Western Waters Focus at ALOUD Event Next Wednesday

ALOUD’s Reflections on Western Water event is next Wednesday June 6 2012

For many years, the Downtown Los Angeles Central Library hosted and continues to host an excellent speakers series called ALOUD.  I’ve enjoyed all kinds of great talks there – from Sherman Alexie to Alison Bechdel to Art Spiegelman. L.A. Creek Freak covered an earlier ALOUD event highlighting the legacies of Wallace Stegner.

Today LACF previews next week’s ALOUD program The Elemental West: Reflections on Moving Water featuring Kathleen Dean Moore and Craig Childs in conversation with William Deverell. The event takes place Wednesday June 6th 2012 at 7pm. It’s a free event, but rsvp is recommended and easy to do on-line here. 

Cyclist Creek Freaks: Steward Malibu Creek June 23 2012

Volunteer crews at an earlier Mountains Restoration Trust Malibu Creek event

If you bike and you want to help out Malibu Creek, then here’s an event for you. On Saturday June 23rd from 9am-12noon, the Mountains Restoration Trust and Heal the Bay are hosting a work day to remove invasive plants at Malibu Creek State Park. Malibu Creek is one of the last remaining steelhead trout streams in Southern California. 

Youth Research Symposium Explores the L.A. River

Youth Research Symposium L.A. River revitalization model of the river through downtown, including detailed replication of river graffiti. More photos below.

I had the pleasure of attending a Youth Research Symposium last Saturday May 26th 2012. The event took place at L.A. Trade Tech College, and was presented by the Asian Pacific American Legal Center‘s Leadership Development in Interethnic Relations. Through I got involved in this a little through bicycling issues, via the new non-profit effort Bikas, I was impressed that many of the student research projects focused on the future of the Los Angeles River. I am encouraged about the prospects for L.A.’s future when so many of L.A.’s youth leadership are focusing on projects I’ve been actively pushing for: making L.A. more bicycle-friendly and revitalizing the L.A. River! 

A small role in a Big Parade

I had the pleasure of meeting up with the Big Parade today as they walked along the Los Angeles River. If you’re unfamiliar with this event, it’s a walk that meanders through Los Angeles stairways, neighborhoods, etc – see their website. Part of their two-day this weekend included a stretch of the Glendale Narrows, so my friend, who’s the walking-force behind the parade, Dan Koeppel invited me to talk with the group.

The Big Parade picking me up at Confluence Plaza

I gave a very brief intro after meeting up with the group at Confluence Plaza, then we walked over the soon-to-be-demolished-and-freewayified Riverside-Figueroa Bridge to their lunch stop at Steelhead Park. I spoke about the past, present and future of the L.A. River. 

Strong Towns Critique of LID

Click to go to the Strong Towns article I’m talkin’ about

Creek Freak has written about LID – Low Impact Development. It’s basically a sort of “green building” standard that requires new buildings to detain and/or infiltrate rainwater. While I think that LID is a step in the right direction, at least compared to development as usual, it’s nowhere near the end of the work on getting to healthy creeks and streams.

I read a good concise critque of LID (also LEED and green building in general) at Strong Towns today. Strong Towns is a site I’ve been enjoy a lot lately; it’s written by an engineer who has a lot of common sense. He mostly critiques heavily car-centric development patterns. 

Sediment Management Strategic Plan Open for Public Comment Until May 30

20-Year Planning Quantities and Remaining Capacity at Sediment Placement Sites (Source: LADPW)

On the heels of a critical piece of writing by Emily Green on the state of sediment management in Los Angeles (published in the May 14th edition of High Country News), the L.A. County Department of Public Works has completed (as of April) its draft 20-year Sediment Management Strategic Plan for 2012-2032 and is currently soliciting public comments until Wednesday, May 30th. The enormous document (524 pages) is available for download at www.LASedimentManagement.com (the downloadable document entitled “Community Meeting Boards” is a conveniently concise summary of the larger plan).

Wise Ancient Oaks in Los Osos

Gnarled oak trees at Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve, near San Luis Obispo

On my vacation last week I was able to spend a lot of quiet time sketching at the Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve. Located just above San Luis Obispo near Morro Bay, Los Osos Oaks is a 90-acre grove of dwarfed 800-year-old coastal live oaks. From the State Parks brochure posted at the site “similar woodlands were once widespread along the coast, but most fell to clearing, grazing, firewood cutting, and development.” 

Thoughts on a One-Way Morro Bay Watershed Sign

I just returned from a very enjoyable vacation in San Luis Obispo, California. I stayed in downtown SLO and, a few times, bicycled out to the Los Osos Oaks State Natural Reserve, about ten miles away. As I was bicycling west on Los Osos Valley Road a cresting a ridgeline, in the midst of agricultural fields, I saw this sign along the highway:

Watershed signage along Los Osos Valley Road

It reads “MORRO BAY ESTUARY WATERSHED / KEEP IT CLEAN / ENTERING.” 

Explorations of the Lower Colorado River #3: The River in Mexico

An aerial of the Colorado River Delta Region taken during the drought of 1990. The Gulf of California is located in the bottom right, the Salton Sea in the top left. The bright green patchwork areas in the middle of the image are the Mexicali and Imperial Valleys. Between the tapestry of fields and the Sonoran Desert to the east, the dark green spot near the middle of the image is La Cienega de Santa Clara, the last remaining wetland of the Delta Region. (Image Credit: Alejandro Hinojosa)

Upon crossing the border threshold on foot at Los Algodones, we were met by the smiling faces of Osvel, Juliana and Isobet, the dedicated staff of Pronatura Noroeste. Our guides would prove to be among the most generous, hospitable people we have encountered in our travels. While absorbing the unfolding story of a lost river waiting to be found once again, we were simultaneously pulled headfirst into the ramifications of what we heard. Revelatory moments are scarce in an age of excessive information and we took care in absorbing a dose of pure, unadulterated perspective. At the end of the day, every blade of turf, every kidney-shaped swimming pool, every rinsed-off sidewalk, every broken sprinkler head, every drop of discarded greywater would forever hold new significance…

Riverside-Figueroa Bridge Destruction: Insult to Pedestrians

Riverside Drive Bridge 1926-2011 - photo copyright Osceola Refetoff

If there was any doubt that the city of Los Angeles’ wrongheaded destruction of the Riverside-Figueroa Bridge is nothing but zombie engineers fulfilling a now obsolete paean to the automobile, this just in! Not only is the end-product (due 2015) a massive freeway-esque car-centric bridge… but, already this week, the construction zone itself is a dangerous gauntlet for pedestrians.

(No thought has been given to bikes, either, but thick-skinned intrepid bike commuters can pretty much go wherever cars can go… so we cyclists can still use the bridge roadway that’s set aside for cars.)