LA Weekly

What do you do when the destruction of non-native trees threatens the survival of a magnificent native bird?

Everywhere I've gone in Southern California to report on wetlands and streams -- Compton, the San Joaquin Marsh (a natural water treatment system, the Wilimginton Slough -- I've been greeted by great blue herons. I've always thought of them as miraculous survivors, like coyotes, adapting to human interference and at times using it to their advantage.

But there may come a point when they can adapt no more. If certain developers in Marina Del Rey get their way, a grove orf cypress trees that have served as the birds' rookery for decades will be ripped out to make way for a and their future in the area will be uncertain. It's hard to defend saving the trees, which don't belong there, anyway. But will the birds relocate and clutch again?
Says the story in the Daily Breeze:

The conflict over the Villa Venetia roosting and nesting spots is reflective of the diminished heron habitat in the area, said Garry George, executive director of the Los Angeles Audubon Society. But like others, he didn't have an easy answer.

"I know it's a tough problem," George said. "It's weird to be defending nonnative habitat, but we are because they (the herons) have nowhere else. We support those birds."

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