Long Beach city officials yesterday announced a land-swap deal that will save 175 acres of the Los Cerritos Wetlands, one of the most important and heavily contested wetlands in Southern California. The site is a critical point in the Orange Coast Wetlands Important Bird Area, and is currently a foraging area for locally-breeding terns, and supports a modest number of Belding’s Savannah. Protection for this vital wetland has been long sought by El Dorado Audubon and the Los Cerritos Wetlands Land Trust. According to the Long Beach Press-Telegram, the deal does not include the nearby area where a Home Depot was previously planned but abandoned after several environmental studies found that it would upset the delicate ecology of the wetlands.