This is a wonderful place to study birds and plants. The City of Los Angeles has set aside the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Area to protect native plants and animals. Over 200 species of birds have been seen in the basin. Many birds, attracted by the water, gather here in the fall and winter

Every spring the Friends of the Los Angeles River, FoLAR, organizes thousands of students and citizens to clean up the Los Angeles River. Often over 30 tons of trash, shopping carts, tires, appliances and broken furniture are collected.

Find out what it is like to participate as students from T.S. King Middle School write on their experiences during the 7th annual river clean up.

Lewis MacAdams founded FoLAR in 1986 in an effort to see if the river could meet other public needs beyond just flood control. Since then FoLAR and groups like the Sierra Club and Heal the Bay have proposed more parks along the river, more bike trails, restoring some natural habitat, in addition to maintaining safe flood control functions. They oppose the plan to construct the multi-million dollar flood control wall for being too limited in its view of the functions of what an urban river can serve
Of course the concrete channelization of the river itself is the most dramatic example of human impact and control of the river. The organization American Rivers claims the L.A.

River, " ...is lined with more concrete than any other river in the U.S." During recorded history the river rarely stayed on one course for more than a few decades. Several times throughout the last two centuries it has changed directions and drained to the west, near the present day Marina Del Rey, or drained at San Pedro

There is a lot of promising areas for community redevelopment and recreation along the river. Proposals include a plan for a new park along the river with shops, resturants, and a hotel. Several acres are available for incorporating redevelopment and open space. Friends of the Los Angeles River hopes that community input will help create a project that meets more community needs than just moving water quickly to the ocean. Many local students participate in FoLAR''s annual river clean up.

The river does provide some recreation. Bike trails have been established along the lower sections of the river and are planned for the area above downtown. Horseback riding is available along the river near Los Feliz and further south near Rio Hondo. However one hundred years ago there were intentions to include recreation along the river when "Col. Griffith J. Griffith gave over five miles of riverfront property to the city on Dec. 16, 1896 with the expectation that Griffith Park would become a grand riverfront park (although the city initially wanted the land more for the water rights). Since that time, the Golden State and Ventura freeways were built on the south and west banks of the river on Griffith Park land ... easily the most destructive blow ever inflicted on the park".19 The Park, Beach, and Recreation Initiative was passed in 1996 and will provide funding to help create the L.A. River Greenbelt. The Los Angeles River Master Plan is a wetlands restoration project developed by the California Whatershed Projects Inventory (CWPI)

OLD MAN RIVER

I met an old man who had many he called his own.
He moved about rather freely
and knew the land very well.
Occasionally he moved the landscape around
but, he was always sure to maintain
his supply of food for those he called his own.
I followed the old man one day
He knew the shortest way down the mountain.
During his travel he would often pause,
resting, in the bosom of the valley.
Then he would begin again;
he moved so fast that he created energy,
and again he fed those he called his own.
At the end of our journey,
when he took his dip into the ocean,
he looked back an me and said:
I''ll meet you next week
at that crevice in the mountain
You know the place - where I feed my own.

Becky Jo Cash
http://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/UCLASP/ISSUES/concrete_poetry

http://www.nationalgeographic.com

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/geographyaction/rivers/ga12.html

BE AN EXPLORER!


Complete A Rivers WebQuest

Complete An Online Watershed Quiz

Create A Virtual River Tour

http://www.lalc.k12.ca.us/target/units/river/tour/index.html