UPDATE: Sadly, this event has been canceled due to a lack of grant funding. Stay tuned for the reboot.
Greeting fellow fish lovers!
We would love help to conduct the fish survey near Sepulveda Dam on Wed 29 June.
Details below! Please RSVP as we are looking for a crew of about 6 volunteers to assist with seining, but can use all the anglers we can find to help with catching by fly or standard rods. You need a valid CA fishing license to participate.
WHAT: Friends of the Los Angeles River “State of the River 4” — The Sepulveda Basin Fish Study
WHEN: Wednesday, June 29, 8:30 a.m.-3 p.m.
WHERE: Meet at the dirt road turn off Burbank Blvd. Email for exact location and directions.
WHAT YOU NEED:
– Waders if you have them or come prepared in closed toe shoes (no tevas or open water shoes) and be prepared to get wet to your waist.
– Hat, sunscreen, water, lunch, snacks, etc.
– Angling gear and fishing license if you want to fish!
Let me know if you are interested in joining the fun! thanks, Rosi
Rosi Dagit
RCD of the Santa Monica Mountains
540 S. Topanga Canyon Blvd
Topanga, CA 90290
310.455.7528
rdagit@rcdsmm.org
UPDATE: Friends of the Los Angeles River was born in Northeast Los Angeles 30 years ago and the hometown came out like never before for this year’s Great Los Angeles River CleanUp!
More than 5,000 volunteers came and pulled an estimated 30-40 tons of trash from Los Feliz to Lincoln Heights last weekend.
It’s not over yet – next weekend the CleanUp moves to the Lower River for the final day of the CleanUp. This is your last chance to join the River movement at this year’s CleanUp.
Don’t miss the granddaddy clean up of them all! Register here.
Hot as blazes in L.A. today and tomorrow is the first fishing derby on the Los Angeles River. So, if you haven’t registered yet, click this link and get in! There are only 25 spots for anglers, and 25 spots for youngsters. Anglers cost $35; kids are free. You don’t even need a fishing license! The reason Friends of the L.A. River picked this day is because it is one of only two days during the year that the California Dept. of Fish and Wildlife doesn’t require one.
If you’re an angler, bring your own gear, and I’d bring a rod for both small and big fish. I haven’t spotted carp recently, but there have been plenty of what we’ll call smallmouth bass, tilapia and green sunfish. Also, you can wade, so bring your waders, and maybe a wading pole for more support on those slippery rocks. Fishing will be from 9 a.m.-10 a.m., with volunteers helping you get your catch to a biologist to measure and catalog before being returned alive to the river.
Water at its deepest, I’d guesstimate at 4 feet.
Now, if you’re bringing your children, remember they get in free, but you’ll need to sign a guardian waiver, which is on the registration page. The big-hearted folks at the Los Angeles Rod and Reel Club have donated all of the rods and reels, so basically all you have to do to get your children some water time is register and show up at 10 a.m. Remember, anglers from the derby will be on hand to teach the kids. I know, it’s a pretty sweet deal.
There will be a food truck on hand to satisfy our appetites.
What kind of fish might you catch on our river? My photos are missing a few species, but here we go:
Nothing like catching your first fish on a fly — a baby bass, no less. (Mark Gangi)Keith Mosier nabs his first L.A. River carp. Oh, yeah! (Ken Lindsay)Green sunfish are one of the pllars of the L.R. River ecosystem, and fun to catch as well. (B. Roderick Spilman)Seeing is believing: Catching a Largemouth Bass can make your whole day. (photos by Roland Trevino)
Col. Kim Colloton emphasizes a point yesterday at the Los Angeles River Center. She is the first female commander to occupy the U.S. Army Corps top job in L.A. (Jim Burns)
In an unprecedented first, river advocates threw a party to welcome the first U.S. Army Corps female district commander to Los Angeles. Spanish guitars played as guests from a multi-pronged coalition of community groups, private enterprise and government officials sipped sangria to welcome Col. Kim Colloton at the Los Angeles River Center plaza.
The river center is a stronghold of advocacy groups, which include Friends of the Los Angeles River and the Arroyo Seco Foundation. The audience and speakers included two Los Angeles city councilmembers, the mayor of Burbank, and representatives of local cities, the state and the federal government.
“This has never been done before,” said Lewis MacAdams, founder of FOLAR, and, until recently, a longtime self-proclaimed “enemy” of the Corps. But MacAdams, along with others, increasingly see the Corps as part of the solution, not the problem.
“It’s going to get more challenging as the interest gets wider, as more and more people view the river as an asset toward open space, and renewal, and improvement of the city,” Alejandro Ortiz, FOLAR chairman said. “You would wonder if the Corps of Engineers is the ideal partner. At first thought, you might think it’s not, but as it turns out the Army Corps of Engineers is the guiding light toward salvation. And salvation has a name. It’s Option 20.”
At stake is how much money the federal government is willing to put into implementing an ecosystem restoration that could possibly remake the Los Angeles River into a vital part of the city. Last week, the Los Angeles City Council made it officially known that it wanted to see the biggest package possible, that’s $1 billion (Alternative 20), which would be spent on the river from Glendale Narrows to downtown, an 11-mile area. There are three other “best buy” alternatives that will be spelled soon-to-be-released report, each with a lesser price tag.
“Just from my short month here in my new job, and by this synergy that I have felt and seen tonight, I can feel that we are united in a vision to protect, restore and maximize this river’s benefits for future generations,” Col. Colloton said to the crowd of around 200.
The crowd found out that the long-awaited ARBOR study, which names four possible paths to ecosystem restoration, will be available for public comment on Sept. 13. There will be an email box to make it easy for people to voice their opinions on the Corps’ website. How much money is spent must be voted on and approved by Congress.
Then Councilmember Eric Garcetti opens a part of the bike path along the Los Angeles River in 2011. (Jim Burns)
While river advocates await the public unveiling of the Los Angeles River Ecosystem Restoration Feasibility Study (nicknamed ARBOR), the p.r. battle for Angelino hearts and minds has already begun. In September, after several years of drafting and almost $10 million in cost, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will release four alternatives, each with a different cost, and each with a different impact on the river. The public will then have 45 days to comment before a single alternative moves forward.
“It’s a doozy,” said one person close to the study, which is currently undergoing legal review.
As Carol Armstrong, director of the Los Angeles River Project office, told me last year,“Remember that the fundamental purpose of the study is to improve the ecosystem values in the LA River– and that means riparian habitat that is good for wildlife, including fish species. The study will go public with its alternatives early next year. Once finished, it will recommend one of those as its recommended project, which will then go to Washington, DC, for approval by the federal powers-that-be.”
Think of it in terms of a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon’s menu of procedures. You could go for some Botox injections to temporarily solve that wrinkly face, or throw in for a full-blown, long-lasting, facelift.
The facelift alternative is what the nonprofit Friends of the River advocates with the “Piggyback Alternative,” known to the Corps as Alternative 20. It is the most comprehensive approach to river restoration, according to FoLAR president and founder Lewis MacAdams. The estimated price tag is $1 billion-plus to restore and remake 11 miles of the river between Union Station and Griffith Park.
Today, the Los Angeles River Revitalization Corp, another nonprofit, threw down with its 51-mile greenway project, which aims to have that much yardage in bike paths and foot trails along the river by 2020. That would essentially cover the entire length of the river from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. Currently, 26 miles along the river are open to bicyclists before they have to hit the mean streets, just north of downtown. Although not one of the alternatives, the 2020 Greenway plan aligns itself more naturally with Alternative 20 than with Alternative 13, said to be the Corps favorite in these times of tightening budgets.
About 100 volunteers at Steelhead Park today helped clean up the Los Angeles River as part of the Friends of the L.A River's annual event. The goal was to fill up a nearby 40-yard industrial trash bin with all manner of garbage from the river, while not disturbing any wildlife that make the waters their home. FOLAR volunteers could be seen at numerous sites along the river's 51-mile stretch.
As you can see from the photo, that trash included an old tire, as well as bags of plastic refuse.
Brian Talbot and his two young children, Marley and Miles, of South Pasadena, even found a keepsake metate-style pestle for grinding herbs and spices, while they plucked throwaways from the river's green space.
Last week, the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority filled up two 40-yarders in preparation for the recreational pilot program that begins Memorial Day. The MCRA is charged with administering the program that will continue until Labor Day.
The next FOLAR river cleanup is slated for Saturday, May 18.(Barbara Burns)
UPDATE The new law goes into effect for large grocery chains and pharmacies beginning July 1, 2015. It will extend to convenience stores and liquor stores July 1, 2016.
Heartening news out of Sacramento, as the California Grocers Assn. announced support of a bill to nix single-use plastic bags in most grocery stores and pharmacies by 2015.
An initial hearing on SB 405, penned by state senator Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), in the Senate Environmental Quality Committee is set for tomorrow, the Los Angeles Times reports.
See you on the river, Jim Burns
MAY 30, 2013, UPDATE: “Senate Bill 405 failed to top the 21-vote threshold needed for passage, with senators voting in favor of the measure 18-17. Four senators did not cast votes. The bill will be allowed to be reconsidered, meaning it could be back before a Senate committee or the Senate floor.” — Waste & Recycling News
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