Creepy Creeks #2: Roosevelt’s Descent of the Rio da Dúvida

Need a good spooky read tonight?  A perfectly creekfreaky nominee for you is Candice Millard’s The River of Doubt.  This Halloween’s edition of Creepy Creeks abandons LA for the Rio da Dúvida/Rio Teodoro in Brazil.  Author Millard recounts Theodore Roosevelt’s risky descent of this previously unmapped tributary to the Amazon.  This is a highly entertaining and informative read.

The year, 1913.  Roosevelt had just lost an election and survived a gunshot wound to the chest.  Where I might curl up in a ball in self pity and whine for a few months, Roosevelt barreled ahead.  He put together a team and headed south.  His expedition co-leader was a mixed-race Brazilian engineer and explorer sympathetic to the native peoples inhabiting the jungle; their team, comprised of Americans and Brazilians, simmered at times with racial, class and cultural tension.

Everyone completely miscalculated what they would need.  Loaded up with luxury items, they left a trail of abandoned goods behind them before they even made it to the river, while they lacked essential provisions.  They didn’t know how long the journey would be.  They didn’t even know exactly where the river would connect to the Amazon.  Their rough dugouts were unreliable on the river’s rapids.

And then there were the wild things.  

Lawsuit against Malibu lagoon restoration fails

Creekfreak readers may recall we’ve written about the proposed restoration of Malibu Lagoon - so just a quick update, Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith sided with the state, allowing the restoration to move forward.  I hope that we can save the state additional attorney’s fees by letting the dust settle and moving on with the project.

News links:

LA Times 

Malibu Patch

Announcement 11 November 2011 – from Joe & Jessica – We’ve closed the comments on this post – for two weeks worth of cooling off. We love L.A. Creek Freak as a place where folks can discuss L.A. Creek Freak stuff… so we encourage comments – as long as they’re civil and more-or-less on topic. The comment thread on some stories degenerates into not so civil, and not so on topic. When the disrespectful language gets going too strongly, we unpaid volunteer bloggers jump in and try to get folks to be respectful… then the topic threads become a critique of what a bad job we’re doing moderating the discussion. Sometimes then when we don’t approve comments right away (because we’re doing our jobs or just don’t have the interest in parsing through the unpleasant stream of comments), frustrated commenters follow up with accusatory emails to us. This isn’t really what we signed up for, nor do we feel that it’s what L.A.’s creek freak communities need right now. We’d rather be doing stuff that we have ganas for (and/or what we get paid to do) and not refereeing judgmental commentary… so we’re taking a roughly two-week break on comments on this story. During that time we hope to go back to actually writing creek freak stories! Thanks for your patience.

City Seeks Federal TIGER Funding for L.A. River Bikeway

Existing L.A. River bike path in Elysian Valley

I wrote an article – posted earlier today over at L.A. Streetsblog – about city plans to apply for federal TIGER funding for about five miles of L.A. River bike path, and 20+miles of on-street bike lanes. If it’s funded and completed, it will result in 50+miles of river corridor bikeway from Canoga Park to Long Beach.

Here’s the article cross-posted in its entirety:

Today’s Los Angeles City Council Transportation Committee meeting includes action on the Transportation Department’s (LADOT’s) proposal to seek $13million in federal funding for extending the Los Angeles River bikeway. The federal funding sought is part of a federal funding opportunity called Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER), a stimulus funding that encourages innovative and sustainable transportation.

While LADOT’s proposal, detailed at Council File 11-1781, is expected to sail through committee and council approval, it still needs to compete with other municipalities seeking limited TIGER dollars. Overall the city is asking the federal money to cover $13M of an $18M project. The city application is due October 31st 2011, and grantees are expected to be notified in January 2012. If awarded, construction is targeted to begin in 2013. 

Creek Freaks Speak Next Week

Water panel at Antioch University next Thursday

I am speaking at a Water (and Power) panel at Antioch University in Culver City.  Fellow panelists include Leonardo Vilchis, of Union de Vecinos (LACF readers will remember Leonardo from this video) and Conner Everts of Southern California Watershed Alliance (LACF readers will remember Connor from this L.A. River kayak trip.) 

Nate Downey Harvest the Rain Book Tour

I confess that I haven’t read the Harvest the Rain book yet, but it looks great, so I wanted to let L.A. Creek Freaks know about an upcoming book tour – next week! From Tuesday October 25th 2011 through Saturday October 29th, Nate Harvey will be appearing in Southern California to promote Harvest the Rain: How to Enrich Your Life by Seeing Every Storm as a Resource. Rainwater harvesting is a topic we’ve covered at Creek Freak, and from Harvey’s website and video, the book looks very promising.

Book tour announcement details after the jump. 

Real Creek of the Week #2

Lower Franklin Creek restoring itself.

Following Fake Creek of the Week #2, correctly identified by commenter Oona Martin as the fake creek at Coldwater Canyon Park, is our Real Creek, or in this case, real creeks.  Coldwater Canyon’s stream is gone, culverted away, but the creek in Franklin Canyon remains.  Franklin Canyon was damned, or dammed, last century to create drinking water reservoirs. 

The upper dam is a familiar site to hikers at Franklin Canyon Park, or rather, its artificial lake is.  Fun fact:  DWP told me in my watershed coordinator days that they don’t fill that lake.  What you see there is perennial groundwater or spring flow.  Downstream of the dam, the creek runs through a sycamore woodland, and in a few locations springs can be observed. 

Can't touch this! Off-limits creek in lower reservoir area.

The lower dam area remains off limits.  Drained of imported water, a creek there has been restoring itself. 

Downstream of the dam, and above our Fake Creek #2 is an old orange grove.  It appears to be a remnant of the agricultural legacy of Hollywood and environs. 

The once/would-be Rodeo de las Aguas.

Beverly Drive joins Franklin Canyon near this grove, leading to the third canyon/creek comprising this Rodeo de las Aguas – Higgins Canyon.  Most of the creek, as with Coldwater Canyon’s flows, are confined to a culvert.  At the far end of Beverly Drive, right where the public street ends and a private street begins, however, you can observe a small spring-fed creek flowing through private yards to its culvert coffin.  But if you choose to go observe, please be mindful of the residents who live there.

Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan Resurfaces This Saturday

CASP flier - click to view meeting details at the city website

This Sunday is the city of Los Angeles’ annual community meeting regarding the Cornfield Arroyo Seco Specific Plan (called CASP.) The meeting takes place at 10am on Saturday October 15th 2011 at Goodwill, 342 N. San Fernando Road, LA 90031 (near the Lincoln Cypress Metro Gold Line Station.) Meeting details at the city’s CASP website.

In Southern California, ‘water began it all…’

El Molino Canyon, 1887. Courtesy The Huntington Library.

Several years ago, as I started to research historical water flows in Northeast Los Angeles, Jessica Hall recommended I talk to Michael Hart. At that time, Michael Hart was Vice President, General Manager, and Zanjero of Sunny Slope Water

Occupy Wall Street – Creekfreak Edition, circa 1993

Taking the spirit of the Occupy Wall Street movement in a somewhat Creekfreaky direction, I thought I’d share a little piece from my past, when I was a grad student in architecture at Columbia University. 

Do you want to celebrate the water?

Ballona Creek rain garden celebrating during recent rains

Creek Freak’s Jessica Hall has the money line in Emily Green’s L.A. Times Dry Garden column last Friday:

This much I know as I estimate rainwater and consider how to manage it: Although the new system must function, it also must be beautiful. Earlier in the year, as I was babbling proudly to garden designer Jessica Hall about the plan to whisk half the roof water through concealed piping to the rear orchard, she asked, “Do you want to celebrate the water?”

A strong degree of brute efficiency will clearly be necessary, but as the first rains wash into L.A. County, the answer to Hall’s question is an unequivocal yes. Yes!

Read the full article here. Thanks Emily Green and Jessica Hall!

(Speaking of celebrating water, albeit in bigger more institutional ways, check out Jane Tsong’s Creek Freak article on Seattle’s new wastewater facility, also covered at Circle of Blue.)