Places to Visit: Long Beach Earth Day River Gate

Earth Day 2007 Los Angeles River Gate in Long Beach

If you’re heading down to tonight’s Willow Gulch tour, you might see this gate as you exit the L.A. River Bike Path, aka the Lario Trail, near Wardlow Road in Long Beach.

Tour Long Beach’s Willow Gulch aka California Gardens Wednesday Evening

Thanks to Long Beach Auduon’s Mary Parsell for forwarding this invite to tour the Willow Gulch aka California Gardens this Wednesday evening:

Councilmember Johnson would like to invite you once again to an upcoming tour of California Gardens, the 56 acre undeveloped property behind Sunnyside Cemetery. This property, rich in history, contains a diverse topography, endangered species, native plants, the 2nd highest hill in Long Beach, two wetlands, and a working water basin. This water basin is part of the storm drain network that comes from the 405 freeway, makes its way into the basin, and then flows into another pipe where it exits into the Los Angeles River. The tour will be with Councilmember Johnson and Larry Rich, Sustainability Coordinator for the City of Long Beach. The tour will be on: Wednesday, June 29th, 5:30-7:00PM Entrance is located on the corner of 27th St. and California Ave. Plenty of parking available on 27th Street. The property is located at 2700 California Ave. Hope you can join us!

This Creek Freak is glad to see the City of Long Beach take an interest in the habitat quality of the site.  We’ve written about it here (photo! map!) and here. A community effort prevented the ravine of the original stream from being filled – and I hope that daylighting will be in its future.

Army Corps seeks public input for LA River boating program

Here’s your chance to weigh in on boating the LA River. Thanks to Lupe Vela at the City of Los Angeles for forwarding the following notice:

Greetings!

The U.S.  Army Corps of Engineers has issued a public notice  to inform the general public that the Los Angeles District of the Corps has received a request to access the Los Angeles River in the Sepulveda Basin for a pilot non-motorized boating program along with permission to charge a fee.  The Corps will evaluate the proposed action along with reasonable alternatives and modifications, under the National Environmental Policy Act ( NEPA) through an Environmental Assessment (EA). The Corps has made a preliminary determination that an Environmental Impact Statement is not required. The Corps will consider compliance with other laws, including the Endangered Species Act, in conjunction with this analysis.

Public Comment Period: June 17- 30, 2011- all comments must be received by 6/30/11.

Tentative Boating Program Start Date: July 8, 2011

The following website will take you to the public notice and description of the proposed program:

http://www.spl.usace.army.mil/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1997&Itemid=2

All comments must be directed to Lisa Sandoval, U.S. Corps of Engineers, 915 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90017  Attn: Asset Management:
Lisa.m.sandoval@usace.army.mil

If you like more information on the lead organizer of the program, the Los Angeles Conservation Corps, please contact
Irene Lopez,    ilopez@lacorps.org
Yasmin Corona,  ymcorona@lacorps.org

If you like more information on the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, please contact:
Walt Young: walt.young@mrca.ca.gov

If you would like more information on the City of Los Angeles council motion on this issue, please contact

Lupe Vela:  lupe.m.vela@lacity.org

Congratulations to all for their hard work on this exciting program!

Fake Creek of the Week

Fake Creek #1

Introducing a new feature! LA Creek Freak’s Fake Creek of the Week will (mostly) poke fun at angeleno fantasy creeks on a somewhat less-than-weekly basis.  Why am I picking on fake creeks? Besides the fact that they’re fake, I’ve met way too many angelenos who say “you mean it’s real?” when I show them a natural creek, and way too many angelenos also express the desire to “restore” a creek by making it, well…fake-like.  So here we go:

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 Our inaugural fake creek has something for almost everyone with a natural resources bone to pick.  With a rip rapped channel “banks” and splash-over weirs, this fake creek combines engineering aesthetics, replacing the logic of stream geomorphology and the natural sorting of cobbles, with irregular-and-therefore-naturalistic paving!  Variegated arundo reminds us all of the escaped weed currently colonizing almost every waterway in Southern California, while the sight of the gracefully arching invasive pampas grass and pennisetums burn holes in the eyes of all your environmentalist friends. And once that’s happened they won’t be able to see any more of the destruction going on around you – and won’t that be just nice. Also a relief will be the absence of pesky native birds and butterflies. This is an almost perfectly fake Fake Creek: the only thing marring its bad-boy status is the absence of pumped imported water down its channel, were they trying to mimic a natural condition here?

Do you know where this is?

And in case you’re wondering, a real Creek of the Week feature may also pop up sometime in the near future.

Cool New L.A. River Videos

Two recent videos showing off some fun aspects of the Los Angeles River: Above is Will Campbell’s time-lapse Fathers Day exploration of the “East Bank” of the L.A. River’s Glendale Narrows. Campbell cruises the north/east side of the river from the Glendale-Hyperion Bridge to nearly the Arroyo Seco Confluence (aka the 110 Freeway/5 Freeway intersection.) Downstream of Fletcher Drive, the area was historically called Taylor Yard. This area isn’t really officially open to the public, but that doesn’t stop creek freaks from exploring it. People are out there walking, biking, fishing, etc. every day.  Check out Will’s blog “[sic]“ for plenty of cool time-lapse stuff, photography, bike stuff, and more.

Below is a video of a nice big L.A. River carp, caught and released. It’s a pretty good size, looks like about 10 pounds, maybe. For more info on L.A. River fish past and present, read this post.

What’s Up with Orange L.A. River Billboard?

Somewhat random post here… but do any of our eagle-eyed readers know what’s up with this Los Angeles River billboard?

Mysterious Los Angeles River billboard on Figueroa Street

I spotted it yesterday… not sure if it’s a series or a one-off. It’s facing north on the east side of Figueroa Street at 39th Street – across from “Christmas Tree Lane” in Exposition Park.