In their latest attempt to „greenwash their destruction of the Ballona
Wetlands habitat, Playa Vista has commissioned an "environmental" poetry

reading event to "celebrate" the opening of their "freshwater marsh",
which is in fact a polluted runoff basin.

(read to the end of this message to see what SCIENTISTS have said in
declarations to federal courts about this ill-founded scheme of the
so-called "freshwater marsh.")

Supporters of the Ballona Wetlands are going to counter this publicity
stunt with our own poetry event „Poetry for Ballona‰ at the entrance to
the Playa Vista event. You are invited.

WHAT: Poetry for Ballona

WHEN: Saturday, April 19th 11:00AM to 2:00PM

WHERE: Entrance to the Playa Vista Fountain Park apartments on
Jefferson
Blvd., one block east of Lincoln Blvd. (on the public sidewalk)

PARK: Park on Alla Rd., right next to Home Depot

BRING: Yourself and a friend. You may also want to bring a poem to read

or a sign telling people you support saving Ballona Wetlands or that you

do not support Playa Vista using arts events as a cover for their
habitat destruction at Ballona. (IF YOU ARE AN ARTIST OR POET, PLEASE
CONTACT <wetlandact@earthlink.net> or call 818-222-7456 - we have a
letter artists and poets are signing on to in protest)


Help Us Tell Angelenos that Playa Vista‚s

H a b i t a t D e s t r u c t i o n I s N o t P o e t i c

Event Sponsors:

Robert Roy van de Hoek, Chair
Sierra Club Ballona Wetlands
Task Force

Bruce Robertson
Ballona Valley Preservation
League

Wendy Wendlandt
California Public Interest Research Group

Marcia Hanscom
Wetlands Action Network

Susannah Churchill
Environment California

Susan Suntree
FrogWorks

Contact:

Ballona Valley Preservation League
12228 Venice Blvd. #500 Los Angeles, CA 90066
Tel: (310) 398-5511 Fax: (310) 390-0788
info@ballonawetlands.org

or Wetlands Action Network (818) 222-7456


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

BACKGROUND INFORMATION


This is part of the „Earth Day‰ e-mail sent out by Playa Vista‚s public
relations team:

*******************************************************************

> Subject: National, Local Environmental Poets Celebrate with Reading
4/19 Poetry Aficionado:
>
> >From 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 19, the Los Angeles Poetry
> Festival is holding the largest environmental poetry reading ever in
Los

> Angeles, the free Freshwater Marsh Ecopoetry Celebration, sponsored by

> Playa Vista, Southwest Airlines, and Small World Books in the new town

of
> Playa Vista, near Marina del Rey.
>
> We will honor the newest addition to the Ballona Wetlands Complex˜the
Freshwater Marsh˜ with readings by national environmental poets

>END PLAYA PROPAGANDA<

*******************************************************************

This is what environmental scientists say about the Playa Vista
„freshwater march‰


Dr. Joy Zedler, Aldo Leopold Chair, Restoration Ecology, University of
Wisconsin; member of the National Academy of Sciences Committee on
Characterization of Wetlands, the body who advises the federal
government for the National Research Council:

„An area that could be restored as coastal salt marsh is no place to put

a stormwater detention basin...if for no other reason than because it
will foreclose the future possibility of salt marsh restoration in the
area where the Œfreshwater marsh‚ is to be built.‰

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Barbara Kus, research professor in biology at San Diego State
University. She has been researching the Least Bell‚s Vireo, an
endangered songbird, since 1989. She is the author of the Draft
Recovery Plan for Least Bell‚s Vireo for the United Stated Fish &
Wildlife Service:

„Given the highly endangered status of the Least Bell‚s Vireo, it is my
opinion that all remaining suitable Vireo habitat patches are important
for the species‚ overall recovery. Currently, the Vireo population is
expanding northward into currently unoccupied habitat within the Vireo‚s

historic range, including Orange and Los Angeles Counties. Therefore
destruction of any suitable Vireo habitat patches within th Vireo‚s
current historic range will hinder the Viero‚s recovery.‰ (native
willow thickets, such as those destroyed by Playa Vista beginning in
October, 1997, were „suitable habitat‰ in Dr. Kus‚ expert opinion,
presented to a federal judge.

~~~~~~~~~~

Dr. Rudi Mattoni, Conservation Biology instructor in the Geography
Department at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). He has
received a national achievement award in conservation from the National
Wildlife Federation and a commendation from former U.S. Secretary of the

Interior Bruce Babbitt for his work in Conservation Biology:

„...Construction of the Œfreshwater marsh riparian system‚, as approved
by the Army Corps involves the removal of virtually all of the existing
native vegetation and animals from both the riparian Centinela Creek
and...marsh...at the base of the Ballona bluffs. With the destruction
of these areas, the native genetic material of the Ballona region will
be lost. These issues are of crucial importance to the future of the
Ballona ecosystem and should have been comprehensively addressed by the
Army Corps but were not.‰

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Help Us Tell Angelenos that Playa Vista‚s

Habitat Destruction Is Not Poetic

Attend „Poetry For Ballona‰ Saturday, April 19th

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Marcia Hanscom
Legal & Strategy Officer
Sierra Club Ballona Wetlands Task Force
&
Executive Director
Wetlands Action Network
protecting & restoring wetlands
along the Pacific Migratory Pathways
PO Box 1145
Malibu, CA 90265
818-222-7456
fax: 818-222-7897