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California Black Rail .............................................................................................. California Black Rail
Joseph Ewan was both a botanist and zoologist, but also an excellent naturalist and ecologist. He was particularly interested in history of biological exploration, botanical exploration, and zoological exploration. He recorded many interviews with early naturalists, botanists, zoologists, and ecologists of the western United States.
Joseph Ewan's field trip to the Playa del Rey marsh on February 25, 1928, was a significant historical event, but not just for the documentation of the California Black Rail in Los Angeles' Environmental History. As it turns out, Joseph Ewan was accompanied by the pre-eminent naturalist, Ralph Hoffmann of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, on their Playa del Rey marsh field trip. They traveled about the Los Angeles landscape together on that eventful day of February 25, 1928. Ralph Hoffmann had just completed the first thorough field guide to birds of California. His new book of 1928, entitled Bird of the Pacific States went through several editions, nearly 20 years before the Peterson's Field Guide to Birds.
Today, in 2001, 73 years after 1928, the California Black Rail has still only rarely been observed in the Ballona Wetlands. In fact, the Black Rail is one of the top 10 rarest and most endangered birds in southern California. It was placed on the State of California's Endangered Species List many years ago. If the Playa Vista development by Playa Capital investors is allowed to occur, the hope for the California Black Rail will fade away forever in the Ballona Wetlands.
My own field trip observations include one Black Rail observation of a migrating Black Rail and Virginia Rail at the Ballona Wetlands. In the early 1990s a Light-footed Clapper Rail was noted by Dr. David DeLange, and a photographic record is at the LA County Museum of Natural History. The Clapper Rail is nearly as rare as the Black Rail in southern California. Both Rails need help in southern California. Rails migrate between Ventura County's Mugu Lagoon and Orange County's Seal Beach National Wildife Refuge. The Ballona Wetland lies midway between Ventura County and Orange County, in Los Angeles County. The Ballona Wetland is ideally situated midway, for the natural dispersal and migration stop of "Rails" moving between Mugu Lagoon and Seal Beach National Widlife Refuge.
If Ballona were to become a State Park, with restoration and recovery of the Black Rail as a focus, it would be a true Preserve. Black Rail recovery requires establishing about 500 acres of freshwater marsh (Cat-tail, Rush, Tule, Reed, and Sedge) EAST of LINCOLN Boulevard (all the way through the Howard Hughes facilities). Other rare birds, plants, and invertebrates would also recover. Even the California Loggerhead Shrike, the predator of the Black Rail, would increase its survival chances. Imagine a 1,200 acre California State Park for the California Black Rail and for future generations of California citizens, particularly the children and families who appreciate nature and the outdoors in parks.
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