Weeding, planting the Redondo Beach bluffs

Volunteers took to the bluffs May 20 for the 43rd workday on the wildlife restoration project since last February. Photo by Garth Meyer

by Garth Meyer

They worked the hillside, then gathered for a picture.

“Watch the buckwheat!” said Jim Montgomery, South Bay Parkland Conservancy project lead, Esplanade bluff restoration. 

A group of volunteers pulled weeds Saturday morning, May 20, across 230 feet of Redondo Beach bluffs near Avenue I, the 43rd volunteer event for a project begun in February 2022, to plant 800 plants from Miramar Park to Avenue C.

A total of 160 volunteers have put in 1,200 hours toward the project so far.

“We get paid in stress relief,” Montgomery said. 

Extra weeding events were added because of all the rain this winter. 

Mayor Bill Brand was one of the volunteers last weekend, co-founder of South Bay Parkland Conservancy. 

During a break – which included presentation of an SBPC Volunteer T-shirt to a worker who had reached attendance at five events – the mayor talked about how the bluffs lead to six acres of wetlands at the AES power plant site.

The bluffs restoration project is a partnership between U.S. Fish and Wildlife, L.A. County Department of Beaches and Harbors, the City of Redondo Beach and L.A. Conservation Corps. Improving the habitat for the endangered El Segundo butterfly is a key focus. Seacliff Buckwheat is the only plant blossom in which the insects’ lay their eggs. 

The SBPC intends to continue the project past Avenue C. For now, grant money covers only this distance. ER

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