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March 2009
MSRP NewsMSRP logo
Winter 2009 
In This Issue
MSRP Funding Opportunity!
Bald Eagle News
Replanting Santa Barbara Island
Project Highlight-Wetlands Meet the Ocean
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Greetings! 
 
The Montrose Settlements Restoration Program (MSRP) invites you to read the latest issue of our newsletter.  Our newsletter is now electronic and has a new design allowing us to send more frequent updates and to keep you better informed. 
 
We hope that you will enjoy the restoration stories that we have selected for you below.  We also appreciate your continued interest in our restoration efforts!
MSRP Funding Opportunity!
 
kid with mackerel
MSRP just announced an opportunity to provide grant funding for outreach projects that focus on safe ways to enjoy or benefit from fishing along the Los Angeles and Orange County coasts where fish consumption advisories have impacted fishing.  Projects should focus on developing curricula, programs or activities to educate young people (and through them, their parents) who consume locally-caught fish. All projects need to incorporate the comic book titled "What's the Catch?" and/or concepts outlined in the comic book as a basis, and are encouraged to draw from any other educational materials available through the Fish Contamination Education Collaborative (www.pvsfish.org) as appropriate.  Funding is available to support three projects of up to $10K each for a total of $30K.  Application deadline is April 24, 2009.    
 
For information about applying please visit:
 
To download the "What's the Catch?" comic book:
 
Bald Eagle News
Channel Islands, California
 
Bald eagle chicks in nestThe first bald eagle egg of the 2009 season was laid February 17th on Catalina Island! Biologists are surveying all of the Channel Islands and have observed nesting activity on Catalina, Santa Cruz, and Santa Rosa Islands so far. This year all eagle eggs will be left in their nests to hatch naturally without any artificial incubation.  In 2008, seven eagle eggs hatched naturally on Catalina Island showing signs of improvement in hatching success.    
 
For a full update visit the Channel Islands Live website
http://chil.vcoe.org/eagle_cam.htm to watch the live eagle cam which is positioned on the Pelican Harbor nest on Santa Cruz Island.  Also, join the online discussion board to get the lastest eagle news and join one of the largest eagle enthusiast groups!   
 
Replanting Santa Barbara Island
Channel Islands, California
 
MSRP team member plantingLast December, members from MSRP teamed up with volunteers to plant over 1,000 native plants on Santa Barbara Island.  The native plants provide shelter for Cassin's Auklet and Xantus's Murrelet, two seabirds that nest on Santa Barbara Island.  Most of the island has been covered by ice plant, a non-native plant that is difficult to burrow through and does not provide much shelter for the seabirds.  Biologists have removed the ice plant from important nesting areas and replanted the areas with several species of native plants (buckwheat, silverlace, coreopsis, yarrow, and sage). 
 
All native plants are grown in a nursery on Santa Barbara Island before they are transplanted into the ground.  Survival rate of the transplanted plants has been high and the plants will be ready to support seabird nesting in about five years.
 
To view a short video about this project visit:
MSRP is always looking for volunteers to support this project.  If you are interested in volunteering please send an email to [email protected] 
Wetlands Meet the Ocean  
Huntington Beach, California
 
wetlands restorationEngineering contractors performed a partial breach of the levee that separates the semi-arid marshlands of the Brookhurst Marsh along Pacific Coast Highway from the teeming ocean waters of Huntington Beach on March 11, 2009. Ocean water filled in dredged channels reconnecting this vital lifeline to the once thriving wetlands. The levee breech is part of a larger effort to restore Huntington Beach wetlands back to their natural function as a nursery for multiple species of fish and nesting grounds for seabirds. 
 
Approximately ninety percent of southern California's wetlands have been lost to coastal development. The Huntington Beach Wetlands were once part of a large tidally influenced wetlands area encompassing almost 3,000 acres beneath the western bluffs of what is now Costa Mesa. Today only about 180 acres of historic wetlands area remains, most of which has been cut off from the ocean for decades. The Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservancy, a non-profit land trust, acquired the land in 1989 with the hope of one day restoring it back to its natural state.  Once completed, 140 acres of wetland habitat will be restored at the Huntington Beach Wetlands.
 
Neighboring Bolsa Chica Wetlands received attention last fall for the extraordinary return of fish and wildlife shortly after large-scale restoration. Similar success is expected for the Huntington Beach wetlands especially for certain commercially important fish like California Halibut that use wetlands for nursery habitat.  Restoring wetlands also reduces damaging effects of erosion, flooding, and storm-surges.  
 
MSRP is a major funder of this project in support of fish habitat restoration identified in the restoration plan.              
The MSRP newsletter is a publication of the Montrose Settlements Restoration Program, administered by the six federal and State of California trustee agencies responsible for restoring natural resources injured by past releases of DDTs and PCBs to the Southern California Bight.
 
Sincerely,

Gabrielle Dorr
MSRP Outreach & Education Coordinator