Restoring the Wetlands of Los Angeles

Marissa Y., Spring 2025

Hello! My name is Marissa and I’m a junior majoring in Environmental Studies.
For the Spring 2025 semester, I was able to be a restoration intern with the Friends of the Ballona Wetlands. Friends of the Ballona Wetlands is a nonprofit organization dedicated to the preservation, restoration, and protection of the Ballona Wetlands, the last coastal wetland in Los Angeles. After years of development with flood gates, buildings, and even horse stables, the land is still recovering from heavy use. Founded in 1994, it has since grown into a movement with over 100,000 volunteers over its lifetime. Now, the organization manages approximately 600 acres of the wetland area with a variety of habitats, including the creek bed, a salt marsh, freshwater marsh, and sand dunes. The area is home to migratory birds, native plant species, and the endemic El Segundo blue butterfly.

As a restoration intern, I am part of hands-on conservation efforts. This includes growing native seedlings, taking care of them in the greenhouse, planting developed plants in active restoration areas, and monitoring plant growth. One way we monitor our efforts is through plant transects, where we use a grid to estimate species type and percentage within an area. These measurements are taken each year, helping the team track progress and the amount of native plants regrowing.

Another facet of restoration is the removal of invasive species. We focus on clearing areas with nonnative trees and weeds so that native plants can grow with less competition. I have worked on clearing an entire grove of invasive trees, opening up a new area to begin planting in! Overall, this experience has made me comfortable working in an outdoor setting, shown me the entire restoration process, and reinvigorated my passion for outdoor conservation.

Bags of invasive Myoporum laetum and a Schinus terebinthifolia stump

Carrying a transect grid to our monitoring location.

Planting at the freshwater marsh site