A Small Red “Y”

The red "Y" indicates "stream bottom" vegetation, and coincides with the Eagle Rock Creek forming from two small branches. Light brown indicates "sage". Other indicated plants include Sycamore (in stream bottoms), and on the slopes, Chamise, Ceanothus crassifolius, Laurel Sumac, Black sage, and Scrub oak ("Quercus dumosa"). Source: Wieslander, 1928.

A very interesting day! We visited several sections of the Eagle Rock canyon on a quest to find sycamores that predate development. It is amazing that despite the scale of engineering and earthmoving that resulted in  1.) the building of the 134 freeway over foothill terrain  2.) an entire complex of utilities related buildings and an access road to Scholl Canyon Dump being built over the streambed– that the stream continues to flow, as if nothing has ever changed!

All this urban complexity means that the landscape around the stream appears radically different  (if it’s above ground at all) in different places. Depending on where you are, you might only see concrete under your feet and utility lines overhead. In another section, you might look down from the road and see sycamores growing near the base of steep canyon walls.

The most idyllic part of the canyon is the far upper reaches, which still show a similar same palette of vegetation as recorded by a crew under Wieslander in 1928, save for some very old introduced trees.

I was thankful to be with plant people.  Barbara Eisenstein pointed out monkey flower, and Ceanothus crassifolius, which was in full bloom.

It was amazing to think that only a couple generations ago, this same mix of vegetation extended all the way down the canyon past the Eagle Rock. This reminds me of the passage by Helen and Francis Line, who lived right at the Eagle Rock, from January 1945:

Shortly after we moved here to our home last January 26, the buckthorn bloomed. It has come early this season and the hills are already turning white again. Each of the eleven months that we have been here– save one or two– has seen wild shrubs and flowers in blossom;– the buckthorn, monkey flower, buckwheat, toyon, and wild tobacco.

By a wonderful stroke of luck, we also met someone who knew about the history of the canyon, who offered information to corroborate something told to me by one of Eagle Rock’s most illustrious oldtimers. More on this later.

The lower part of Eagle Rock Creek, which used to be the central feature of a well-known local park is described at Myriad Unnamed Streams.

Map Your L.A. River Dreams

John Arroyo at Rattlesnake Park last January

The aptly-named John Arroyo wants you to map the Los Angeles River.

Well,  mainly the central part of it – from around Griffith Park to Downtown Los Angeles, including the lower stretch of the Arroyo Seco. What he calls the “Los Angeles River Eastside”… and what east is east and what west is west is a point of contention for Angelenos (though I know for certain that the river is the dividing line.)

John Arroyo is a native Angeleno who is doing his Urban Planning master’s thesis  at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT.) He’s studying the interactions between culture and movements afoot to re-envision and revitalize the river. He defines culture pretty broadly – from informal to formal – from graffiti to poetry to dance to you name it.

In his words, he’s hoping to answer these questions:

What types of cultural activity are occurring along the River and to what extent? How can the lessons learned from the River’s cultural activity patterns play a role in the River’s transformation and inform public policy and urban design to create and sustain spaces for cultural expression?

One tool he’s using is community-generated mapping. He’s distributed a blank map that he’s asking anyone interested to fill in and mail back to him. He’s posted a blank downloadable version and a cool filled-in example here. Get mapping!

Map your river visions here

Poetry meets River Bike Path in Portugal

 

Poetry along the Rio Tejo em Lisboa - photo from vidasimples.abril.com.br

Check out Lisbon’s poetry installation along their bike path paralleling the Tagus River. The poem is The Keeper of Sheep by Fernando Pessoa. (Somewhat gratuituous plug: Pessoa is a poet whom I learned about via his cameo in the excellent story A Trip to Lisbon  in one of my favorite comic book series: the wonderful Monsieur Jean stories by Dupuy and Berberian.)

How about something like this locally, featuring the Los Angeles River poetry of Lewis MacAdams or Gary Snyder? There was a temporary installation a bit like this during one of the Arroyo Arts Collective‘s river installation shows – which featured a similar art installation with a quote from the Olmsted-Bartholomew plan – painted along the river path in Elysian Valley.

For photos, video and story, read the article here at Copenhagenize. Recommended video below:

(Via Curitiba Cycle Chic via Copenhagenize via L.A. Streetsblog)

Eagle Rock in the Rainy Season: A Challenge!

New Year's Day Flood 1934/5

In his memoirs, Eagle Rock pioneer settler Cromwell Galpin paints a vivid picture of farmers at the mercy of unpredictable rain patterns during the flood of 1889-90.

…In October of 1889 it began to rain, and it kept on until nearly seven inches had fallen; it also kept on raining a lot more in the months following, until May 1890, the local rain gauge indicated forty-two inches and Eagle Rock Valley was afloat, though the highest mountains still poked their heads above the flood.

A Feasible New Bike Path Coming to the Lower Arroyo Seco

Map of proposed quarter-mile Arroyo Seco Bike Path from Avenue 26 to San Fernando Road - click image for 9-page pdf containing more detailed version of this image. Image from L.A. County.

The county of Los Angeles held a public meeting yesterday to review a new plan for the Arroyo Seco Bike Path. The county has funding from Metro to build a bikeway along the Arroyo… but past proposals  have met with resistance.

Last night there was broad consensus for moving forward with a relatively short (1280-feet, about 1/4-mile ) uncontroversial portion of the bikeway – extending from Avenue 26 to San Fernando Road. One thousand feet of that right of way is Caltrans (the state Department of Transportation) land, located below the ramps connecting the 5 and 110 Freeways. The remaining 280 feet currently belong to the city of Los Angeles. The project would include an asphalt bike path, and a decomposed granite (DG) walkway.

The quarter-mile project is estimated to cost about $610,000, which is just less than the county’s remaining funding of about $750,000. The estimate is preliminary - for just the bike and walk path, with no landscaping or lighting. Agency staff stressed that it could actually cost more if there are any issues with toxics in the soil – which is something they haven’t analyzed yet.

The project as designed would only connect to the south side of Avenue 26. A number of attendees suggested that the bikeway extend under Avenue 26, so it could be accessed from either side of the street. There is already a sufficiently large passageway below the southeast part of the bridge, so an undercrossing is not expected to need extensive bridge abutment work.

Caltrans is applying for Transportation Enhancement (TEA) funding that could landscape the site. Though the outcome of their application will be announced in May, landscape funding is not expected to be programmed and available for construction until 2014. 

Los Angeles City Bureau of Sanitation Yard. North is the bottom of the image. The concrete Arroyo Seco runs diagonally in the middle of the image. The 110 Freeway is in the lower right; the 5 in the lower right. San Fernando Road is in the upper right corner. Image from Bing Maps

The city portion of the proposed path is an existing Bureau of Sanitation yard. The southwest edge of the yard has a ramped transfer station, used for dumping loads of trash from smaller trucks into larger trucks. Apparently this station is no longer in use, and the space can be used for the bike path.

Last night’s meeting was encouraging because it appears that the county, city and state are working together well. Kudos to L.A. County Supervisor Gloria Molina and L.A. City Councilmember Ed Reyes for navigating this project out of the infeasible category back into the it-just-might-happen-in-a-year-or-two category. 

The county plans to host another meeting in a approximately three months to review final designs.

Digging the springs of Laurel Canyon

Streams in and around Laurel Canyon

No, it wasn’t the kool-aid that made the Canyon 60′s cool.  It was the springs. It wasn’t the rock-n-roll, but the river rocks.

Last summer Joann Deutch of the Canyon News contacted me about her effort to rally her community to protect land at the top of Laurel Canyon (at Mulholland).  She was encouraging people to donate funds for land acquisition, as well as researching the water history of the site and the surrounding areas.  Along the way she got ahold of fascinating tales of the canyon’s springs and wells – which supplied the Canyon’s water for many years, only to be shunted to the stormdrains as development took priority in LA.  Despite this, as she reports, one old-timer built his rock walls from river rock found on his own property.  I didn’t have much history to add, just the map above, of intermittent, ephemeral and perennial streams.  And disjointed observations:  maybe you have stumbled across the perennial stream on Wonderland, or pondered the trees snaking along what looks like a stream on Carpenter on Laurel Canyon’s north slope.  Or maybe you’re a fan of the native California Bay Laurel trees – which grow on our shaded canyon streams, and are Laurel Canyon’s namesake.  But for more details from her story, click here.

And feel free to add your own remembrances, history, lore in the comments section.

News and Events – 17 February 2010

UPCOMING EVENTS:

>The L.A. County Bicycle Master Plan Bicycle Advisory Committee meets tonight Thursday February 17th at 7pm at the Board Overflow Room at Metro. The county bike plan, which Creek Freak outlined here, includes bike paths along county-maintained rivers, washes and creeks. There’s also a series of ten county bike plan community meetings running February 22nd through March 25th, held in various locations all over the county. For more info on all these, go to the meeting page on the county’s bike plan website.  

County photo of the vacant under-freeway right-of-way along the Arroyo Seco. View is looking northeast toward Avenue 26, with the Arroyo Seco channel just out of the picture to the left. Avenue 26 is across the middle of the image with the Avenue 26 Bridge in middle left. Freeway ramp connecting southbound 110 to northbound 5 is on the right.

>Los Angeles County is proposing a new scope for the funded Arroyo Seco Bike Path project. The new plan is to build the next phase along the southeast bank of the arroyo from Avenue 26 to San Fernando Road. This scales back a proposed ~1.5-mile bike path (from Avenue 43 to Avenue 26) to an ~0.3-mile bike and walk path, but the less ambitious new scope appears more likely to actually get built. The newly proposed stretch would be located in a right-of-way that is currently mostly empty space (below the interchange of the 5 and the 110 freeways) but also includes a portion of a city of L.A. Bureau of Sanitation yard. The county hosts a project meeting tomorrow Thursday February 18th at 6pm at the Los Angeles River Center. Check out the county’s 9-page background report, with photos and a map and L.A. Creek Freak’s earlier article on the conflicts over the earlier proposed bike path. (Thanks Arroyo Seco Foundation for posting the county’s documents on-line.)

>Same night as the Arroyo Seco meeting, the city of Glendale hosts a public input meeting for its Glendale Narrows River Walk project. It’s Thursday February 18th at 7pm at the Pacific Community Center.

>C.I.C.L.E.’s creek freak bike ride is this Saturday February 20th, departing 12:30pm from the River Center. Rain cancels, and some is predicted for early Saturday - check the site that morning around 9am to confirm that the ride is on.

>State Assembly Speaker Karen Bass hosts a Ballona Creek clean-up event on Sunday February 21st at 10am at Overland Avenue.

> The city of Pasadena Bicycle Master Plan is also underway. The current draft  proposes bike paths along the Arroyo Seco (near Jet Propulsion Laboratory) and along Eaton Wash (from Eaton Canyon Nature Center to the 210 Freeway.) Pasadena will hold a public input meeting on their draft plan on Tuesday February 23rd at 6:30pm at City Council Chambers.

RECENT NEWS

>Live “streaming” on the Arroyo Seco, and a dozen other California streams, via USGS (In the Watershed)

C.I.C.L.E.’s Creek Freak Bike Tour – this Saturday February 20th

The soft-bottom Glendale Narrows stretch of the Los Angeles River - in its winter colors

This Saturday, C.I.C.L.E. (Cyclists Inciting Change thru Live Exchange) will be hosting our more-or-less annual Urban Expeditions Creek Freak Los Angeles River Bike Tour. The fun new thing on this year’s ride is that bicyclists will get a chance to ride on the new Elysian Valley L.A. River bike path nearly completed.

C.I.C.L.E. hosts regular monthly Urban Expedition rides. These bike rides are free, easy, family-friendly, beginner-friendly. They’re targeted at getting newer, less-confident bicyclists up and riding and enjoying exploring our communities.

The free ride takes place this Saturday, February 20th, 2010. Meet at 12noon (depart at 12:30pm) at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens in Cypress Park (570 West Avenue 26, Los Angeles, CA 90065.) Arriving by bike/transit: Take your bike on the Metro Gold Line and exit the Lincoln/Cypress Station. From there, turn left onto Avenue 26 and go three blocks and the River Center is on your left. Driving directions available online here.

Did I mention that the event is FREE? You can become a C.I.C.L.E. member if you’re so inclined (and if you join in February 2010, you could win a fun gift pack from New Belgium Brewery.) It will be a leisurely-paced ~2-hour ride, a little riding on streets, but mostly on the Los Angeles River bike path through the scenic tree-lined Glendale Narrows. The soft-bottom Glendale Narrows is a little less green, and a little more brown, gray and yellow, in keeping with the winter season… but still lots of ducks, coots, cormorants, egrets, herons guaranteed. The ride will stop at a half-dozen scenic and historic locations with short talks on the flora, fauna and other fun facts. Ride guides include LA Creek Freak’s Joe Linton (me) and fish biologist Sabrina Drill. Sabrina Drill helped shape and execute FoLAR’s 2008 study on fish in and fishing on the L.A. River.  

RSVP via Facebook, or just show up! Rain cancels.

Ride includes the vast concrete walls of the historic confluence where the L.A. River meets the Arroyo Seco - photo by dudeonabike

FoLAR’s Black Friday

Friends of the Los Angeles River

Some bad news from Los Angeles’ oldest river advocacy organization: Friends of the Los Angeles River is facing dire financial straits.

Yesterday, Friday February 12th, 2010, facing difficulties in meeting payroll, FoLAR’s board made the difficult decision to downsize greatly. FoLAR laid-off half its staff: both educational  director Alicia Katano and membership program director Ramona Marks no longer have jobs. Remaining staff, executive director Shelly Backlar and president Lewis MacAdams, have had their hours trimmed to part time.

FoLAR was founded in 1986. For about a decade, it was pretty much a  lone voice for the river. Since the mid-1990′s the Southern California watershed restoration movement has expanded to include numerous other groups. As various other non-profits and agencies planned, built, educated, legislated, and advocated for river restoration and renewal, FoLAR played a vanguard role in pushing the political envelope. Without FoLAR leadership (including building coalitions and initiating legal actions) existing state parks at the Cornfields and Taylor Yard (Los Angeles State Historic Park and Rio de Los Angeles State Park, respectively) would not exist.

I worked for FoLAR from 2005 to 2007, helping rebuild the organization after another fiscal crisis which saw a staff of four reduced to one  part-time executive director. I hope that FoLAR leadership will learn lessons from these crises and make the changes needed for FoLAR to again be strong and relevant and to again play a needed leadership role in L.A.’s watershed restoration movement.

A step towards preserving the Santa Clara River

Many of you already know the story of the Los Angeles River and its demise.  And many of you also know that just beyond the hills from us, development in the Santa Clarita area continues to threaten the Santa Clara River, with paving of its watershed, building in its floodplain, and straightening and leveeing (albeit with dirt or soil-cement) of its upper reaches, repeating the early phases of the trajectory of the LA River’s “improvement”.

So it’s encouraging news (although you’d never know it from reading the comments at the end of the linked article) to learn of another acquisition of land along the Santa Clara River, this one on the lower end of the river.  The Nature Conservancy has put together a land deal with the owners of the McGrath property in Ventura.  The California Coastal Conservancy has also been working in the region to acquire land along the river for its preservation.

Check it out:  Conservancy to buy river property » Ventura County Star.  And if you’re not already worn out by the bitterness of some of your fellow humans, read the comments.