Salt water

Rewilding Santa Monica’s Thoroughly Artificial Beach

Shorebirds work the surfline at Santa Monica Beach : Photo: Jason Goldman

In the early 1900s, L.A. County beaches were not yet the tourist destination they would one day become. The pier in Santa Monica was completed in 1909, but it wasn’t for another few decades that the beach itself would itself become a destination. "At that time, Miami was the place to be, and this beach did not look like Miami," says ecologist Tom Ford, Executive Director of the Santa Monica-based research and restoration nonprofit The Bay Foundation.

To draw more tourists to the area, local municipalities wanted the beaches of the Santa Monica Bay to mimic those on the nation’s opposite coast: bigger, flatter, wider. Beach managers of the time decided to bend the area’s geology to their will, making Southern California beaches take on a more Floridian aesthetic. A century later, Ford and his colleagues are working to fix those managers’ work. Walking along the beach north of the pier, behind the Annenberg Community Beach House, Ford explains that Santa Monica’s three mile long beach – along with those […]

More about restoration work:

Seabirds Return to Desecheo Island One Year After Restoration

River Revives After Largest Dam Removal in USA History

Meet the visionary who restored 5,500 acres of wrecked Texas land to paradise

What’s at Stake — Why Coastal Louisiana Matters

Restoration Solutions

Oyster Reefs of the Past Hold Lessons for Future Coastal Restoration

Recent Posts

Why Isn’t the LA Regional Board Doing More to Protect Groundwater?

Protecting Groundwater Through the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board The Los Angeles Regional…

3 hours ago

Biden administration warns states of cyberattack threat to water, wastewater systems

(The Hill) — The Biden administration warned governors Tuesday that “disabling” cyberattacks are targeting drinking…

4 days ago

Cocopah Tribe: habitat restoration along the Colorado River to address climate change

Map: Tribe will restore areas along the Colorado River to address climate change. The Cocopah…

4 days ago

70 million Americans drink water from systems reporting PFAS to EPA. Is yours on our map?

At least 70 million Americans get their water from a system where toxic PFAS "forever…

5 days ago

Carbon Capture: Evaluating Underground CO2 Sequestration in California

Natural gas production. (Photo: ucr.edu) California’s natural gas power plants are being wasted While the…

6 days ago

Watershedding: taps run dry across Johannesburg — unprecedented water crisis

Residents of the township of Soweto, South Africa, queue for water Saturday, March 16, 2024.…

1 week ago