Fun Silly New L.A. River Kayaking Video

Enjoy this new video from a couple of intrepid folks who recently attempted to kayak the L.A. River… and didn’t get very far… but nonetheless made a fun video showing their experience. They put in near Griffith Park’s Bette Davis Picnic Area – at the edge of the city of Glendale’s Glendale Narrows River Walk and only got to the adjacent Griffith Park Ferraro soccer fields.

There are plenty of places to put in and kayak the L.A. River safely and enjoyably – see my 2008 account of my first kayak trip there: day1, day2 and day3. The Burbank and Glendale stretches do involve plenty of portaging (walking.) There are also various organized kayaking tours these days. One warning: the L.A. River can get very dangerous very quickly during rainy weather, just watch No Way Out. The best time to kayak is when it’s not raining.

New L.A. River Revitalization Video by Travis King

Check out this muy guapo new Los Angeles River Revitalization video by Travis King. It features L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar Henry Cisneros, and me!

L.A. River Bike Path Grand Opening Video

My friend Ezra Horne shot and produced this fun short video documenting the December 2011 2010 opening of the L.A. River bike and walk path through Elysian Valley.

According to the Eastsider, the multi-use bike and walk path will soon be receiving some new signage designed to foster safer behavior between pedestrians and cyclists.

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.

Recent News – 19 January 2011

> Watch this excellent video One Plastic Beach; it’s about Northern California artists Judith Selby Lang and Richard Lang who create beautiful art out of massive amounts of plastic that was ashore. They make an eloquent critique of plastic pollution in our oceans. Also check out the artists’ website and blog. Thanks filmmakers Eric Slatkin and Tess Thackara. (h/t Jackie Wei)

> Meredith McKenzie has been blogging up a storm over at ArroyoLover. Read her latest posts on:

• County-City Los Angeles River Cooperation Committee meets and plans to work together on the L.A. River / Aliso Creek Confluence park project, in Reseda.
• Wrap-up of news on Albion Dairy site, CRA NELA River Corridor Study Area, Cornfield-Arroyo Seco Specific Plan, February 10th 2011 city river meeting in Reseda, and April 30th 2011 mayoral day of service on the L.A. River. 

> Public comments on Universal’s Draft Environmental Impact Report are due by February 4th 2011. I haven’t paid close enough attention to this item (guest blogger invitation!), but, my understanding is that the situation hasn’t changed much since this 2008 L.A. Times article covered studio opposition to the L.A. River bike path. There’s no website for public comments. If you want to get in touch with folks let us know via comments below.

> North East Trees blog reports on construction activity at their Garvanza Park rainwater harvesting project.

> Travelin’ Local reports on three Elysian Valley L.A. River pocket parks (Steelhead, Osos, and Egret) and the De Anza Trail.

Farther afield:

> Circle of Blue reports on a Michigan court decision that’s strengthening river protections – so rare!

> Rain-swolen rivers in Australia: watch scary videos of the Brisbane River and flash flooding in Toowoomba.

No Way Out Video: Scary Concrete Rivers

It’s the wet season, so I figure it’s a good time to share the video No Way Out. Part 1 is above; part 2 is after the jump. The video was created in 1993, largely in response to the February 12th 1992 drowning death of a San Fernando Valley 15-year-old named Adam Bischoff. Bischoff, pictured below, is one of dozens of youth who’ve lost their lives in Los Angeles’ concreted waterways.

4th Street Bridge at CicLAvia

The 4th Street Bridge was ready for its close-up. Here are a couple of videos taken at Sunday’s CicLAvia open streets event; both feature the 4th Street Bridge – and I promise to get back to the rest of the fun L.A. Creek Freak topics this week.

Short Film on L.A. River Fishing

Here’s an excellent recent short documentary about fishing in the Los Angeles River. It features Carmelo Gaeta, Camm Swift, Sabrina Drill, and Friends of the Los Angeles River’s Shelly Backlar. I especially enjoyed the footage of biologists Swift and Drill surveying fish species via seine netting technique.

Coro Fellows Seek the Logic of the L.A. River

I had the pleasure of showing off the L.A. River to the 2010-2011 class of Los Angeles Coro fellows last week, then attending their presentation earlier this week. Above is a short video they did as part of their presentation on “The Logic of the Los Angeles River.” The video features Urban Semillas‘ Miguel Luna, FoLAR‘s Shelly Backlar, yours truly, and others.

Slow the Flow Video

“None of it’s [river-friendly landscaping] going to happen just because the city council made a decision that you’re going to do this. It’s going to be really something that people are going to learn to accept because they see that it works.”
-Dave Tamayo, Sacramento County Stormwater Program in Slow the Flow

Slow the Flow: Make Your Landscape Act More Like a Sponge is a very informative well-produced 26-minute video about practices and projects that communities can do to steward our watersheds. Stop reading and hit play!

It’s all about the sort of green multi-benefit watershed landscape practices that L.A. Creek Freak loves to cover: low impact development, rain gardens, swales, native landscaping, permeable paving, cisterns, and more. The video showcases quite a few excellent projects that are easily applicable to Southern California homes, schools, parking lots, etc. The approaches highlighted are very low-tech, green, gravity-fed, habitat-enhancing… and wonderful. And, they give you good reasons to kick back and not rake the leaves or water the lawn.

Thanks to the folks at the State Water Resources Control Board who produced the video, which is available on DVD from their website.