June, 2025

Dear Friends,

As you may know, our Bolsa Chica Stewards have been working on restoring native plant habitat on a thin stretch of the Mesa since 1996. With the support of membership, the Stewards team has planted 60,000 native plants, built the Mesa trail, created our on-site Growing Space native plant nursery, and brought 32,000 volunteers from the community out to assist in this labor of love. We could not have done this without your support.

Much has happened in these past 29 years, including a 62-acre wildfire on July 26, 2020. Although the cause of the fire was not determined, we know it started at the edge of the trail. It was a typical afternoon with winds coming off the ocean that pushed the fire with amazing speed toward the neighboring communities. Besides the wind, the major reason the flames spread so quickly and were 10 feet tall is that, after being used for farming back in the early days of Huntington Beach, the Mesa has been infested with non-native annual grasses that turn brown each summer.

California’s wildfires have inflicted tremendous losses, which in turn has led the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to undertake a test site for fire-resilient restoration on the Mesa. It began two years ago, and our Stewards team has been quietly assisting in the early phase of the project. Now, as the Stewards enter their 30th year, we are stepping up to partner with CDFW to restore a 20-acre footprint within the fenced-off part of the Mesa, to nurture a biodiverse habitat that is wildfire resilient.

We will need your support to realize our vision of a fully restored Mesa! To launch our biggest restoration effort yet we need funds to purchase pounds of native seed, tools and equipment to expand our capacity. Your donation now will help launch this effort in the best ways possible, setting the stage for success.

The non-native weeds that choke the Mesa are very difficult to remove, and there will be many other challenges as we work to restore native habitat that will provide nesting sites and foraging for songbirds, raptors, mammals, beneficial insects and reptiles ~ the biodiversity that belongs on the Mesa. With our experience and history of restoring Coastal Sage Scrub and native grassland, we are confident we will be able to make a lasting impact.

Please consider a donation to help us start this new chapter on the Bolsa Chica Mesa today!

Thank you for your support, and for sharing our vision of Bolsa Chica –where wildlife does not merely survive, it thrives!

Warm regards,