Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project

The Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve is located in Southern California, south of Marina del Rey and east of Playa del Rey. It extends roughly from the Marina Freeway (State Route 90) to the east, the Westchester bluffs to the south, Playa del Rey to the west, and Fiji Way to the north. The project site is held by the State of California (by CDFW and the State Lands Commission). The site is bisected by and includes a channelized span of Ballona Creek. The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works–Flood Control District (collectively, LACFCD) owns and operates the Ballona Creek channel and levee system, which are features of the Los Angeles County Drainage Area (LACDA) project authorized by Congress in 1990. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, in cooperation with the LACFCD, constructed the Ballona Creek channel and levees within the Ballona Reserve as part of the LACDA project. Seeking to restore degraded wetland habitat and functions within the Ballona Reserve, CDFW is proposing a large-scale effort to restore, enhance, and establish native coastal wetland and upland habitats on approximately 566 acres within the Ballona Reserve; these efforts would require incidental work on adjacent property.