Dedicated to the little group of friends, neighbors, and scientists who, beginning in 1978, fought for and saved the last remaining wetlands in Los Angeles.

This bronze relief monument depicts the Founders of Friends of Ballona Wetlands, the small group of activists that got together and stopped development in the Ballona Wetlands. Starting in Ruth Lansford’s living room back in the 70s, members of this cadre of professors and neighbors from the surrounding area joined forces to hire a pro-bono lawyer, Carlyle Hall, to stop the Summa Corporation, representing the interests of the heirs to the Howard Hughes estate. The estate consisted of the last remaining wetland habitat, 1,067 acres, left of the historically designated 2,000 acres of the Ballona Wetlands after Marina del Rey took up 900 of those 2,000 acres in back in the 60s.

Members listed on the plaque are the late Dr. Howard Towner, Professor of Biology at Loyola Marymount University; Willy Lansford, son of Ruth and Bill Lansford; the late Ed Tarvyd, Professor of Marine Biology and Zoology at Santa Monica College; the late Virginia Wilson, Neighbor; the late Jan Rader, Neighbor and Treasurer; the late Mary Thomson, the Mother of Dunes Restoration in the Wetlands; Councilwoman Ruth Galanter; Ruth Lansford, Founder of the Friends; the late Bill Lansford, husband to Ruth Lansford; and Matt Lansford, son of Ruth and Bill Lansford.