A river — again — in Los Angeles

By Lewis MacAdams

October 27, 2013

In the late 1930s, in response to a pair of deadly floods, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors called in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to control the unruly Los Angeles River, which had, over millenniums, shifted its course innumerable times on its way to the sea.

Taming L.A.’s river was the Army Corps’ first major flood control project, and its mission was to get the water to the ocean as fast as possible. The idea that it might make sense, in a city that gets less than 15 inches of rain a year on average, to conserve some of those hundreds of millions of gallons of freshwater seems to have never occurred to the corps.

It took many years, thousands of workers and some 3 million barrels of concrete to bring the river to heel. By some measures, the project was a triumph: Floodwaters have not topped the river levees since. But it was also an ecological disaster.

Within a very few years, important native species were largely gone. Yellow-billed cuckoos and least Bell’s vireo no longer sang in the watershed. Red-legged frogs, which hibernated by burrowing into the river bottom’s mud, couldn’t penetrate the concrete. The river had once claimed the southernmost steelhead trout run, but the last steelhead was caught off a bridge in Glendale in 1940, two years after that section of the river was paved.

All but 11 of the river’s 52 miles ended up encased in concrete. The river’s only stretch of natural bottom was through the Glendale Narrows, where the river turns south and runs past Griffith Park and Atwater. The Army Corps concluded that the water table there was too close to the surface and might eventually undermine the concrete.

For half a century after the work was finished, the river was little more than a concrete scar, separated from the city by chain-link fences topped with razor wire and signs warning visitors to keep out or face fines and/or jail. On maps the river was labeled a flood control channel, and its only regular visitors were the County Mosquito Abatement District and location scouts seeking backdrops for noirish tales.

In the winter of 1986, Roger Wong, Pat Patterson and I, fortified by coffee and brandy, borrowed some wire cutters, snipped the fence that separated the river from the city and declared the river open. We then walked to the confluence of the Los Angeles and the Arroyo Seco, just north of downtown, and asked the river if we could speak for it in the human realm. We didn’t hear it say no, and Friends of the Los Angeles River was born.

FoLAR began life as a performance piece in a basement theater on skid row. We called it a “40-year artwork to bring the river back to life.” I donned a white suit and painted myself green as if I were the ghost of William Mulholland. Patterson built an immense, ungainly totem from junk we found in the river.

A reviewer for this newspaper was unimpressed. “With friends like MacAdams,” he snorted, “the river needs no enemies.”

In the mid-1980s, a lawsuit by Heal the Bay forced Los Angeles to build a water reclamation plant that would ultimately send millions of gallons a year of tertiary-treated, reclaimed water through the Glendale Narrows. For the first time since the last Ice Age, the Los Angeles was a year-round river. Willows and sycamore trees began to reappear. But not everyone saw the change as cause for celebration.

In preparation for a predicted El Niño, the county and the Army Corps decided to bulldoze everything growing in the river’s natural bottom. Making a stand in front of the machines to try and stop them, I nearly got myself killed. But the action got FoLAR its first meeting with the head of the L.A. County Department of Public Works. Every time he said the words “flood control channel,” I interrupted him and said “river.” We almost came to blows. I walked out feeling like I needed an anger management class, but I had planted the linguistic seeds. Today nearly everybody calls it a river.

In the late 1990s, FoLAR sued the Army Corps and L.A. County to stop a massive flood control project on the lower Los Angeles River to raise walls on top of flood control levees for 23 miles. We lost the battle, but the settlement forced the county to create the first L.A. River Master Plan. The city of L.A. created its own, much more ambitious Revitalization Master Plan a few years later.

In the years since, more and more Angelenos have discovered the river. FoLAR’s annual Gran Limpieza, the Great Los Angeles River Cleanup, has grown from 10 people to several thousand. Two former railroad yards along the river are now state parks. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority have created half a dozen riverfront pocket parks, and a bike path continues to grow. In 2010, Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson stood on the bank of Compton Creek, an L.A. River tributary, and declared the Los Angeles a “traditionally navigable waterway”

Every one of these victories was the result of patience, willpower and perseverance. Yet none of them opened up the channel itself. In 2010 it was still a crime to stick your toe in the river. Then, this fall, after seven years of work and almost $10 million (the last million a gift from one of Friends of the Los Angeles River’s most generous donors) the Army Corps released its Los Angeles River Ecosystem Feasibility Study, which proposed a range of alternatives for the river’s future.

It was a stunning development. FoLAR could now work hand in hand with the Army Corps to restore miles of habitat, to eliminate miles of concrete, to restore wetlands and to reconnect the main stem of the river to the Verdugos and the San Gabriel Mountains. There are still battles to be fought, including which of two alternative plans will ultimately be embraced, but we are on the way to a far more vibrant river for the city.

On Sunday, I’ll join Mayor Eric Garcetti and a dozen others on a lobbying trip to Washington pushing for the plan, known as Alternative 20, that would best serve the river. For me, the trip will be more than a cross-country flyover. It will be a chance to look back on a lifetime of poetry and politics, on 27 years of working on the Los Angeles River. It has been a journey from confrontation to cooperation, and it has created a wider and deeper community not just of humans but of flying, swimming and four-legged creatures as well.

Lewis MacAdams is president of Friends of the Los Angeles River. His poetry collection, “Dear Oxygen,” was published last year.

Copyright © 2013, Los Angeles Times

 

 

September 30, 2013 Friends Meeting Agenda

THE FRIENDS OF THE VENTURA RIVER COALITION MEETING

MONDAY Sept. 30, 2013

PATAGONIA FIREHOUSE BUILDING

from 4:30-6:30

 

Directions:

The meeting will take place on the 2nd floor of Patagonia’s Firehouse building, in the Grand Room. The Firehouse is the tall building closest to Main St, address: 280 W. Main St.

Enter Patagonia’s campus from Main St. and park anywhere in our lots (the lot at the corner of Main and Olive is most likely to have space available — all parking lots will remain unlocked until after this meeting is over). Enter the Firehouse on the south side of the building (furthest from Main St.)- we will have someone at the door directing you upstairs.

 

For Late Arrivals:

There will be someone at the door until 4:45pm, if you arrive after that call to be let in.

(If you think you will may be late, bring phone & call Kathy Bremer: 805 901-6415 & she can run down and let you in.)

 

Agenda:

Round the room introductions (with brief 1 to 2 minute updates to group if you have them).

(We have a full agenda so the updates have to be kept brief.)

Although this meeting is our National Parks Service Rivers and Trails Conservation Assistance grant wrap-up meeting we are going to make some “timely” detours before we get to the “main event.”

  • Presentation on the current dry conditions in the Ventura River Watershed (created by Lorraine Walter Vta River Watershed Council) presented by Ben Pitterle of SBCK aided by Brian Stark OVLC.

 

  • Sample short video from Ventura Water’s Take One online film contest called “A Watershed Fairytale.” The Water: Take 1 challenges how we look at, use, and share water. Watch films at www.watertake1.com & vote for your favorite by October 3.

 

  • “A Big Day” overview of the Ventura River Parkway progress filmed by CAPS-TV, demonstrating community support for the Ventura River Parkway.

 

  • Patrick Johnston with NPS RTCA program discuss progress FoVR work group made during 2 year grant program. 
Ventura River Trail Guide (Can be updated as the parkway evolves.  And Spanish language translation Ventura River Trail Guide status.
  • Trail connectivity document (Paul may have draft document to pass around– document helps in multi-jurisdictional parkway to coordinate projects.)

 

  • Certificates of Recognition from State Senate to FOVR Work Group (KK Holland representative for State Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson). Huge FoVR thank you to Patrick for sharing his talents and Cynthia Hartley for her amazing GIS mapping skills and Miguel Rodriguez for helping with the Spanish translation of the Ventura River Trail guide and thanks to Paul, Derek, Lee, Greg, Brian, Ed, Ben, Kathy for their unfailing devotion to making the Ventura River Parkway a great environmental and recreational asset.)

 

  • Brian Segee of EDC discuss SBCK/EDC suit against Ojai quarry.

 

  • Kathy Bremer, Ed Wehan, Derek Poultney will discuss National Recreational Trails application for recognition & how it could help Ventura River Parkway in the future.

 

  • Derek Poultney and Paul Jenkin discuss SCC climate change grant application.

 

  • Lauren Cole with Vta Watershed Council re: public out reach to Spanish-speaking community. One of Ventura Watershed Council’s grant deliverables is to hold an outreach meeting on our watershed management plan process with our Spanish-speaking residents.  Lauren hopes to make good connections here to help get input from this segment of community. (10 min.)

 

  • Kurt Lieber of Ocean Defense Alliance (ODA) works in collaboration with NOAA and CA DF&W to clean up abandoned fishing gear and other garbage from ocean bottom. Talk about damage ghost gear causes.  Looking for volunteers to help in local efforts (either on boats or diving) to clean up in and around Anacapa and Santa Cruz Islands. (10 min.)

 

Other business or announcements

Adjournment no later than 6:45 Thank you everyone for staying involved!

 

 

 

2013 Picnic at the River

2nd Annual Picnic at the River:  Reconnecting the Community with the River


Date: Saturday, June 8, 2013 from 11AM-1PM

Friends of the Ventura River and Ventura Hillsides Conservancy will host a free community picnic and present information about the Ventura River Parkway on Saturday, June 8, 2013 from 11am-1pm. The event will be held on the Conservancy’s Willoughby Preserve in the Ventura River, south of the Main Street Bridge.

The public is invited to take a self-guided tour to witness first-hand the progress made in restoring the property over the past year. Informational exhibits will be stationed at areas throughout the preserve extolling the various benefits of the parkway plan. The theme of the event is “reconnecting Ventura to the river in our backyard.” Visitors can take advantage of new trail connections between the Ventura River Trail and Emma Wood State Beach.

A diverse coalition of partners has gathered under the Friends of the Ventura River umbrella including the State Coastal Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, California State Parks, National Parks Rivers, Trails & Conservation Assistance Program, Coastal Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy (CAUSE), Environmental Defense Center, Tortilla Flats Archive, Project Understanding, Downtown Ventura Organization, Ventura Chamber of Commerce, Ventura Visitors and Convention Bureau, Ventura Audubon, Ventura Water, the City of Ventura’s Community Development, Environmental Sustainability and Parks and Recreation departments, Ventura Surfrider, Santa Barbara Channel Keeper, Ventura Citizens for Hillsides Preservation, the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy.

Parking is available in the Main Street Lot across from the Peking St. bus stop, with overflow available on Olive St, but as always please consider walking, biking, taking the bus or carpooling.

Please join us to learn more about this exciting opportunity to reconnect with our river! For more information call Lee Sherman, Ventura Hillsides Conservancy Development & Volunteer Coordinator at 805-643-8044.

Friends Meeting Agenda, May 21, 2013

THE FRIENDS OF THE VENTURA RIVER COALITION

MEETING

TUESDAY May 21, 2013

PATAGONIA FIREHOUSE BUILDING

from 4:30-6:30p

Directions:

The meeting will take place on the 2nd floor of Patagonia’s Firehouse building, in the Grand Room.

The Firehouse is the tall building closest to Main St, address: 280 W. Main St. Enter Patagonia’s campus from Main St. and park anywhere in our lots (the lot at the corner of Main and Olive is most likely to have space available — all parking lots will remain unlocked until after this meeting is over). Enter the Firehouse on the south side of the building (furthest from Main St.)- we will have someone at the door directing you upstairs.

For Late Arrivals:

There will be someone at the door until 4:45pm, if you arrive after that call one of these cell numbers to be let in.

(If you think you will may be late, bring phone & call Kathy Bremer: 805 901-6415 & she can run down and let you in.)

Agenda:

Sign in sheet / Brief round table introductions

Old Business:

New Business:

  • Paul Jenkin will talk about NPS-RTCA new fold-out Parkway Trail Guide and progress made on River Parkway trails planning document
  • Lee Sherman will discuss Planning June Picnic at River June 8 on VHC Willoughby Property– the event will be more tour-oriented than last year, but there will still be tabling opportunities for FOVR member groups
  • Kathy Bremer/ Miguel Rodriguez talk about shared FOVR/ Cause Summerfest booth on June 1, 2013 (Booth volunteers needed.)
  • Discuss FOVR strategies for getting business sponsorship for picnic and future map printings
  • Review projects that FOVR will be “championing” in the new Ventura River Watershed Plan.
  • Announce upcoming River Clean-up Events
  • Other Ventura River-related Announcements or events
  • Be aware of 2013 Water Resources Report draft — due back to Ventura City Council in mid June of interest to FOVR because portions of city water come from Ventura River (May was pushed to June)

Paraphrased from Vta City Council staff report 3-4-13 Agenda Item 3:

In Nov 2012 LAFCO mandated Municipal Service Review (MSR) to determine if currently approved and proposed development in the City’s sphere is outpacing projected water supply. Staff prepared 2013 Comprehensive Water Resources Report draft & presented it to Council Mar 4 w/ final to return in May. “The data reveals that prudent planning and collaboration will be needed in the coming years to develop practical strategies to manage demand, balance economic growth, and pursue new water supplies.”

Other business or announcements

Next meeting date

Adjournment no later than 6:45 Thank you everyone for staying involved!

Tour of Ventura Hillsides Conservancy’s Willoughby Preserve

Reclaiming the Ventura River and expanding outdoor opportunities in the Ventura River Parkway

V.C. Star Photo by Chuck Kirman

 

 

Derek Poultney, Ventura Hillsides Conservancy’s Conservation Manager, lead a tour of the Willoughby Preserve between the Main Street and 101 Freeway bridges following the Conservancy’s Annual Meeting on Wednesday, April 24, 2013.   Meeting attendees were impressed with the vast amount of work that has been accomplished on the property.  Illegal camps have been removed from the Ventura River as well as tons of trash and tons of invasive arundo donax (giant reed).  Trails are being built on the property to provide for hiking, birdwatching and connectivity to Emma Wood State Beach.

Read the Star article:  http://www.vcstar.com/news/2013/apr/25/conservancy-shows-off-progress-on-ventura-river/

March 21, 2013 Backyard Collective at Willoughby Preserve

Jason Irwin with Horny Toad, carries a pile of arundo to the green waste at the Ventura River bottom   cleanup.  A group of Ventura businesses came together for the Ventura Backyard Collective to clean up the river bottom.  Local volunteers from businesses like REI, Patagonia and Deckers worked together to remove trash, cut and remove arundo and plant willow cuttings.

Read more:
– vcstar.com

Friends Meeting Agenda: March 26, 2013

THE FRIENDS OF THE VENTURA RIVER COALITION MEETING

TUESDAY March 26, 2013 from 4:30-6:30

PATAGONIA FIREHOUSE BUILDING

 

Directions:

The meeting will take place on the 2nd floor of Patagonia’s Firehouse building, in the Grand Room.

The Firehouse is the tall building closest to Main St, address: 280 W. Main St. Enter Patagonia’s campus from Main St. and park anywhere in our lots (the lot at the corner of Main and Olive is most likely to have space available — all parking lots will remain unlocked until after this meeting is over). Enter the Firehouse on the south side of the building (furthest from Main St.)- we will have someone at the door directing you upstairs.

For Late Arrivals:

There will be someone at the door until 4:45pm, if you arrive after that call one of these cell numbers to be let in.  (If you think you will may be late, bring phone & call Kathy Bremer: 805 901-6415 & she can run down and let you in.)

Agenda:

Sign in sheet / Brief round table introductions

New Business:
Community Dev. Director, Jeff Lambert, who recently attended briefing on LA River will share some ideas that might translate to the Ventura River (Below are two sites of interest)

http://larivercorp.org/ http://www.urbanwaters.gov/
NPS-RTCA work group progress on new fold-out Parkway Trail Guide (Patrick Johnston, Cynthia Hartley, Paul and members of the FOVR NPS-RTCA work group have done some great work.)

  • Show map
  • Talk about printing time line

Discuss Planning June Picnic at River (possible event for Parkway Trail Guide Roll-out ?)
Plan FOVR Summerfest booth on June 1, 2013
Report on Ventura Backyard Collective / Conservation Alliance scheduled for Thursday, March 21st from 12:00 – 1:00 PM located in the Patagonia parking lot.
Announce upcoming River Clean-up Events

Be aware of 2013 Water Resources Report draft — due back to Ventura City Council in May

Paraphrased from Vta City Council staff report 3-4-13 Agenda Item 3:

In Nov 2012 LAFCO mandated Municipal Service Review (MSR) to determine if currently approved and proposed development in the City’s sphere is outpacing projected water supply. Staff prepared 2013 Comprehensive Water Resources Report draft & presented it to Council Mar 4 w/ final to return in May. “The date reveals that prudent planning and collaboration will be needed in the coming years to develop practical strategies to manage demand, balance economic growth, and pursue new water supplies.”

Other business or announcements

Next meeting date May 28, 2013

Adjournment no later than 6:45 Thank you everyone for staying involved!

News from the Ventura River Parkway

The Ventura Hillsides Conservancy and a small army of workers and volunteers have made incredible progress in removing trash & arundo from the river.   Now they are beginning to build trails on Conservancy land holdings in the Ventura River.

Read VC Star Eye on the Environment for news about the Parkway and upcoming March events!