Rock the Boat Screening This Friday!
May 18, 2010 § 2 Comments
Come on down to Los Angeles Eco-Village at 7:30pm this Friday May 21st 2010 and see a nearly-finished version of Rock the Boat! It’s a suggested $20 donation, but no one turned away for lack of funds. For lots of information and to RSVP go to the event page on Facebook. Eco-Village is located at 117 Bimini Place, LA 90004 – it’s located a couple blocks south of the Beverly/Vermont Metro Red Line Station. Directions here.
Rock the Boat tells the stories of the 2008 boating trip down the Los Angeles River. There’s lots of great footage of the river from lush natural areas to concrete canyons. The documentary features interviews with many of L.A.’s prominent creek freaks: Lewis MacAdams, Melanie Winter, Ramona Marks, Jenny Price, and many more!
Kayaking down the L.A. River in Southeast L.A. - Photo from LAist - click on photo to view large version and other LAist expedition photos
In some ways, that kayak trip down the Los Angeles River was one of the events that got this L.A. Creek Freak blog started. As I kayaked, I came home each night, posting essentially my trip journal as some of my first three pieces. Here’s an excerpt: (apologies for the narcissism of quoting one’s self)
I was also impressed with how nature is reclaiming the river. In many places, from the mouth of the Arroyo Verdugo, to just upstream of Willow Street in Long Beach, there’s a fair amount of vegetation growing either through the cracks or on a layer of silt atop a concrete bottom. Most of the vegetation is opportunistic weedy, but there are occasional cattails and even willows. Even in middle of Vernon (at a location I don’t want to disclose for fear of alerting the flood control bulldozer crews), I saw a 10-foot tall willow tree growing out of the concrete along the low flow channel. This vegetation creates eddies, slowing down the water, causing it to deposit sediment, building up sandbars and making way for more vegetation. It’s nature’s cycle of reclaiming disturbed areas. Microorganisms move in, then bugs, then ducks. It’s great to see it starting to happen in the concrete moonscape areas downstream.
Read the whole trip series here: day 1, day 2, and day 3.
Present at this Friday’s screening will be: Thea Mercouffer – the film’s director, George Wolfe – the expedition’s organizer, and Joe Linton – that’s me – river activist and author. Please come on down and view and support the film this Friday!
This is very interesting. I am an avid kayaker myself – but never thought to kayak down the LA creek. Do you need a permit or anything for the adventure?
Well… that’s a more complicated question than it sounds.
You can’t actually get a permit – see http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2009/07/02/of-nexus-and-navigability-part-5-usace-no-ifs-ands-or-boats/ . Theoretically some in law enforcement could issue a kayaker a trespassing ticket… but generally they’ll just tell boaters to get out. We’re not giving any specific advice for doing anything untoward, but I can say that the best places to launch a kayak would probably be just upstream of Balboa Boulevard and just downstream of Los Feliz Boulevard. I’d also recommend reading my 3-part series relating my experiences on the 2008 boating trip – starts here: http://lacreekfreak.wordpress.com/2008/07/26/kayaking-the-los-angeles-river-day-1/
Creek Freak recommends that the public use our rivers and creeks – but please be safe and careful. If you kayak, let us know how it goes.