On a sun-drenched Sunday near Abbot Kinney, actor James Cromwell, star of the hit show Succession, spoke to more than 200 residents of Venice, Playa del Rey, Marina del Rey, Culver City and Santa Monica, in an effort to save LA’s Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve from bulldozing.
“We will win,” declares the Oscar-nominee Cromwell, to rousing audience applause.
“We have a 20-point Gentle Restoration Plan, which achieves the legitimate goals of restoration, without decimating wildlife,” said Marcia Hanscom of DefendBallonaWetlands.org in a press release. The event raised more than $15,000 to help pay for attorney fees in the battle to protect the habitat.
Several lawsuits are challenging the plan to bulldoze LA’s last coastal wetlands that’s home to 1,700 species including threatened and endangered species. Cromwell spoke as images played of the owls, egrets, cormorants, pelicans, foxes, and other animals, who live inside the ecological reserve.
“I recently saw 40 pelicans playing near the mouth of the Ballona Wetlands,” shares Jane Velez-Mitchell, Unchained TV founder and New York Times bestselling author online. She told the crowd she doesn’t want to live in a dead zone, where all the wild animals have been wiped out.
"It was a full house. Many more showed up than we anticipated. It was really special to see so many people come out to support such an important cause,” says Karen La Cava, one of the event-organizers and local real estate agent.
Photo: Natalie Ford