The trouble with mudsnails

Photo: LA Times

As the LA Times so cogently tells us today, everthing about mudsnails is Tribble-like crazy: they can reproduce a bazillion times on their own (only a mild exaggeration) and are almost completely indestructible. Crazier still: this is just one of what seems like a bazillion invasive species (both plant and animal) that keep overrunning our wildlands, costing the state (and nation) significant amounts of money to deal with. Invasives compete with our native species and in some cases alter habitats completely.  Different species have different effects, here’s just a few: they can eat up native fish eggs, reducing populations dramatically; drain the shallow groundwater table, wiping out riparian areas; send out toxins through their roots, inhibiting plant growth of natives that support wildlife; clog water infrastructure drains and valves; overtake hillsides, resulting in hotter and more frequent “brush” fires; or wipe out agricultural fields. And the agencies tasked with dealing with this are chronically underfunded.

With this post and the prior one on Stone Canyon Creek, it looks like it is Mark Ambramson Day here at LA Creekfreak. Not to diminish the Creekfreakiness of Jack Topel, another favorite Creekfreak at the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, mentioned in the article. Jack’s been tracking those mudsnails and other invaders in coastal creeks for a quite few years now. Go Jack!

Hard-to-kill snails infest Santa Monica Mountain watersheds – latimes.com

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It takes a village…

Stone Canyon Creek at UCLA

And the persistence of one or two passionate people, to bring the funding & permitting together to restore our local creeks.  To find the dozens if not hundreds of volunteers and build the good will to expand the restoration, planting over a thousand plants.  In this case, the spotlight shines on Mark Abramson and Heather Burdick, of the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and Santa Monica Baykeeper, respectively, who with the University’s Institute of the Environment, have done just that at Stone Canyon Creek as it flows through the UCLA campus (behind the Business school for the curious).

Creek celebration at El Dorado Nature Center

The newly re-made (man-made) stream at El Dorado Nature Center

The El Dorado Nature Center’s stream flows again!  The City and construction team, led by Bubalo  Construction, completed the regrading of the stream, protecting the banks with a mix of coir fabric and in places of high traffic, stone retaining walls. Willows staked into the coir will grow into trees, stabilizing the banks with their roots.

L.A. Creek Freak wants your feedback

Los Angeles Creek Freaks get together to plot to take over the world, one drop at a time. Left to right: Joe Linton, Jessica Hall, Jane Tsong.

L.A. Creek Freak is the brainchild of Jessica Hall and Joe Linton. In 2008, we talked about an idea for this blog as a tool for getting our points of view out to a broader audience, to raise awareness about the past, present and future of L.A.’s maligned waterways and to build momentum for healthier waters in L.A.’s future. Thanks to Miguel Luna for playing midwife matchmaker – turned out that both Jessica and I mentioned to Miguel that we were thinking of this – so he brought us together on it (though we already knew eachother and had worked together.)

Jessica contributed our first article about the removal of concrete from Las Virgenes Creek in Calabasas. I followed soon thereafter with a series on the three-day kayak expedition down the L.A. River.

News and Events – 24 March 2010

Image of planned new Riverside Drive Bridge and Roundabout - From L.A. City Flier

EVENTS

>TOMORROW! The city of Los Angeles hosts a community meeting on its plans for the Riverside Drive Bridge. The meeting is at 6pm on Thursday, March 25th 2010 at the Atrium Room of the L.A. River Center at 570 West Avenue 26 in Cypress Park. City flier here.
The city plans to replace the L-shaped Riverside-Figueroa Bridge with a new wider straighter faster deadlier bridge, with construction planned to begin later this year. The L.A. River bike path is planned to extend along the upstream edge of the bridge across the river from Frogtown to Cypress Park. The project (image above) includes a roundabout (traffic circle) at the intersection of Riverside Drive, San Fernando Road, and North Figueroa Streets, where the state is working on its planned Confluence Park. Confluence Park, partially under construction (next to the Home Depot parking lot) but stalled due to state budget issues, will celebrate the historic confluence of the L.A. River and the Arroyo Seco.  Learn more about the project, by attending tomorrow night’s meeting!

>TOMORROW!  The Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History presents their Sustainable Salon: Sustaining Our Water at 7pm on  Thursday, March 25th 2010. It’s free and talkes place at the museum’s North American Mammal Hall. Featuring:  Miguel Luna (Urban Semillas), Renée Maas (Food and Water Watch), and Conner Everts (Southern California Watershed Alliance.) For information and to rsvp contact Kim Kessler at 213-763-3463 or kkessler {at} nhm {dot} org. 

>The Theodore Payne Foundation – California Native flora-philes:

• California Wildflower Hotline  until May 31st 2010 – Find spectacular California wildflower sites – updated Thursdays. Use link or call (818)768-3533.
• THIS SATURDAY! Spring discount plant sale & Open House Saturday, March 27th 2010, 8:30am-4:30pm at TPF Nursery in Sun Valley.
• Annual Native Plant Garden Tour takes place Saturday and Sunday, April 10th and 11th 2010, from 10am-4pm - including a free lecture:  In California, the Natives Are Friendly with Isabelle Greene on Saturday, April 10, 2010, at 6:30pm at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood.

>The Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers Watershed Council, Friends of the L.A. River, and the Urban Land Institute host On Track: Rivers and Rails Symposium. It’s on Thursday, April 1st 2010 from 3pm-6pm at Metro in downtown L.A. More information here.

>The Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University hosts three free workshops on three Saturdays: March 27th, April 3rd and April 17th. See earlier post for details.

>Save L.A. River Open Space is holding a special meeting on Thursday, April 15th 2010 at 7pm at the Beverly Garland’s Holliday Inn at 4222 Vineland Ave in Studio City.  Featured will be State Senator Fran Pavley and Esther Feldman of Community Conservancy International presenting a vision for a 16-acre Los Angeles River Natural Park  at the former golf and tennis site.

>The L.A. River boating expedition documentary Rock the Boat will screen at Los Angeles Eco-Village on Saturday May 8th 2010. Basic info here, more details coming soon.

NEWS

Orcutt's Yellow Pincushion - from Ken Bowles Wildflower and Bird Photos - click on image to link to biggified version

>A rare wildflower – Orcutt’s Yellow Pincushion – was discovered at a restoration site in the Ballona Wetlands. The Argonaut tells all!

>Long Beach is labeling its bikeways, and the L.A. River path there is now officially Long Beach Bikeway Route 7.

>Los Angeles’ elected officials and agency leaders have been in Washington D.C. pushing for funding for Los Angeles River revitalization. Los Angeles State Historic Park has the pics to prove it!

>Fishing in the very lush Los Angeles River off Tujunga Boulevard [perhaps Avenue] in 1945? The Museum of the San Fernando Valley has the pics to prove it!

Video: The Story of Bottled Water

Released for World Water Day, here’s The Story of Bottled Water – a short animated video on what’s so pernicious about all that ubiquitous plastic bottled water. The film is made by the folks who brought us The Story of Stuff, and is narrated by Annie Leonard. 

The solution is to drink tap water, of course, and to get involved in campaigns like Food and Water Watch‘s Take Back The Tap. For more videos on this subject, also watch Tapped, Aguas con el Agua, and The Water Front.

Water workshops for arid lands

The Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University is offering free! workshops to bring out your inner DIY’er to help you make LA more livable in the long run.

All workshops are from 9-3, held on the Woodbury campus, 7500 Glenoaks Blvd, Burbank CA.  Email aridlands@woodbury.edu to RSVP and get more info.  Or, go to www.aridlands.woodbury.edu

Here’s the line-up:

Saturday March 27:  Green Roofs/GreenWalls with Linda Taalman of Taalman Koch Architects, Debbie Richomond of Tourmaine Richmond Architects and Stephanie Landregan, ASLA, of the UCLA Extension

Saturday, April 3: Water Smart Landscapes: Yard, Driveway, Sidewalk, Street with Fritz Haeg of Edible Estates, Holly Harper of North East Trees, and David Fletcher of Fletcher Studio.

Saturday, April 17: Rainwater Harvesting + Grey Water Systems with Leigh Jerrard of California Greywater Corps and Jenna Didier of Fountainhead Design.

Videos: Whittier Narrows Trash, Sustainable Fish

It’s a busy week helping put the final touches on the L.A. StreetSummit, so instead of my usual voluminous writings, I am just linking to some videos that I think L.A.’s creek freaks will enjoy. The above video interview with birder Ed Barajas is from my friend Terry Young’s Bug’s Eyes. Though it’s ostensibly about the problems with all the trash that washes into the Whittier Narrows, I was impressed by hearing all those bird calls in the background!

Below is an excellent 20-minute video from TED.com featuring chef Dan Barber on how we raise fish sustainably. It’s very funny, and really makes ecological connections to our food chain.

Maywood Water Documentary Preview

Check out this short documentary on drinking water issues in the city of Maywood, California. In case our readers are unfamiliar with it, the city of Maywood is located in Southeast L.A. County, about five miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles – along the Los Angeles River and the 710 Freeway. It is the most population-dense city west of the Mississippi River, with about 40,000 people living in just over one square mile. Watch the 7-minute video for more info!

The video is a short preview of a planned as a 30-minute documentary, but we Creek Freaks think it’s great and already ready for plenty of circulation in its current form. Props to Urban Semillas and the Environmental Justice Coalition for Water!

News and Events – 12 March 2010

NEWS FLOW:

Car being pulled from the L.A. River - photo from Long Beach Fire Department website

>Yesterday morning, near the L.A. River’s mouth near downtown Long Beach,  a driver crashed her car through the guardrail on the 710 Freeway and plunged into the L.A. River, where it’s actually about 20-feet deep. Long Beach firefighters rescued her; read more at their website. Television coverage here.

CURRENT EVENTS:

>World Water Day Los Angeles extravaganza is this Sunday March 14th from 9:30am to 3:30pm at the L.A. County Natural History Museum. Read about it on L.A. Creek Freak and even Facebook.

>Jenny Price lead’s Friends of the L.A. River’s river tour, this Sunday March 14th, from 9:30am to 4:30pm.

Next Thursday - check out what Jessica's students have been up to!

>Creek Freak Jessica Hall’s Landscape Architecture students show their designs for how L.A. River restoration can interface with community and rail - on Thursday March 18, 2010 from 3pm-7pm at the River Center in Cypress Park.

UPDATED- Added: >Los Angeles State Historic Park hosts a Go Wild for Wildflowers – interpretive walk showcasing the park’s abundant… you guessed it… wildflowers! It’s free and at 2pm on Saturday March 20th, 2010. Tour the wildflowers virtually, too, via the park’s very own blog.

>Los Angeles County Bicycle Master Plan public meetings continue on March 24th and 25th. Give them input - online or in person – regarding what waterway bike path improvements you’d like to see. Creek Freak explains the county plan here.

> The Theodore Payne Foundation – fine purveyors of California Native landscaping – has a bunch going on:

• The California Wildflower Hotline  Now through May 31 2010 – Find out about the most spectacular wildflower sites throughout Southern and Central California – updated every Thursday evening with new information. Use link or call  (818)768-3533. Roaming charges may apply.
• Spring discount plant sale & Open House Saturday, Saturday March 27, 2010, 8:30am-4:30pm at TPF’s Nursery in Sun Valley.
• Annual Native Plant Garden Tour takes place Saturday and Sunday, April 10 and 11, 2010, from 10am to 4pm - including a free lecture event:  In California, the Natives Are Friendly with Isabelle Greene on Saturday, April 10, 2010, at 6:30pm at Barnsdall Gallery Theatre in Hollywood.

>The L.A. River boating expedition documentary Rock the Boat will screen at Los Angeles Eco-Village on Saturday May 8th 2010. Basic info here, more details coming soon.