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.	On March 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.