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The Dominguez Gap Wetlands? I never knew this little slice of urban neighborhood back country had a name! Located right behind the school with the entrance on the left side of Del Mar. We take the dogs out there often…and have enjoyed watching the transformation. They have been creating this amazing little habitat right in our own backyard! Evidently it has been 10 years in the making. This is a major success story for the area!
The Signal had a great article this week which details the project….Here is some of it…Approximately 1.5 million square feet of land on the slopes above the water were planted with 50,000 plants from one-gallon containers. Other areas were treated with hydro seeding. The goal is to cover the slopes with natural riparian vegetation whose root system will prevent the area from being taken over by invasive weeds. A landscape maintenance company under contract with the county has employees pulling out weeds by hand on a regular basis in order to allow the riparian plants to establish themselves. Those plants include goldfields, tidytips, baby blue eyes, owl clover, purple lupine, deer weed, and coastal sage shrub. More and more animal species are moving into the wetlands, attracted by the water as well as the proliferation of plant life in what was once a barren ditch. There are gold finches, ducks, red-winged black birds and one turtle. The Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly, which almost became extinct a few years ago, is also beginning to thrive in the area. Deer weed is its primary source of food. I guess we’ll have to plant some deer weed in the school garden too. This sounds like the epitome of a perfect field trip! The kids could walk there in about 10 minutes…Visit with your family, take the bikes or walk…it’s a great little adventure. Read more about the Palos Verdes Blue butterfly If you’re interested in finding out more about local wetlands restoration and the Los Cerritos Wetlands, you can get involved by checking out the site, here.
Thursday May 8th at 7:45am they are having a grand opening ceremony. See you out there!