Small Improvements on the Arroyo Seco Bike Path

New signage directing folks to the Arroyo Seco Bike Path - at the upstream end of Arroyo Seco Park, off Marmion Way

I bicycled up the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Seco bikeways yesterday on the way to help my friend Monica move out of her apartment. Her old place is practically in the shadow of the 1912 York Boulevard Bridge over the Arroyo Seco. The York bridge, at the border of Highland Park and South Pasadena, is one of the half-dozen or so oldest bridges in L.A. County – a locally-rare-solid-arch historic bridge that I really like… but I will save that story for another blog entry. The Elysian Valley portion of the L.A. River bikeway is indeed under construction, expected to be completed by March 2010. Crews were at work pouring concrete drains at the last of those remaining dips… but that’s another story, too, which I’ve already covered a few times earlier. 

The story that I do want to tell here now is that I was happy to see a few small improvements on the Arroyo Seco Bike Path. It’s minor stuff at access points, new signage… the kind of innocuous details that only a truly bike-obsessed creek freak would notice, photograph and share. I think these improvements are fairly new – perhaps in the last month or two… but it could be that I just didn’t notice them the last time I dashed down the arroyo. 

Graffiti, the Los Angeles River, and the Federal Stimulus

Graffiti pieces reflected in the waters of the mighty Los Angeles - photo copyright Urban Photo Adventures - click for info on their tours

“Glad to see drab concrete restored back to its pristine condition” writes one presumably-sarcastic commenter on today’s informative L.A. Times article about recent graffiti abatement efforts on the L.A. River.

The story of L.A. River graffiti goes back quite a while. It’s a mixed bag; there are lots of different types out there – from fascinating hundred-year old hobo graffiti to beautiful elaborate pieces to irritating irreverent tagging. L.A. Creek Freak won’t attempt to be exhaustive here… but what follows are some anecdotes and thoughts about graffiti on the river… and better uses for federal stimulus monies than a short-term paint-out.

Streambank sushi

Down in Long Beach, streambank stabilization continues.  The Friday before the Christmas holidays, Drew Goetting of Restoration Design Group (in other words, my boss) flew down from Berkeley to train folks working at the El Dorado Nature Center on the process.  Following is a little photo essay on making a willow wattle, for example.

The group surveys the toe of the stream and digs out a little trench to key in the wattle.

Woven coir fabric is laid out in the trench, with most of the fabric pulled temporarily into the channel.

Biodegradable “staples” or mini-stakes are driven into the ground to secure the biodegradable fabric.

Soil and willow get layered into the fabric.

Multiple layers of soil and willow get the wattle to just above the estimated height of the water.

The fabric gets pulled over and the wattle nudged into shape to test out if our “sushi roll” is full enough.

Satisfied that the wattle is big enough, the fabric is folded over and laid upslope on the bank.

More staples secure the top of the wattle’s fabric to the slope. Later, the space behind the wattle will get back-filled with soil.

Even our vendor of the coir fabric got into the action.

Live willow posts are driven into the center of the wattle. This provides anchoring of the wattle and also grows into trees that will be long-term stabilization of the banks.

Done! Only 2,390′ to go!

The running joke was how much it was like making sushi.  You lay down your fabric (or seaweed) in a little trench, put in the willow and soil (or rice, fish, avocado…) and roll it up.  Two big exceptions to the analogy:  the wattle needs stakes (we used live willow posts that will sprout into trees) and the sushi roll tastes better.

Soil bioengineering techniques like this have been used for centuries, and have found a resurgence in rural areas of America, as well as in some urban restorations in Northern California.  Willow has long been observed to have tenacious roots that provide natural armoring of streambanks.  And while the roots are strong, the trees themselves are flexible: if they fall over in a large flood, they form a layer that also protects the banks.  But it is important to understand the dynamic interplay between a stream’s structure and how it functions, or forms its channel, however, in order to place these treatments correctly.

Stream restoration projects installed a couple of years ago at the Mountains Restoration Trust (Dry Canyon Creek) and (to a lesser degree) on Las Virgenes Creek also used forms of streambank soil bioengineering – proving that it has applicability here in Southern California.

Lyrics: New Poetry by Lewis MacAdams

Everything I did for twenty years I
hoped would follow me down to the river
as a blessing or a curse.
- Lewis MacAdams, from The Horse on California Street

Lyrics by Lewis MacAdams, Blue Press Books, 2009

Lewis MacAdams, founder of the Friends of the Los Angeles River, has a new poetry chap-book just out. It’s entitled Lyrics and available from Blue Press Books for $10.

Fans of “River Boy!” MacAdams are probably already familiar with his previous Los Angeles River poetry, including The River: Books One Two & Three (also available from Blue Press Books.) MacAdams defined the still-all-too-slender Los Angeles River school of poetry… and grandfathered the contemporary movement to reclaim, restore and revitalize the Los Angeles River. I count him as an inspiration, mentor, and friend.

The new volume features a cover painting by Ed Ruscha. Pieces inside are more about bittersweet love than urban hydrology… but our maligned river and the Los Angeles in which it malingers are definitely there. There are taco stands, downtown street people, and even (not) a cornfield. It’s a collection of the melancholy of missing connections, punctuated by moments of sweet reprieve.

Here’s the poem I liked best in Lyrics:

Stranger Than Kindness
I still can’t believe
neither one of us knew any better.
I mean, that wasn’t the first time
a brick wall dressed up
as the Stairway to Heaven.
Now that we’re both numb
we don’t have to pretend
that it all made more sense
than it actually did
when the sunlight
poured through your
curtains like a caramel-
colored coffee,
and I rolled over to see your
wild curls poking out
from around
the face of a stranger.

(All this poetry is, of course, copyright 2009 Lewis MacAdams)

Rock the Boat … Rocks!

In early December, I had the pleasure of seeing a sneak peak screening of a rough cut of the movie Rock the Boat. It’s a documentary about the 2008 kayak trip down the Los Angeles River. The expedition was organized by George Wolfe of the Lala Times. The trip is the subject of three of the earliest blog posts at L.A. Creek Freak and is prominent in our so-far five-part series On Nexus and Navigability. (Extra credit for finding all 8 separate links in that sentence!)

Rock the Boat is directed and produced by Thea Mercouffer. The December screening featured a ~30-minute long rough cut of what is intended to be a feature-length documentary. It’s a treat to see a well-paced film, featuring lots of footage of the river – from soft-bottom natural areas to concrete channel. The documentary also features lots of context given by experts including Andy Lipkis, Ramona Marks, Melanie Winter, Heather Wylie and even me.

The folks working on the film are looking for donations to see it through to completion. If you’ve got money to spare, consider making a donation. For folks interested in checking out the documentary, see the preview above and keep your RSS tuned to LA Creek Freak. I am hoping to put together a public screening – with admission for a modest donation – hopefully in January.

The Dry Garden on a Rainy Day

Creekfreak gets a nod in Emily Green’s Dry Garden blog in the online edition of the LA Times today as we talk about how to bring the creekfreak ethos into your garden.  Follow the water – and the link – for more.

An Artesian Belt in San Gabriel: Part I

In this map, compiled under the direction of W.C. Mendenhall, active artesian areas during the summer of 1904 are hatched in blue and the blue circles indicate pumping plants (double circles), domestic wells (solid blue circles), and artesian wells (outlined circles). Though the San Gabriel artesian belt is clearly defined, only the eastern half is still actively artesian, showing the effects of the lowering of the water table. Courtesy Michael Hart

From the Fair Oaks area in Pasadena through San Marino all the way to Santa Anita Avenue in Arcadia could once be referred to as an “artesian belt”. Rainwater from the San Gabriel foothills sank into the vast basin under Pasadena and percolated upward when encountering the geological formation at its Southern end, called the Raymond Dike. The above-ground part of the dike appears as a bluff cut through with canyons. The cienegas and springs that “broke forth” from the canyons of this Dike, were among the first “developed” as water sources in Southern California, and among the most historically influential.

Irrigation maps from the late 1880s show marshy areas near the head of many of these streams. One especially detailed map of what is now the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, records minor washes and springs not indicated on the 1880s map, along with associated areas of peat. This suggests the possibility that numerous smaller seeps may have existed elsewhere throughout this belt.

About two centuries ago, the Padres directed two zanjas to be built to intercept waters from the whole range of hills from Los Robles Canyon in Pasadena to present day El Campo Drive in San Marino to supply the Mission. The dependable supply of water from these canyons allowed San Gabriel Mission to become so prosperous that it supplied food and other items to settlements and missions throughout California.

After the secularization of the missions, a politically influential group of ranchers tapped these same waters to irrigate thousands of acres of vineyards and fruit trees. These ranchers were pioneers of horticulture in the region and promoted the cause of irrigation statewide. The ranchers hosted guests from afar, and these guests in turn spread effusive descriptions of their impression of plenitude. One such writer, Benjamin Cummings Truman, said of the San Gabriel “fruit belt”: “[I]t would almost seem as if nature had fashioned this narrow belt as a theatre upon which to display the utmost prodigality of her productive powers.”

As the pace of development in the valley picked up, boring wells and tunnels into the canyons increased the productivity of the original cienegas and springs.

To this day, culverts and tree canopy in aerial views of Alhambra mark where the streams of the San Gabriel artesian belt once converged.

This posting, in two parts, describes just some of these water sources from West to East.

The Old Mill and Wilson’s Lake

From 1816-1823 the Old Mill harnessed water from the adjacent canyon to grind wheat and corn to feed more than a thousand Mission Indians.

After being put to use at the mill, the water flowed into a bog at the present day location of Lacy Park. There, the Padres built a dam to power a sawmill, wool-washing works, and a tannery. According to Hiram Reid’s History of Pasadena, the dam caused the lake to double in size. Its storage capacity increased exponentially.

Though the Old Mill was quickly superseded by a more advanced mill built closer to the Mission, the canyon waters still flowed. By the 1880s, eight tunnels drilled to maximize the original spring’s output were supplying the reservoirs of the Alhambra Addition. The total capacity of reservoirs supplied by the canyon’s flow was 6.5 million gallons in 1888.

The lake also outlasted the Mission era. Subsequent generations called it “Wilson’s Lake” or “Kewen’s Lake”. During the turn of the last century, it was a favorite with local boys:

Not a Pasadenan who has grown up here but has been licked for coming home with his hair damp with the waters of Wilson’s Lake… Years ago it was stocked with carp and catfish… But today Wilson’s Lake is nearly dry. In its deepest portions boys were wading about with their trousers rolled half up to their knees, and the poor fish, to the number of thousands, huddled together in their last refuge, prove easy game…

Wilson Canyon

Wilson Canyon was the largest of the canyons, and was a favorite picnic spot for Pasadenans and San Gabrielenos at the end of the last century.

[I]n summer it seems like passing into another clime to drive from the warm sunshine into the delightsome cool green shade of the massive live-oaks, gnarled and twisted into many fantastic shapes.

Though Farnsworth’s 1883 description is one of delicate and airy grace, Truman’s description from the same era of what may be the same canyon took “immense oaks and parasitic vines” and ferns at least five feet high, to be evidence of “the long luxurience of the soil and the tropical warmth of the climate…”

By 1886 at least 9 wells had been sunk in the Canyon.

Hiram Reid wrote that tree rats inhabited the oaks, and frogs from the canyon were harvested for dissection by Throop Polytechnic.

STAY TUNED FOR:

An Artesian Belt in San Gabriel Part II: Grading and Draining: the transformation of the Shorb Ranch

Ballona Creekfreak’s Celebration

Supervisor Ridley-Thomas looks on while Ballona Creek-freaks unveil plans for the Mar Vista Greenway, a project of the MRCA.

Last week saw the grand opening of a series of gateway parks to the Ballona Creek bike trail.  This celebratory gathering of Ballona Creek-freaks was hosted by the park’s sponsors, the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority (MRCA), and County Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas, who gave a great pep talk trying motivate folks to pick up shovels and plant trees.  Unfortunately we were a somewhat sedate bunch.

The new parks are located at the Inglewood Avenue, Sepulveda Blvd, and McConnell entries to the bike path.  The “Mar Vista Greenway” will be a 1/2 mile long stretch of the creek landscaped with native vegetation, an exciting next step following the MRCA’s beautification and habitat plantings at Centinela Avenue, Culver City’s landscaping plans at Overland, and the Mid-City Neighborhood Council’s and North East Tree’s work on the Mid-City reach of Ballona.

Stay tuned for more on creating a continuous greenway on Ballona.  There’s lots in the works.

News and Events – 2 December 2009

River Revitalization Corportation board, with Councilmember Reyes and city staff at last night's inaugural RRC meeting

Recent News:

>Last night, the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation held its first meeting. The atmosphere was celebratory and welcoming, even riverly; the business conducted nearly entirely procedural.

Upcoming Events:

>On Friday December 4th at 10am, County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy/Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority invite you to the grand opening of new public art  gates onto Ballona Creek and its bike path. The event takes place at the Inglewood Boulevard Bridge over Ballona Creek. It includes a community tree-planting and a 1.5-mile bike tour of the new gates. For information and to rsvp (recommended but not required) call 323-221-8900 extension 181.

>Starting Friday December 11th, the movie Crude returns to L.A.’s big screens. L.A. Creek Freak highly recommends this great documentary! Read our review here. Crude will show at the Beverly Center movie theaters for at least a week, maybe more. Go see it!

Art/Performance coming to a river near you

CANCELLED – see comments! >On Saturday December 12th from 8:30am to 4:30pm, artist Vlatka Horvat will be performing on the Los Angeles River at Fletcher Drive. There should be good views from the new bike path undercrossing under construction. Per the Outpost for Contemporary Art‘s description:

During this performance, the artist will continuously rearrange 50 chairs over a period of eight hours into different configurations that suggest human encounters and interactions. Its visually arresting and should be an interesting sight to see. Viewers are welcome to come and go as they please.