VOLUNTEERS WILL JOIN WITH LOS ANGELES WORLD AIRPORTS PERSONNEL TO REMOVE INVASIVE VEGETATION FROM COASTAL DUNES IN PLAYA DEL REY
(Los Angeles, California – July 12, 2013) More than 100 volunteers from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, The Boeing Company and the California Native Plant Society will join with Los Angeles World Airports (LAWA) personnel this Saturday, July 13, to remove invasive vegetation from coastal dunes in Playa Del Rey.
The work, which gets underway at 9 a.m. and ends at 1 p.m., is being undertaken in preparation for a large-scale restoration effort scheduled this fall for the LAX Dunes Preserve area just north of Sandpiper Street between the west side of Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) and the beach. Because it is the nesting season, the volunteers will focus only on removing ground cover plants such as ice plants.
Called the Coastal Dunes Improvement Project, this is the first major restoration effort to be undertaken in this 48-acre area since it was rezoned for nature preserve uses in 1994 by the City of Los Angeles. It is also one of many examples of LAWA’s integration of environmental sustainability values into LAX operations. Restoration of the LAX Dunes is part of LAWA’s overall effort to achieve sustainability at LAX.
The project will also fulfill a desire by the community to be involved with beautifying the site, restoring native habitat, and correcting human actions that have degraded this coastal dunes ecosystem.
All major restoration in the 307-acre coastal dunes area is overseen by LAWA’s Environmental Services Division and the California Coastal Commission. LAWA also coordinates with other governmental agencies and the public to guide restoration activities.
The project design team for the Coastal Dunes Improvement Project consists of a civil engineer, an environmental specialist, and a restoration ecologist. The team works together with representatives from the California Coastal Commission, state and federal fish and wildlife agencies, the California Native Plant Society, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps and private sector partners and volunteers such as The Boeing Company, to achieve an outcome that meets the community’s ecological, aesthetic, social, political and economic needs.