MUGU LAGOON:
George & Nettie
MacGinitie

Research Contributions Honored by US Navy Plaque

American Bald Eagle
Bald Eagle feeding on fish at Mugu Estuary
Robert Roy van de Hoek discovers MacGinities as California's Founding Estuary/Wetlands Marine Naturalists

Web Page Compiled & Edited by
Robert Roy van de Hoek
Malibu, California
2000

INTRODUCTION

Mugu Lagoon is an incredible California Marine Estuary managed and stewarded by the US Navy as a naval base but the National Park Service will ultimately manage the estuary together with the US Fish & Wildlife Service. At the site of the MacGinitie dedication plaque, a visitor center/museum could destroy some of the precious coastal wetland. It would be a bad idea? Over 25 years ago, the Navy honored the MacGinities with a plaque that describes their efforts (see the plaque text below). Over 30 years later, the National Park Service has placed their own interpretive display adjacent to the MacGinitie plaque. On Pacific Coast Highway, there is a WATCHABLE WILDLIFE sign with the binocular symbology to indicate the location of these interpretive displays. Perhaps these interpretive exhibits are all that we needed? Will a visitor center impact the wildlife at Mugu Estuary? When do people, tourists, our pets, autos, and trash become a problem for a wild natural area such as Mugu. These are things to consider before plunging forward to construct a visitor center. Perhaps we need to seek guidance from the MacGinities in their writings and from marine biologists and marine naturalists.

Presented here is a complete transcription of the Navy plaque that honors the MacGinities. Unfortunately, the US Navy spelled their name incorrectly by using a "y" at the end of their name instead of "ie" but these mistakes happen and can be corrected. It was more than 25 years ago that the plaque was placed there.
"Dedicated One July, 1975 To Professor Emeritus and Mrs. George E. MacGinity in recognition of their scientific efforts for over 50 years to preserve the vital estuaries of California and the U.S. as a whole, and for their leadership in the field of Marine and Estuarine Biology. This husband and wife team exemplify the need for people from all walks of life to work together so that Man may live in harmony with his environment."

Adjacent to this plaque is a visitor deck with several exhibits by the National Park Service of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area:
"A vast wetland lies between the highway and the shoreline. Though ocean tides enter the lagoon, a barrier beach protects it from storms and pounding surf. Here the salty water is shallow, slow-moving, and filled with life. Only a small fraction of the west coast's wetlands have beenprotected from fill and development. For now, Mugu Lagoon is a survivor."

"Mugu Lagoon is a border world, where land and sea life overlap. To ensure the health of this teeming but vulnerable marine ecosystem, the U.S. Navy and the National Park Service have formed a partnership to preserve these wetlands and educate people about their unique value. Photos of Harbor Seal, Great Egret, Peregrine Falcon, Northern Pintail, Snowy Plover, Western Sandpiper, Brown Pelican."

CONCLUSION

As the author of the web site, I must acknowledge my bias for the Eagles, Seals, Otters, fish and wildlife, wildflowers, wildness, and increased wetlands in the Mugu Lagoon Estuary. Restoration of a wild estuary and wetland is crucial. Many threats by Humans to this wildness already occur at Mugu For example, a vast Giant Arundo invasion that was facilitated by humans has occurred on the barrier beach adjacent to the Mugu Estuary. It is a bamboo-like plant that is invasive and not native, and thus not wild. It impacts the natural ecology in many ways. One example is the lost habitat to Snowy Plover for nesting, resting, roosting, foraging, and everything else that a Snowy Plover does during its life. Why hasn't the Navy removed this plant? It has been here for more than 10 years now. I have removed some of this "weed" on my own, but its hard work. The Navy has a large work-force to take care of this problem. This plant is a direct threat to California's wild nature at Mugu. The Red Fox is a threat to the ecosystem as it gobbles up rare crabs and the rare birds that feed on crabs, such as the California Burrowing Crab and the Light-footed Clapper Rail.

I am partial to having "wildness" experiences as Henry David Thoreau writes, IN WILDNESS IS THE PRESERVATION OF THE WORLD." I don't think that I can survive in LA nor most of us, unless we preserve wildness in LA, such as the wild nature of Mugu Lagoon Estuary. My spirit and well-being depends also on wild nature in urban parts of California. I also find that I need to spend at least 4 hours a day in the wild, if not longer to be happy not unlike Thoreau and Muir to spend great amounts of time outdoors in the wild and wildness.

Here is a final note of natural history writing from a naturalist (Robert Roy van de Hoek) in Los Angeles County as follows: The scientific name for the Bald Eagle is quite interesting in that it translates from LATIN as meaning white-headed: Haleaeetus leucocephalus. Note that Henry David Thoreau referred to the Bald Eagle as the White-headed Eagle. Was he more correct than us in calling it by that name? Read on for the explanation. I should add that in the years of the Revolution (1770's) through the Civil War of the 1860's the word "BALD" meant that you were white-haired on your head not that you had no hair on your head. Thus, the name of Bald Eagle that we use today is a reference to our Eagle being white-feathered on it head. If it had no feathers, it would be a Condor or a Vulture, right?. Since the Bald Eagle eats so much dead meat as in being a scavenger, it might be better called a Vulture, right? Perhaps not however, since the Eagle does catch quite a bit of it own food on the wing. I can attest to this since I made observations into the Eagles of Catalina Island from 1996 -1998 while employed there by the County of Los Angeles as the director and supervising naturalist of the Catalina Island Interpretive Nature Center. On Catalina, I saw while kayaking, a Bald Eagle swoop down to attack and capture a Western Grebe and another Eagle attack a Ruddy Duck on the ocean water. On other occasions, I saw a Bald Eagle on Catalina catch fish as small as Topsmelt to as large as a Bass. All from a kayak while paddling along the north side of Catalina Island, primarily near Long Point. From the Landcruiser vehicle, on Catalina Island (known to the Native American Indian as PIMU), I have seen the Bald Eagle dive into a flock of Western Gulls to cause quite a thunderous sound from a flock of 100+ gulls all crying out simultaneously. In my readings of the research by the Institute for Wildlife Studies, led by David Garcelon, who has been working for 20 years to bring Eagles back to Catalina Island, I learned that Cormorants and Gulls are sought by Eagles as prey. It is from the Gulls and Cormorants that the Eagles are picking up the magnified amounts of pollution called DDE which is linked to DDT. If we return Eagles to Mugu, Malibu, and Ballona, we will be able to see Eagles capturing Gulls and Cormorants as both of these birds are common at Ballona and Malibu. What a sight that will be! In addition, the return of Salmon (i.e. Steelhead Trout) to Malibu and Ballona will be another sight to see, when the fish are jumping in Ballona Creek by a Culver Moon. The Eagles will be diving toward the water for that Salmon-fish by the light of the Culver Moon. At that time, we won't have to kiss it goodbye, Paradise, that is, in LA, a truely wild natural open space area in Los Angeles County of southern California. Many of you know what I mean, but some will never get it! When can the Eagles fly between our southern California wetlands again. I want to see an Eagle on Monday at Mugu, that then flies to Malibu on Tuesday, and on to Ballona on Wednesday. On Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday it might be found at points between Mugu and Ballona such as off the Santa Monica Pier, Point Dume, Topanga, Zuma, Leo Carrillo and other beach areas of our Santa Monica Mountains coastline.