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Health & Fitness

Elizabeth Lambe, Summer nature walks are a great way to start your weekend

Join us on a fun and interesting guided nature walk of our local wetlands, this Saturday morning. It is free and family friendly.

Driving through Laguna Canyon the other day I couldn’t help but marvel at the wonderful natural open space that surrounds the city of Laguna Beach.  But I am also reminded that their protected great open spaces didn’t come easily, that this great community benefit was the result of hard work by local residents.  We here in Long Beach have our own wonderful chunk of natural open space, and that is the amazing Los Cerritos Wetlands. 

It may be hard to notice as you zip on by on your way in or out of town through 2nd Street or along PCH.  But next time you are in the area, I invite you to stop and check it out and note how remarkable it is that we have so much relatively natural, undeveloped coastal open space in an urban area like Long Beach.  It has remained undeveloped because of the oil operations on the land.  And oil operations are there to stay, we think.  But who says oil and land preservation can’t mix?  There are ways we can enjoy wonderful nature and there are ways oil extraction can be done in a more sensitive manner.  For example, with modern technology oil drilling operations can be “clustered” on the edge of open space as opposed as how they are now…scattered throughout the land.  It won’t come easily or cheaply but it can be done.  It just takes vision and community support.

Speaking of which……it is just so remarkable to me what that small group of local residents accomplished since they first banded together to form the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust.  Now, 10 years later, thanks to a lot of hard work from a lot of people, more than half of the wetlands are now in public hands, and with your help more will, someday, be on its way there as well. 

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And what do preserved wetlands mean for you and your family and all of us who call Long Beach our home?  It will mean that Long Beach will have a wonderful restored great open.  Envision fun and educational nature and bird walks for students, community groups, families and more.  Imagine how proud we who live in Long Beach will be when the Los Cerritos Wetlands becomes a great natural destination like the famous Back Bay of Newport Beach or Huntington Beach’s Bolsa Chica Wetlands.

The preservation and protection of the Los Cerritos Wetlands can and will be done.  But in the mean-time, why don’t you enjoy the wetlands that we have preserved by coming on one of our guided tours.  The next one will be on Saturday, August 6th at 8:00AM.  It is called “Raptor Ramble” and we will be walking on the newly acquired Hellman portion of the wetlands.  More information about our nature tours and about the Los Cerritos Wetlands can be found at www.lcwlandtrust.org.

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