Off to the Rio de Flag
April 6th, 2011 § 2 Comments
The Rio de Flag. Photo by Friends of the Rio de Flag.
I’m boarding the Southwest Chief to Flagstaff, home of Friends of the Rio de Flag, a community group organized to ”support preservation and restoration of the natural beauty and beneficial functions of the Rio de Flag stream channel.” I’ll be talking at their annual Membership Meeting on the topic of “An Ecological Los Angeles: Just Add Water Political Will.” If there’s something we at the Creek Freak observe on an almost weekly basis, it’s that preservation and restoration of our waterways are less technical issues than political ones. Let’s call it a cautionary tale of what your landscape becomes when you plan and build like us, and I’ll offer some thinking out loud about different design and planning decisions. With its lovely stream to protect Flagstaff – already an ecological visionary with its Dark Skies City status – may be poised to embrace truly ecologically-sensitive, sustainable urban development.
Peruse their photo gallery, you may first countenance mild shock to see actual natural waterways, and with people in them, in varying states of enjoyment and engagement with the creek! To bastardize an Edward Abbey quote, we in LA have to fight so much for the land, and with so little left, it can be easy to forget to get out there and enjoy it. As we muster the political will to restore our waterways, we may wish to invite the Friends out to LA to remind us how to get out of our cars and be wild with natural creeks.
Nicely said. I long to hang up my hat garden writing for the LA Times, for the city not to need me, or to be so preoccupied by fetid private landscapes, but to have simple, drought tolerant gardens, and no need for pools or fake streams because we have great community pools and real streams and a vital river. Safe trip.
Great talk Jessica, I talked to some folks afterwards that now have a much better idea of how to move forward. Very much appreciate you traveling out here to spread the word. Keep up the good work!