The Ballona Salt Marsh Keeps a Calendar, and November Is Full

The California Department of Fish and Wildlife says most of the 577-acre Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve is closed to the public, and only a small patch, restored by Friends of Ballona, is used for programs. Friends of Ballona puts it plainly on its own site: the Saltwater Marsh "is currently closed to the public," but the group has permission to lead tours, restoration days and creek cleanups inside.

Those guided visits set the salt marsh's schedule, and the next six weeks are full of them. During the same stretch, the state is taking public comment on the plan that would someday open most of the reserve for good. Those two calendars overlap from now until December 7.

The Gate Behind the 300 Block of Culver

Nearly every guided way into the salt marsh starts at the same place. Friends of Ballona meets in the dirt lot behind Local Market at 303 Culver Boulevard. Los Angeles Audubon sends its visitors to the gate in the northeast corner of the parking lot behind the 300 block of Culver, near Vista del Mar.

These visits come from that lot between this Sunday and mid-December:

The two hosts run things differently. LA Audubon's Open Wetlands is a morning program held the first Saturday and second Sunday of every month except August. Volunteers lend binoculars, set up spotting scopes along Ballona Creek, and put aquatic invertebrates under microscopes. Pets aren't allowed on the reserve, and strollers should stay home.

Friends of Ballona Wetlands asks for advance registration and a digital waiver for every event. Restoration days and cleanups also require a short safety video, and the gate is locked once an event begins, so arriving late means missing it. The restoration afternoons focus on pulling invasive plants. CDFW counts invasive plants as roughly half of the reserve's vegetated area and says black mustard alone spread 360 percent in six years.

The cleanups have a track record. Friends of Ballona reported that more than 60 volunteers removed 380 pounds of trash from Ballona Creek on Coastal Cleanup Day, September 19.

The Places That Don't Need a Reservation

Away from the salt marsh, the Ballona edge has several spots with regular hours. Knowing which ones need a sign-up and which don't makes a Saturday easier to plan.

• Ballona Freshwater Marsh. The wood-chip perimeter loop and the Jefferson Trail are listed as open from dawn to dusk, and leashed dogs are allowed on the public trail.
• Ballona Discovery Park, 13110 Bluff Creek Drive. Open daily from dawn to dusk, with interpretive gardens and a Watershed Walk. Street parking nearby is limited to two hours.
• Ballona Creek path. A 6.7-mile route linking Marina del Rey's oceanfront to Culver City, open to walkers, cyclists and leashed dogs.
• Del Rey Lagoon Park, 6660 Esplanade Place. Open daily from dawn to dusk.
• Dockweiler State Beach. Covers 3.7 miles of oceanfront and includes a fenced enclosure for the western snowy plover.

Friends of Ballona also runs guided programs from Discovery Park through early winter. Freshwater Marsh Tours are on November 7, 13 and 22 and December 5, from 10 a.m. to noon, starting at the bronze sculpture by the entrance. Also on the calendar:

• A Nature Walk for Photographers on November 8, from 8 to 10:30 a.m.
• The Grow Native! Gardening Club on November 10 and December 8.
• A Beginner Birding Tour along the Freshwater Marsh on December 13.

The walk most rooted in Playa del Rey is Birding with Bob on Sunday, November 15, from 8 a.m. to noon. It meets in the west-side Del Rey Lagoon lot at 6520 Pacific Avenue and goes past the lagoon, Dockweiler, the breakwater and jetty, and the Ballona Creek estuary.

Why the Gate Stays Locked for Now

The restoration that would open the salt marsh hasn't started, and CDFW doesn't give a start date. The steps are listed on the state's project page. CDFW has to update the levee design and recertify its environmental report. Then the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has to issue a permit to modify the Ballona Creek channel and levees. Approvals from the California Coastal Commission and the Regional Water Quality Control Board come after that. CDFW says it expects to submit the federal permit application "within the next two years" and can't predict when the Corps will act. Funding matters too. CDFW chose to build the project in phases so work can begin before all the money is in hand.

The revised report exists because of a court ruling. In May 2023, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge upheld the original environmental report on nearly every point. The judge required CDFW to analyze new flood-control design parameters and to commit to further review if performance criteria change. CDFW decertified the report on September 28, 2023, and has been revising it since.

What the Plan Would Put on the Other Side of the Fence

The plan's scale explains why the current access is so limited. The original wetland covered about 2,000 acres of marsh, mudflat, salt pan and dune between Playa del Rey, Venice and the Baldwin Hills. Today's reserve is 577 acres, and the project would restore habitat on 566 of them. Community Sentinel reported in September that the effort would reestablish roughly 300 acres of tidal wetland, a habitat that has largely disappeared from Los Angeles.

For people who live next door, the public-access pieces matter most:

1. About 2,000 linear feet of elevated boardwalk beside the wetlands, which managers could close in places during sensitive seasons.
2. New pedestrian-only trails.
3. Two footbridges and a spur trail for safer walking access.
4. Existing bike trails moved onto new levees around much of the perimeter.

CDFW says that would make the reserve one of the largest public open spaces in the city, second only to Griffith Park. Some ideas aren't in the plan. A visitor center was dropped after the Annenberg Foundation withdrew in 2014, and education will instead rely on interpretive panels at entrances and along the trails. The report studied a parking structure and road behind Culver Boulevard, but CDFW decided not to include them.

Other work is already underway. SoCalGas owns the mineral rights beneath the reserve and reports that five wells there had been abandoned as of March 2026: Del Rey 4, 14, 17 and 19, and Vidor 5.

Six Weeks to Weigh In

For anyone who walks the Culver Boulevard gate this fall, these are the dates that shape what the reserve becomes:

• Now through December 7. CDFW's 45-day comment period on the Draft Revised Environmental Impact Report opened October 23. Written comments are due by 5 p.m. on December 7, 2026.
• How to submit. Email [email protected] with the subject line "Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project REIR Comments," or mail comments to CDFW at 3883 Ruffin Road, San Diego, CA 92123. Both the notice and the full revised report are linked from the CDFW project page.
• November 12, 6 to 7 p.m. CDFW holds an in-person information meeting at the Westchester Municipal Building, the City Council District 11 office at 7166 W. Manchester Avenue.

CDFW's regional manager told Community Sentinel that "everyone who has commented in the past will be notified, and we're also encouraging new people to sign up through our website." The meeting falls the day before Friends of Ballona's November 13 Freshwater Marsh Tour, so it's easy to hear about the plan on a Thursday evening and walk part of the reserve on Friday morning. Ten days later, the Woman's Club of Playa del Rey holds its free 6th Annual Makers Market on Sunday, November 22, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at 8039 W. Manchester Avenue. The market raises money for the club's scholarship fund.

Until the restoration clears its permits and begins, guided visits are the way into the salt marsh. The next chance to go in is this Sunday, November 1, on the 10 a.m. Salt Marsh & Dunes Tour from the lot behind Local Market.

Terry has worked Westside coastal real estate since 1976 and follows changes like this one as they move forward. If you own near the wetlands and want to know how today's market sees your home, Terry Ballentine can walk you through it calmly, one step at a time. Get a Free Home Valuation.