Uplands up the ante at Ballona – and beyond

An exciting find of the first California gnatcatcher recorded since 1880 in Ballona Wetlands (Daily Breeze) underscores the significance of the upland habitats that have colonized on this disturbed site. I hope in the coming days we’ll find out more about what part of the wetlands complex is appealing to these birds – generally they like sage scrub environments. A beautiful bluff restoration project is growing in, but there are also coastal sage scrub patches within the Ballona wetlands itself that the birds may be drawn to.

Ballona Wetlands habitat map demonstrates colonization of habitats resulting from 20th Century levees and fill.

And for enthusiasts of the Ballona Wetlands, we find ourselves with a Catch-22: a finite site naturally suited by topography, soil and hydrology to be a wetland that would support some endangered species, is in its altered form providing valuable upland habitat that supports some endangered species, so what do we restore and at what cost or potential loss? This is a fundamental question behind the wetland restoration alternatives, some of which pose modest alterations to preserve the now-present uplands, while others re-vision the site as more of a naturally-functioning wetland.

Upcoming Event: Creekfreak talk at South Coast CNPS

Cross-section demonstrating naturalization strategy in soon-to-be-completed planning study.

Monday night I’m giving a talk at the South Coast California Native Plant Society. Come on down! The talk is “Hope for Southern California Streams” and my hope is to stuff flowers in your muskets and arm you with a sense of the possible, to fuel our collective political will on behalf of our waterways and remnant habitat patches – with some specific time to think out loud about South Bay wild things (and I’m so not referring to beach bunnies).

When: 7:30pm

Where: South Coast Botanic Garden, 26300 Crenshaw Boulevard, Palos Verdes, CA 90274

Ground Broken for North Atwater Creek Restoration

Department of Recreation and Parks Assistant General Manager Kevin Regan speaking at today's groundbreaking. Seated are, left to right, Public Works Commissioner Steve Nutter, Deputy City Engineer Deborah Weintraub, Councilmember Ed Reyes, Recreation and Parks Commissioner Barry Sanders, Councilmember Tom LaBonge, Council President Eric Garcetti, and Bureau of Sanitation director Enrique Zaldivar.

Another perfect Los Angeles day for another good step forward for Los Angeles River restoration and revitalization. It was a clear crisp cloudless fall sky – the kind of light that shimmers on flowing waters and shaking leaves and gives us a glimpse of just what an extraordinary natural treasure the L.A. basin was… and can again be.

A crowd of over a hundred – mainly Atwater neighbors, creek freaks, and civil servants – assembled for the groundbreaking ceremonies for the North Atwater Park Expansion and Creek Restoration. Hosting and quarterbacking was Los Angeles City Councilmember Tom LaBonge, in whose district the project is located – though it will serve all Angelenos, especially Council President Eric Garcetti’s constituents, who live adjacent to the site. Rounding out the dignitaries speaking and shovelling were: Councilmember Ed Reyes, Deputy City Engineer Deborah Weintraub, Public Works Commissioner Steve Nutter, Recreation and Parks Assistant General Manager Kevin Regan, Recreation and Parks Commissioner Barry Sanders, and Bureau of Sanitation Director Enrique Zaldivar.

The project will add approximately three acres of riverside nature park to the city’s existing approximately five-acre North Atwater Park, located at the end of Chevy Chase drive.

Three Events Tomorrow: Maps, Atwater Creek and Downtown Diversion

The Downtown Los Angeles Low Flow Diversion project which breaks ground tomorrow - click on image for more detail

Tomorrow – Thursday October 27th 2010 – is looking like a busy day for local creek freaks. There are two groundbreakings and a talk: Downtown Los Angeles Low Flow Diversion, North Atwater Park Expansion and Creek Restoration Project, and Los Angeles in Maps.

Creek Freak events this weekend

We ran most of these events earlier in the week… but I forget to include tomorrow’s Cornfield Arroyo Seco Plan meeting, and an upcoming North Atwater Creek meeting. I’ve included the fliers for both of those events below, and re-listed the same events that appeared before:

EVENTS

> Tomorrow Saturday October 23rd 2010 is the monthly Community Open House for touring the Ballona Ecological Reserve. These guided walks leave from the Fiji Gateway at 9:30am, 10:30am, and 11:30am. The Fiji Gateway is at 13720 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, across from Fisherman’s Village.

Cornfield Arroyo Seco multi-meeting tomorrow - click on flier image for information

> The city of Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency and Planning Department are hosting a meeting on both the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Redevelopment Project Area and the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan. It takes place tomorrow morning – 10:30am Saturday October 23rd 2010 at the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, 1400 North Spring Street, LA 90012. Creek Freak wrote about the CASP earlier here. I am hoping that the CASP is intact and on-track to be approved next week! I don’t know much about the CASRPA… and hope to learn about it tomorrow morning.

> Moonlight Magic, the Friends of Madrona Marsh annual fundraiser is also Saturday October 23rd 2010, from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. The Friends are a volunteer driven stewardship organization that has a regular schedule of restoration and education activities at the marsh, located in Torrance. Tickest are $50.

> On Sunday October 24th at 4pm, L.A. Yellow Box and Friends of the Los Angeles River host a screening of the documentary Bag It. Details at the Facebook event page. Watch the preview on vimeo – looks very good!

North Atwater Park groundbreaking flier - click for larger pdf flier

> On Thursday October 28th at 2pm, celebrate the city of Los Angeles groundbreaking for the North Atwater Park Expansion and Creek Restoration. It’s at North Atwater Park, 3900 Chevy Chase Drive, Los Angeles 90039. Creek Freak wrote about this project briefly earlier here and here.

> At 7pm Thursday October 28th 2010, the Downtown Library Aloud series hosts DJ Waldie and Glen Creason speaking in celebration of the newly released Los Angeles in Maps book, which Creek Freak profiled here. To get warmed up for the event, read Waldie’s beautiful piece Seduced by Maps at KCET – which concludes with a sweeeet allusion to one of my very favorite Jorge Luis Borges short stories On Exactitude in Science:

Fortunately, the perfect map of Los Angeles – the Borgesian map of all romantic maps – is already in your possession, just outside your door. Its scale is 1:1, and you will need good shoes.

> Friends of Ballona Wetlands are having their annual fundraiser, Moonlight on the Marsh, on Friday October 29th 2010. This year’s event is a yacht party, from 6:00pm to ??? Tickets are $100 regular/$80 student or non-profits

HUD and DOT award $2.25M River Grant to L.A. CRA

The Los Angeles River's soft-bottom Glendale Narrows stretch

More information on this as I dig it up, but I wanted to pass along some good news. The federal Departments of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and federal Department of Transportation (DOT) have awarded $2,250,000 to the city of Los Angeles Community Redevelopment Agency for livable community planning for the Glendale Narrows stretch of the Los Angeles River and its adjacent neighborhoods. 

Here’s the information I have, from an article (which reads like a press release) HUD and Dot Award $6 Million to Create Sustainable Livable Communities with the byline: “Unprecedented joint funding to foster integrated approach to housing, jobs and transportation.”

News and Events – 21 October 2010

Rim of the Valley Corridor study area - click on map for link, information below

NEWS (some of these really deserve their own LACF article – but I am just going to crank out my post-CicLAvia backlog.)

> Creek Freaks might want to check out a study of what’s called the Rim of the Valley Corridor. The National Parks Service investigation is looking into designation of new national park areas that could include regional trail system/s circling Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley and also looking at opportunties for open space conservation. The study area, shown above, includes portions of the Santa Monica, San Gabriel and Santa Susana Moutains, and the Verdugo Hills. In addition to lots of wild hillside creeks and watershed, L.A.’s urban creek freaks may be interested in the study’s inclusion of the Los Angeles State Historic Park area, the L.A. River through Elysian Valley, and the Arroyo Seco Corridor (all bottom right of above map.) Look over more information on the study website, and give your initial input by Friday October 29th 2010. If you’re interested sign up here to receive email updates about the study and about the many miles of trails up for designation.

> Creek Freak reader friend Tim Kirk stumped us with a question about where was the last Los Angeles River stretch to be concreted? He now asks LACF readers: ”I am working on a writing project which features a scene at the LA River around 1947 or 1948.  I’m interested in finding which parts of the river had not yet been given the concrete treatment.  Does anyone know of a good time-line for the construction of the LA River? I appreciate any help.  Thank you.” The closest answer we could get our hands on is an L.A. Times article from March 2 1958 that states “Last week, after 23 years and $101,100,000, the Army Corps of Engineers complete its project of concreting the bottom and sides of the 50.9-mile long Los Angeles River” – but it doesn’t state where or what was actually completed at that time. If anyone has any leads, please comment below and/or email Tim at tim2kirk [at] yahoo.com

> The L.A. Times reports that our friend and ally Belinda Faustinos is retiring from the RMC – stands for  San Gabriel and Lower Los Angeles Rivers and Mountains Conservancy – in May 2011.

> KPCC reports that a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers consulant has determined that the Whittier Narrows Dam could fail in a 100-year storm. My favorite line – remember that this consultant is paid by public funds to provide a public agency some public information:

When a Whittier Daily News reporter asked the engineer what was wrong with the dam, the consultant replied “it’s not my job to explain it to the general public.”

Just a hunch, but this Creek Freak suspects that the consultant might have some fiscal interest in building new dams. Relief from the Concrete maps potential flood areas downstream if the dam breaks.

> KPCC’s Pacific Swell recognized Creek Freak’s Joe Linton as one of its everyday heroes.

> KCET Departures is revisiting the Los Angeles River (check out their cool river piece from last year) - read their latest river production notes blog here and here.

> Malibu has a cool new stormwater-cleansing park. The 17-acre Malibu Legacy Park opened October 2nd 2010. Read more at the L.A. Times or the park website, or watch Madhouse Muse’s video. This Creek Freak confesses that he hasn’t been there yet, and looks forward to checking it out soon.

> The Eastsider covers the city of Los Angeles’ river-centric proposed redevelopment zone (officially the Northeast Los Angeles River Study Area), which includes parts of Elysian Valley, Cypress Park, Glassell Park, and Atwater Village.

EVENTS

> This Saturday October 23rd 2010 is the monthly Community Open House for touring the Ballona Ecological Reserve. These guided walks leave from the Fiji Gateway at 9:30am, 10:30am, and 11:30am. The Fiji Gateway is at 13720 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, across from Fisherman’s Village.

> Moonlight Magic, the Friends of Madrona Marsh annual fundraiser is also Saturday October 23rd 2010, from 6:00pm to 10:00pm. The Friends are a volunteer driven stewardship organization that has a regular schedule of restoration and education activities at the marsh, located in Torrance. Tickest are $50.

>On Sunday October 24th at 4pm, L.A. Yellow Box and Friends of the Los Angeles River host a screening of the documentary Bag It. Details at the Facebook event page.

> At 7pm Thursday October 28th 2010, the Downtown Library Aloud series hosts DJ Waldie and Glen Creason speaking in celebration of the newly released Los Angeles in Maps book, which Creek Freak profiled here. To get warmed up for the event, read Waldie’s beautiful piece Seduced by Maps at KCET – which concludes with a sweeeet allusion to one of my very favorite Jorge Luis Borges short stories On Exactitude in Science:

Fortunately, the perfect map of Los Angeles – the Borgesian map of all romantic maps – is already in your possession, just outside your door. Its scale is 1:1, and you will need good shoes.

> Friends of Ballona Wetlands are having their annual fundraiser, Moonlight on the Marsh, on Friday October 29th 2010. This year’s event is a yacht party, from 6:00pm to ??? Tickets are $100 regular/$80 student or non-profits.

Rain, runoff and surprising ocean springs

Rain brings runoff to mind. Our concreted river systems shunt large volumes of fresh water to the Pacific Ocean very quickly; historically, the process occurred much more slowly, with infiltration occurring throughout our watersheds, moving subsurface flows of water out to the sea, particularly San Pedro Bay/Alamitos Bay. This groundwater movement created pressurized aquifers – giving rise to places like Artesia.

Consider the following historical anecdotes, from James Reagan’s oral histories taken in 1914:

When General Bouton put down his deep wells the pressure was enough to raise the water fifty feet into the air. On one occasion a well driller had his tools shot out of the well with considerable force… -C.W. Caseboom

Bouton Lake in Lakewood was created by overflow from one of these wells.

View Larger Map

The oral histories also tell us of freshwater mixing in the ocean. Back to C.W. Caseboom:

Captain Polhoumas of San Pedro has told me that a ship could take on its supply of fresh water out in the ocean off Alamitos Bay. There was an immense volume of fresh water that emptied into the ocean at that section opposite the Alamitos region. People bathing in the sea at one of these places upon going to the other would at once notice the great difference.

General Bouton’s descriptions suggests that these could have been almost like springs in the sea:

It has been the practice of the fishermen at San Pedro when they arrived at about one mile outside of the beach, and about midway between Long Beach and San Pedro, to lower a jug weighted so it would sinkand corked up so that when it reached a certain depth the pressure would push the cork in, and the jug would fill with pure, fresh water.

There is another place at Redondo where a great supply of fresh water empties into the ocean from the floor or bed of the ocean. There is a great hole in the bluffs in the cliffs near Redondo, where no doubt, fresh water came in from some subterranean waterway.

C.H. Thornburg adds:

In the early days John McGarvin and many others have told me of being able to see the fresh water boil up in the salt water about … of a mile from the shore outside from Alamitos Bay. It was no trouble to distinguish the color of the fresh water from that of the salt water and for that matter, get a supply if necessary…

(At moments like this I wish I were a marine ecologist, to speculate on the likely effect of this mixing on the distribution and diversity of marine life just off our shores)

Many of the old-timers interviewed believed there was no relationship between surface flows in our rivers and their wells. They refer to clay strata for example, that would block migration of surface waters to groundwater. However, our watersheds have diverse soil profiles – for example, the San Fernando Valley is highly pervious. Rain could easily infiltrate to greater depths there than, for example, in more clay-rich Ballona Creek lowlands.

In the short period of less than a century angelenos managed to pump down these plentiful aquifers to the extent that seawater intrusion – the subsurface movement of saltwater into coastal freshwater aquifers – became a serious problem. Today injection wells pump water into these aquifers to hold saltwater at bay. And rainfall – our free resource – isn’t able to plump the aquifers as effectively as it could in LA’s pre-pavement, pre-channelization existence.

Here’s a drop in the bucket contribution you can make: if you own a home or other property, revamp your landscape so it can receive and infiltrate your runoff (aka create a rain garden!). Clay soils? Perhaps a subsurface trench with gravel fill can hold rainwater and allow it to seep into the ground at that slower rate your soil may require.

Creek Freak has covered organizations and examples that you can draw from for inspiration, here’s a few:

Slow the Flow

Elmer Avenue Green Street Explored

Not Enough to Waste

Asphalt to Waterway

Landscapes at Work in Downey

Bimini Slough

Water Harvesting in My Front Yard

Rain Garden All Washed Up

The Ocean-Friendly Garden workshops taking place around town are also a valuable resource for you.

River Panel Tomorrow Night in Venice

George Wolfe canoeing the L.A. River - photo by Tom Andrews, LAist

Creek Freaks will want to bike on over to Venice’s Electric Lodge tomorrow night, Tuesday, October 19th 2010, for an event entitled “The L.A. River – Can a revitalized river be a catalyst for a greener L.A.?” The event features a showing of a new cut of the Rock the Boat video, and a panel discussion moderated by Creek Freak’s Joe Linton. Full event announcement follows the jump.

Creepy creeks

 

Sweet brook or death-trap?

 

Ever watch Bones? It’s a crime-detection series filmed in LA, standing in for DC. Bones, a forensic anthropologist, and Booth, her FBI partner, get called out to look at skeletal remains of murder victims. From what I’ve seen, it looks like a lot of them end up dumped on the Rio Hondo. Yes, I watch Bones to play “name that stream.” But Bones also reminds me that running across death and decay, the detritus of predator-prey relationships, is a reality if you hike creeks. It’s the shadow side of our life cycle, essential to recycling nutrients for the ecosystem. But still, gruesome. Thankfully I’ve not run across human remains – smashed cars, santeria offerings…but no remains. Knock wood.

Sometimes creeks are just downright creepy.

[Grim photos follow the jump - don't follow if you don't want to see it.]