‘Ocean Friendly Gardens’ Created on Marina Drive

The next time you go to the Long Beach Farmers Market on Marina Drive near 2nd Street, or if you’re riding your bike or walking along the sidewalk parallel to the boat docks, take a look at what used to be a long stretch of grass lawns. It’s been transformed into 6,400 feet of what sponsoring organization Surfrider Foundation calls “ocean friendly gardens” (OFG).

Starting in February, the Long Beach Chapter of Surfrider Foundation has worked with the City of Long Beach’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Department, Long Beach Utilities and Conservation Corps of Long Beach, to replace lawns with rainwater retention features, over 500 native plants and trees, and water-efficient irrigation. 

You’ll see a set of native plants that are very good for water conservation. You’ll notice several Santa Cruz Island Ironwood trees. There are more than a dozen species of California native plants in the projects, including a variety of buckwheat, native bunch grasses and yarrow.

They do have an important job to do. For those who’ve lived in Long Beach, it’s common to hear about clay-like soil that can be very difficult to dig up. The deep roots of these recently placed native plants offer solutions for rejuvenating the soil, helping naturally filter runoff and soak up water during the rainy season, and preventing pollution from entering the bay.

It became clay-like because it’s been so compacted and dry over the years, says Kai Craig, an at-large executive committee member of the Long Beach chapter; he also serves as Ocean Friendly Gardens Coordinator. Adding deep-rooted native plants is taking care of that problem, he said.

Perhaps the most significant duty that the Alamitos Bay Marina project is carrying out is to provide rainwater retention to a section of Long Beach particularly vulnerable to the damaging effects of rainwater buildup. Heavy metals, high bacteria levels and trash are problematic after it rains, and that area has seen quite a lot of it flow through into the marina.

These trenches that have been planted with native plants create “bioswales,” and the soil removed from these low points is mounded up to create berms or small hills. The water runoff is being redirected to the soil instead of flowing into the marina as pollution. It’s being directed back into the soil to naturally filter pollutants and recharge groundwater supplies.

Craig has worked for years as a landscape designer and is bringing his skillset and experience to several of these OFG projects in homeowner’s yards and in public spaces. He’s been working closely with representatives from the City of Long Beach, organizations such as the Los Cerritos Wetlands Trust, and with Kathryn Dressendorfer, Southern California Ocean Friendly Gardens Coordinator for Surfrider Foundation.

Volunteers Make It Happen

Dressendorfer says the Surfrider Foundation team has been working closely with City of Long Beach staff from the city’s Parks, Recreation and Marine Department, and Long Beach Utilities, along with Conservation Corps Long Beach’s “Shore Corps” team, some of whom are in training to work in the city’s Marine Bureau.

They’ve been thrilled to see a large group of volunteers show up at these events throughout 2025. They’ve seen as many as 50 volunteers show up on a particular day, some of whom heard about the event through the chapter’s Instagram page, its website, or its newsletter. Some of them are doing service hours through local high schools and colleges. Many of them are regular volunteers who love what they do, and they describe their experiences as feeling productive, improving the area where they live, and putting in an emotional investment, Dressendorfer says.

They’re coming to the end of this project soon, and they do enjoy coming over to check on how it’s being carried out. That could mean working with the city’s Marine Bureau on the water irrigation system; and it can mean pulling a few weeds out and other details to support the project. In the coming months, they’ll be visiting the site to fill in plants for some that didn’t make it, Dressendorfer said.

You’ll notice that soil around palm trees has been placed into what looks like protective nets. This soil is being placed in a “wattle,” burlap filled with straw and other biodegradable materials for erosion control, according to Dressendorfer.

They make sure that guidelines from California Assembly Bill 1572 are included in the operations, which is a priority to the City of Long Beach. The law bans the use of potable (drinking) water for irrigating “non-functional” or decorative turf at commercial, industrial and institutional properties. This OFG project has been structured with water-efficient irrigation in coordination with the City of Long Beach.

The City of Long Beach’s Office of Sustainability has been working on several projects with city departments, businesses and community organizations. This project isn’t far from the Colorado Lagoon, which is being restored with native plants, and where toxic sediments have been removed, and storm drains have been routed away from the lagoon’s sensitive water body. This open channel project has been structured to help restore water circulation and connectivity with Alamitos Bay.

Some of the funding for the Alamitos Bay Marina OFG project came to the city through the Metropolitan Water District. The district offers a Lawn-to-Garden Rebate program, with is being tapped into.

Other OFG Projects in LB

You can learn more about 38 of these projects around the country on Surfrider Foundation Long Beach’s website – with much of it based in Long Beach. There will be more coming to that page soon from this city. One of these is the home of Adriana Estrada and Christian Svanes Kolding’s in the Craftsman Village Historic District in Long Beach.

They’ve been very active with Surfrider Foundation, and they’ve been able to transform their rugged lawn into an OFG with the help of a Lawn-to-Garden Rebate, an expert OFG designer, and what they call “a vision to connect their yard to the environment and their local community.” Native plants in their yard include Mountain Mahogany, Coyote Mint, California Sagebrush also known as Cowboy Cologne, Common Yarrow, California Lilac, Indian Mallow, Tobacco Sage, California Poppy and many more.

Other Long Beach projects have included the Prisk Native Garden at Prisk Elementary School, the Shoreline Village Rain Garden on Shoreline Drive, and the Lafayette Elementary School Habitat Garden on Chestnut Ave.

In late September, the Long Beach Chapter helped bring to life a mural that provides what they call a stunning backdrop to their OFG in Shoreline Village. An artist duo from Studio Tutto guided volunteer painters through the process of bringing the mural to life. It celebrates the connection and harmony between our terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. It also highlights California and Channel Islands native plants that are featured in the rain garden and naturally found in the region.

Dressendorfer recently worked with Long Beach local organization Roots of Unity to connect with the Veterans Affairs Patient Garden. Surfrider arranged a visit with some volunteers and staff from the Long Beach VA Patient Garden, to see how Roots of Unity has added nature-based solutions and rainwater harvesting to their garden space in Ernst McBride Park in Long Beach.

It started with a tour outside one of the garden’s greenhouses to see some rain barrels set up along the building that redirect runoff back to the ground. They walked through the garden to see another strategy for preventing runoff pollution. Rainwater can also go to a large rain garden that allows rainwater a place to slow down, spread out and sink into the ground. It’s a type of nature-based solution, that mimics natural features like a seasonal streambed or pond to collect roof runoff and help it soak in to the soil, Surfrider Foundation says.

Craig and Dressendorfer have much to say about how inspiring this project – and all of what Surfrider Foundation has been doing lately – can be for community engagement and focusing the efforts of the organization. That can take shape in the form of students coming up with imaginative ideas for OFG projects, and what they describe as, “restoring habitat wherever you can.”

Jon LeSage is a resident of Long Beach and a veteran business media reporter and editor. You can reach him at jtlesage1@yahoo.com.