Colorado Lagoon

Colorado Lagoon
The lagoon (top) in 1928
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Type	Urban
Location	5059 E Colorado St, Long Beach, CA 90814
Coordinates	33°46′19″N 118°08′02″W / 33.7719°N 118.1340°W / 33.7719; -118.1340
Area	29 acres (12 ha)[1]
Etymology	Colorado Street
Owned by	City of Long Beach
Website	www.coloradolagoon.org

Colorado Lagoon is a 29 acres (12 ha) public park in the Alamitos Heights neighborhood of Long Beach, California. It takes its name from Colorado Street, which borders the park to the south. The 18 acres (7.3 ha) lagoon the park contains is one of the only coastal salt marshes left on the West Coast.^[2][3]

The lagoon used to be a constituent of the Los Cerritos Wetlands until it was dredged in the 1920s to allow for more recreational activities.^[4][5] The park was formerly a part of Recreation Park, which the city bought in 1923 from the San Gabriel River Improvement Company. The lagoon originally opened up into Alamitos Bay, but a bulkhead and tide gates were built in 1932 that made Colorado Street able to cross the body of water. The tide gates allowed for the lagoon's water level to be adjusted.^[3] A large diving platform was installed and was used in the trials for Diving at the 1932 Summer Olympics. It continued to be used until its removal in the 1950s. The park became less popular for swimming in the 1960s after the channel emptying into Alamitos Bay was turned into a long tunnel that was to be used for a planned freeway, which was canceled. Locals dubbed it "Polio Pond".^[6] In 1970, the site that the freeway was to occupy originally was turned into Marina Vista Park.^[1]

Water quality continued to decrease over the next thirty years, as the eleven storm drains emptied into the lagoon and the water was not drained as often. This deterioration continued until 2002 when the State of California designated the lagoon as an official water body. The Friends of Colorado Lagoon was formed in 1998 to improve the lagoon's water quality. The California Coastal Conservancy allocated some funds to conduct a study to see how effective and possible a restoration would be for the park in 2005. The organization also held educational programs in the Wetlands and Marine Science Education Center starting in 2006.^[1][5]

A restoration was approved in 2008, and the project's first phase began in 2009, under a state-funded grant. Los Angeles County funded a project to divert 40% of stormwater that would have gone into the lagoon to Long Beach Marine Stadium. An enhanced playground also debuted in 2009.^[1] Another problem was the breakwater in San Pedro Bay, which traps some contamination. The California State Water Resources Control Board granted the city 5.1 million in 2011 to take sediment out, plant native species near the lagoon and remove invasive ones like cheeseweed, and install devices reducing pollution, amongst other upgrades.^[7][8] The lagoon was officially reopened to the public on August 25, 2012, in a ribbon-cutting ceremony.^[4][9] After the restoration, the lagoon's water quality improved drastically, as tests by Heal the Bay in 2014 revealed an A grade, as opposed to an F grade in 2007.^[10] In 2014, the American Society of Landscape Architects also recognized Colorado Lagoon for its restoration.^[2] A construction project to link the lagoon with Marine Stadium was approved in 2019. It involved carving a channel through Marina Vista Park and would increase the biodiversity of species in the lagoon.^[11][12] This channel will also be used to replace the underground tunnel built in the 1960s.^[13] Construction began in 2020 when non-native trees were removed from the park,^[14][15] although the COVID-19 pandemic and supply chain disruptions delayed any parts of the channel being built until 2022.^[16] It is estimated to be completed in 2024, originally 2022.^[17][18] In 2024, it was delayed again to 2025.^[19]

The park has a picnic area on turf, and play equipment is found around the park. The swimming beach is fairly sandy and parking can be found on the north and south sides of the park. A Wetland and Marine Science Education Center can be found nearby in a formerly abandoned snack shack. Roughly half of the park's area is land.^[1] In the early-to-mid-20th century, the park was used for fishing, swimming, sailing, and picking. A model boat shop can be found in the park as well.^[5]

Various species of jellyfish, stingrays, and fish, including round stingray, yellowfin croaker, California halibut, and grey smooth-hound inhabit the lagoon's waters.^[6][20] A large seagrass ecosystem (primarily of Zostera marina) exists underwater as well. Birds such as grey plover, brown pelican, California gull, double-crested cormorant, great blue heron, great egret, American coot, red-breasted merganser, snowy egret, tricolored heron, spotted sandpiper, western sandpiper, least sandpiper, Canada goose, long-billed curlew, osprey, northern rough-winged swallow, golden-crowned sparrow, western kingbird, swinhoe's white-eye, killdeer, red-tailed hawk, Cooper's hawk, and red-shouldered hawk, can also be commonly found at the park^[21] and bees and butterflies like fiery skipper are a frequent sight. Striped shore crabs live on the shores.^[22] Borders of the water area contain plants of the coastal sage scrub plant community like toyon, Menzies' goldenbush, California sunflower, dune buckwheat, giant coreopsis, hollowleaf annual lupine, spotted locoweed, coastal tidytips, common deerweed, desert wishbone-bush, beach suncup, round-tooth snake-lily, California poppy, California brittlebush, and purple Chinese houses and change into a salt marsh habitat as it gets closer to the water.^[23][24] The rest of the park is covered in turf.^[5]

• Friends of Colorado Lagoon website