850 March 12, 2010, lbreport.com:  http://www.lbreport.com/news/mar10/hitchccc.htm March 11, 2010, Long Beach Press Telegram, "Coastal Commission wants new hearing on Los Cerritos Wetlands grading case":  http://www.insidesocal.com/greennotes/ And Friday March 19th is the "1 year anniversary" of the destruction...please attend our protest or "vigil". Vigil or "protest"at Loynes Drive, Subarea 23   Fri, March 19th is the anniversary of the illegal destruction of the acreage on Loynes Drive.  Imagine what a restoration here would look like!  Make/bring your own “restore our wetlands” sign...you can get creative with your own sign, or you can just stand next to someone else who has a sign.  And please ask friends, family, and neighbors to join!   When:  Fri, March 19th, 2010, 6:30pm Where:  Loynes Drive near Studebaker Road   On March 19th & 20th, 2009 new land owner Sean Hitchcock leveled a 10 acre parcel, grading around 10' deep removing the protective cap from this former 1950's landfill.  No permits, no studies on hazardous waste cleanup...the land owner claims he was making a soccer field.  Constructing an unpermitted ball field on a potentially hazardous dump site and sending children out to play on it with no consideration of toxic cleanup, should be a crime in itself.  So should air quality.  Witnesses say the gases from the landfill during the grading were overwhelming.  Now most of the site is a graveyard of trash sticking up from the dirt.  Many bottles and newspapers have been found dated in the 1950's or earlier, fully intact trash.  Mold and strange smells still fill the air nearby the site.  Trees were destroyed along with bird nests, Snowy Egrets, a bird common to wetlands.  Since then an emergency permit was issued by the California Coastal Commission to cover the methane gas leaks with 4" to 6" of soil was issued.  And to date no further action has been taken. This land is zoned as "wetlands" and subject to a number of environmental protection laws and is has been on the list for acquisition to be included in the Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration.  The far East side of Long Beach already has a huge amount of acreage developed as city parks with ball fields.  Eldorado Park has around 975 acres, all sections combined.  We also have nearby Stevely Park.  Natural or Nature Parks, we have only one (at El Dorado Park) totaling almost 100 acres.  Wetlands are not only habitat for native plants, animals and birds but they benefit us as well.  Wetlands are buffer zones for flooding, they act as storm water filtration systems preventing ocean pollution, to name a few--hardly a "waste of money" as some uninformed people think.  Click the link below to learn more about this topic:  http://www.epa.gov/owow/wetlands/vital/people.html Help protect and restore Los Cerritos Wetlands, please write or call the City of Long Beach, the California Coastal Commission, letters to the newspaper editors, etc. See the bottom of this page for a list of city officials email addresses If you need more info about the land owner, their website is:  http://www.2hconstruction.com/company.asp For more information about this issue and the Los Cerritos Wetlands restoration see the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust site: www.lcwlandtrust.org More pictures on this site and desription of Los Cerritos Wetlands and surrounding areas:  http://caopenspace.org/loscerritoswetlands.html 4/4/09, Mr. Hitchcock was been cited. See the news articles at the links below, check out the comments, leave a comment if you can: http://thedistrictweekly.com/2009/daily/staff-infection/briefing/south-coast-air-quality-management-district-cites-2h-construction/?disqus_reply=7820761#comment-7820761 http://www.lbreport.com/news/mar09/aqmdwet2.htm http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_12066660 Click any picture on this page for a larger view.
How about restoring the natural habitat with native plants & trees instead if anything? I wrote the land owner (nicely) telling him I'd like to see this restored instead.	Recent news articles, post a comment or two in support of the wetlands.  Make sure to at least read the comments, you learn more from them about the corruption of this situation in some cases than you do from the actual article: http://thedistrictweekly.com/2009/print/features/with-friends-like-these/ http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_12014680 http://www.presstelegram.com/news/ci_11989537 http://www.gazettes.com/articles/2009/04/02/community_news/doc49d3cc0a9e73c041993105.txt http://www.gazettes.com/articles/2009/04/02/opinion/letters/doc4908c7471198b719719196.txt http://www.lbpost.com/newsdesk.php?id=895 http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:cbs2com117:b0aaa7f7ee94c9046d372163136d96c3/Wetlands-Grading-Leads-To-Stop-Work-Order http://www.mercurynews.com/news/ci_11984503?nclick_check=1 http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-wetlands24-2009mar24,0,4722044.story Long Beach's LCP (Local Coastal Program) SEADIP, plans for the Los Cerritos Wetlands area & South East LB area, including maps.  Sub Area 23 is the designation for this recently destroyed wetlands parcel, described in SEADIP as intended use, restoration of wetlands--a brackish marsh, see page 20: http://www.lbds.info/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp?BlobID=2459
The land owner plans to plant grass--a non-native species that does not belong here.	Several vigils or "protests" were held near Loynes Dr & Studebaker Rd next to the destroyed site where citizens showed their displeasure of illegal construction in the coastal zone, illegal uncovering of a landfill releasing greenhouse gases, exposing people to toxins and habitat destruction.  Read about the first protest in the Long Beach Press Telegram: http://www.presstelegram.com/ci_12014680. More pictures of the first vigil, close ups of the site destruction and close ups of the portion of the site that was not destoyed giving you an idea of what it looked like before can be found at http://longbeachwetlands.shutterfly.com/

Picture from the 3/27/09 Protest This sign says it all...click picture to enlarge.

Before Destruction, picture dated 6-1-08 A little blurry, but shows how much ground was removed...which was a "cap" on the landfill.

After destruction, pictured dated 3/22/09. Same corner as the "before" picture, the asphalt pile shown was ordered removed by the CCC.

The site leveled is near the corner of Loynes Dr. and Studebaker Road.	A number of palms such as these were removed from the site along with Egret nests.
The edge of the property along Loynes Dr, near Studebaker Road.
Waste asphalt "rock" the land owner says the city gave him to spread over the site.	This side of Long Beach already has over 975 acres of city parks but only 100 acres of natural parks
Write or call the Long Beach City Council and tell them what you think about all this.
This site was a landfill sometime back in the 1950's, before coastal protection laws.	This site would make a good spot for a small wetlands restoration.