And the river we have lost

[pjthompson]

Three centuries ago, the river meandered this way and that through a dense forest of willow and sycamore, elderberry and wild grape. Its overflow filled vast marshlands that were home to myriad waterfowl and small animals. Steelhead trout spawned in the river, and grizzly bear roamed its shores in search of food. So lush was this landscape and so unusual was it in the dry country that the river was a focus of settlement long before the first white man set foot in the area. Indians relied on the river and the adjacent woodlands for food and the raw materials from which they made almost everything else. They built their villages near the river and bathed each morning in its waters. When the first European visitors passed through the area in the eighteenth century, more than two dozen Indian villages lined the river's course to the sea. The first white visitors, Spanish explorers in search of possible sites where they could establish missions, were also drawn to the river. They marveled at its beauty, named it after a cherished religious site near their homeland, [La Porciúncula], and noted the potential of the gardenlike setting for settlement...

from The Los Angeles River: Its Life, Death, and Possible Rebirth by Blake Gumprecht

Here's what it looks like now:



What killed this gardenlike river? Floods and water rights. The Los Angeles River was a wild one, prone to flooding in the rainy season and in the spring. Here's what it looks like when it's flooding:



As the city grew, the river breaching it's banks and taking out homes and businesses could not be tolerated—rightly so. So they channeled it. Which wouldn't have killed it off completely, but the other side effect of L.A.'s growth was its thirst. Soon water supplied from the river wasn't enough to slake that thirst so they started pumping it directly out of the underground aquifer that was the river's lifeblood.

Even that wasn't enough after a time. They siphoned off the Colorado River and...well, did you ever see the movie, Chinatown? Old Mr. Mulholland devised a plan to pump the lakes in central California, too.

And the Los Angeles River? Became mostly a sewage channel except for those flooding times in the winter and spring.

There is some hope. People have begun to care about the river and its future. Friends of the Los Angeles River, among others, got the EPA to designate the L.A. River as a navigable waterway, which helps protect in under the Clean Water Act. There are plans for redevelopment and some really nice before and after pictures here.

And parts of it have come back somewhat, tended to and allowed to be semi-wild, like this stretch of the Glendale Narrows:



But L.A is broke, the state of California is broke, and our new old governor Jerry Brown has decided to take back the money from redevelopment projects all across the state. Who knows if we'll ever get our river back?

Comments

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

You may: many redevelopment people these days know the importance of natural waterways and preserving and encouraging them--and if *development* people feel that way, then the battle is half won. If moneyed interests can be persuaded that returning the river to a more natural state will have monetary benefits, then you're all set--and there's lots of evidence that it *would* have that effect.

It would be great to have it back again.

--and California won't always be broke. It's got lots of natural strengths. The economy just sucks right now.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

True, California won't be broke forever. And I do think it was an important thing to get the declaration of a navigable waterway. That will prevent some of the more outlandish ideas from coming to pass: like paving it over completely and turning it into another highway system.

[helios137.livejournal.com]

A touching tale. I hope she recovers.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

You and me both.

[frigg.livejournal.com]

How sad. Even with the redevelopment projects, she won't be restored to her former glory, but I guess that's not possible, considering how the area has been built up around her.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes. Those marshes that hosted the waterfowl, et al., are now Hollywood and Beverly Hills, so that won't be coming back. There has been a positive redevelopment in my area of the city. Ballona Creek, a tributary of the LA river was protected and redeveloped into marshland habitat about ten years back. That's thriving now.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Thanks for sharing this, Peej. Makes one think of one's place in the world and how much humans desire to shape the world to their needs and wants. The consequences are not always pretty.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Development without any sense of the land being developed has been a hallmark of SoCal, I'm afraid. We could have an environment like the South of France or the Italian Riviera, but we've got a bunch of concrete, cookie cutter houses, and ugly condos.

[mnfaure.livejournal.com]

Sadly, much of the French coast was developed before people starting getting worried about preservation, so the country does have its share of stretches of ugly decaying concrete condos and charmless houses. Good thing activists and concerned citizens have since spoken up and the development/building laws are stricter. The different regional styles are part of what makes France so charming, and while building codes can cramp one's style, they do have their positive sides.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes, exactly, but I think the preservationists made good headway there. The problem for LA, I think, was that there wasn't much to preserve before the yanquis took the land and started their march towards "progress." I'm not opposed to progress, just progress at any cost, but that wasn't the 19th century mindset. The historic district of Old Los Angeles, the Central Plaza and Olvera Street, have been preserved after a fashion, and some revitalization money has gone into it, and some of the ranchos and old adobes are still around. The rest, not so much.

[kmkibble75.livejournal.com]

I've always wondered about that stretch of concrete. Is it where they filmed Grease?

I hope you get your river back... every big city should have at least one.

[pjthompson.livejournal.com]

Yes, indeed, that's were they filmed Grease. Or rather, in the storm channel. There are tributaries of the LA River, like Ballona Creek and other rivers that have been equally concretized.