Which one of these is a wetland?:
This one…
Or this one…
If you picked the top photo, you’d only be half-right. The correct answer is they are both wetlands.
The second picture is of a vacant lot next to the parking lot at Sunset Harbour Marina in Orange County. When no one was paying attention, some hydrophytic vegetation crept in and the California Coastal Commission — the same folks who’d have you believe completing the 241 toll road in OC would destroy the environment — subsequently declared this to be a wetland, and therefore to be protected.
There’s even a sprinkler system installed to prevent Mother Nature from changing her mind and reclaiming it as a dryland. Call it a Brezhnev Doctrine for wetlands.
I posted on this absurdity in more detail on Red County here and here. Keep this in mind next time the "scientists" at the California Coastal Commission hand down one of their judgments from the mountain top.