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