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Protecting The Ballona Wetlands In West Los Angeles: A Look Back At Three Decades Of Urban Habitat Advocacy, Carlyle W. Hall, Jr.

Golden Gate University Environmental Law Journal

Surrounded by densely populated West Los Angeles, the Ballona Wetlands are a remnant of a larger, flourishing coastal ecosystem that has been subjected to over a hundred years of urban assault. Ninety-eight percent of Los Angeles County’s historic wetlands have been filled and developed, and more than a century of abuse and neglect have severely degraded the Ballona Wetlands. Nonetheless, the Ballona Wetlands remain “one of the most important pieces of wildlife habitat” in the region, and they constitute the County’s largest remaining coastal wetland.

As might be expected when an important, severely endangered coastal natural resource located in a …