The Los Angeles River is again raking in grant money for its makeover, a boon to us Angelenos, as well as to the species who depend on the river for survival.

First off, Trout Unlimited South Coast chapter received $4.6 million late last year from the California Wildlife Conservation Board for the planning, design, education and outreach for the Lower L.A. River project over the next three years. It includes creating riparian habitat, slower currents and shady rest areas for steelhead migrating back home to the San Gabriel Mountains. That is the largest grant ever received by any TU chapter in the country. Emphasis on the Lower River and Dills Park, as well as the city of Paramount, is a hopeful sign that communities long neglected by LA’s power players will begin to get their due. 

Meanwhile, the Bowtie, the former headquarters of Southern Pacific Railroad, was recently awarded $5,896,000 in funding for remediation and construction. In 2003, California State Parks bought the property called G-1, which is now referred to as “the Bowtie” (due to its shape), with the intent of transforming the currently undeveloped industrial land into a safe and clean, vibrant public green space, according to California State Parks. The makeover will focus on nature conservation and restoration, education and providing opportunities for passive recreation.

In all these two projects join:

— LA River & Caballero Creek Confluence Park (MRCA) – Construction

— LARiverWay Bike Path Segment 1&2 project (City of LA) – Design, partially-funded

— LARiverWay Bike Path Segment 8 (City of LA) – just became funded

— LA River East Bank RiverWay (City of LA, along Atwater Village) – Design, funded

— LA River Bike Path Improvements (City of LA, along Elysian Valley) – Design, funded

— Paseo del Rio project at Taylor Yard (City of LA, MRCA, State Parks) – Early design, partially-funded

— LA River Ecosystem Restoration and Recreation project Reach 1 (US Army Corps of Engineers, north side of Griffith Park) – Design, funded

— LA River Path Project (Metro, through Downtown LA and Vernon) – Design, funded (mega-project)

— Fish passage in the Downtown LA area, which is also in design but needs to find implementation funding.

The list totals nearly $500 million in project investments.

So, here’s a question for you: How much money does South Dakota have for conservation project in a year?

According to Ballotpedia, $23,650,008, which was the most recent available figure was for 2015. Now that sounds like a truckload of cash until you look at the figure for California, $9,108,000,000, you read that right.

On the high end, three states spent more than $1 billion on environmental and natural resources departments in fiscal year 2015 — Cali, Florida and New York. And just for the record, California spent more — way more — than both Florida and New York combined.

While on the low end, four states spent less than $30 million on environmental and natural resources departments in fiscal year 2015— Oklahoma, Nebraska, South Dakota and Connecticut.

Since passage of the Endangered Species Act 50 years ago, more than 1,700 plants, mammals, fish, insects and other species in the U.S. have been listed as threatened or endangered with extinction, according to the Los Angeles Times. And just like the big the states, there are winners and losers. Guess which species are the biggest winners of federal environmental bucks.

Of the roughly $1.2 billion a year spent on endangered and threatened species, about half goes toward recovery of just two types of fish: salmon and steelhead trout along the West Coast. Meanwhile, the tiny Virginia fringed mountain snail had $100 spent on its behalf in 2020 after only being seen once in more than three decades. There are also species — more than 200 imperiled plants, animals, fish and other creatures, according to the article — that had nothing spent on their behalf.

See you on the river, Jim Burns