Photo by Lina Shanklin.

Photo by Lina Shanklin.

Photo by Lina Shanklin.

Photo by Lina Shanklin.

By Marcia Hanscom, Speaking for Nature

There will be a rally 26 March at 5:30 pm at Burton Chase Park to defend the latest assault on the Great Blue Heron rookery. This meet will be prior to the County’s Design Control Board meet at 6:30 pm.

You might recall that many people gathered together to stop the destruction of this rookery a number of years ago. Unfortunately, the chain sawing of the nests at the Villa Venetia site led to more and more cutting and finally, the Great Blue Herons are now ONLY nesting at ONE site – their rookery slashed by more than 2/3 when all of the trees on Fiji Way were either “pruned,” “trimmed,” or completely cut down.

Now, the remaining site is at Mariners Village, which has a plan put forth by a lessee that the County is negotiating with, to kill ALL of the trees and plants there. If you’ve ever been there, it is a GREEN OASIS – a sanctuary for greenery and for many different birds – songbirds on migration, hummingbirds – and most important, the LAST PLACE where the Great Blue Herons are nesting in the Ballona Valley.

There is a hearing on March 26th at 6:30 pm – the County’s Design Control Board will meet.

There are other BIG changes in that parcel planned – including removing a 90+ boat marina used for sailors, kayakers and other small boat navigators for another SHOPPING CENTER! agh!!!

We will have a rally for the Herons – and for sanity – for the quality of life for all – at 5:30 pm that day – prior to the meeting – at Burton Chace Park at the western end of Mindanao Way.

We ARE keeping an eye out for the Egret rookery too. They ought to be nesting soon and we need to keep watch near Yvonne B. Burke Park (Admiralty Park).