There's a Bolsa Avenue in Huntington Beach. Phil Brigandi says, "Bolsa is a name that goes back to the old Mexican Rancho days."

Brigandi wrote "Orange County Place Names A-Z."

"We had the Rancho Las Bolsas, and the Bolsas are the little pockets, or the little bays. It's all those wetlands along the coast there. And later a piece of the larger Bolsas Rancho is carved out, and so the little one becomes the Bolsa Chica, which is a name we also hear a great deal these days. The little pockets, the little Bolsas."

Today, that "little Bolsa" is experiencing a rebirth with scallops, halibut, and tiny sharks thriving in the water and least terns, snowy plovers, and other birds building nests nearby. That rebirth came with a price tag. It cost almost $150 million to restore wetlands at Bolsa Chica.

(Airdate: 8/16/2008)