You can be one of L.A’.s leaders in restoring more vibrant, natural habitat that invites wildlife into backyards, front yards, multifamily residences, and public places in the Upper Ballona Watershed.
Join us for “A Day-long Dialogue and Bus Tour: Envisioning A New, Greener, Wildlife Paradigm for the Upper Ballona Watershed” from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 14t and, a 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. bus tour, April 15. To help defray lunch and the bus tour cost, please consider an optional contribution of $30.00.
Register now for the Ballona Creed Watershed Dialogue/Workshop/Tour on April 14-15
For more than 15 years I, along with others, have worked toward the day when we would open storm drains (in other words remove some of our pipe shed) and restore L.A.'s watershed. Many of our participants have worked 20, 30 or more years studying, creating and caring for urban wilderness.
With Los Angeles City and County as well as the state of California talking about and funding water resiliency projects, the workshop provides an opportunity to put our heads together and dialogue ways to partner together as a small, committed group. The idea is to set a new, higher standard for multi-benefit projects that link Los Feliz Boulevard and Western Avenue at Fern Dell Park to Venice Boulevard and Cochran Avenue in a contiguous green belt.
As I walked along Ballona Creek and many of its tributaries with Jessica Hall, our former Ballona Watershed Coordinator, and visited Franklin Canyon on a rainy day with her and watched the rain make natural streams, and listened raptly to her speak as we rode through the densest part of Los Angeles on an all-day Ballona Creek Watershed bus tour in 2005, I have dreamed of the day her ideas would become a reality.
Today, I believe the stars are aligned for a small group of committed individuals to make the authors of “Seeking Streams: A Landscape Framework for Urban and Ecological Revitalization in the Upper Ballona Creek Watershed” proud.
Go to "Seeking Streams" to read their first 25 pages of historical maps, photos, ideas and conclusions. History buffs, water nuts like me, and anyone who wants to reverse some of the degradation man has wrought on our watershed, will love this blueprint for the future.
Readers will begin to see that revitalization of the Ballona Creek Watershed -- by capturing millions of gallons of rainwater for nature parks and seasonal wetlands before it goes into drains -- is possible. In some cases these drains have been parching the water-starved inner city since 1917.
Imagine how carefully choosing to open some storm drains (called "daylighting) could create new attractions for wildlife, provide life nurturing walking trails along a babbling brook for nature deprived urban dwellers, and begin to achieve equity in the high-density, park and wildlife starved upper Ballona Creek Watershed.
This idea is consistent with moving toward a resiliency based 130 square-mile watershed and saving millions, upon millions of gallons of storm water for wildlife.
Participants include:
Bev-Sue Powers, moderator, a Ballona Wildlife photographer and blogger as well as a consultant/project leader of corporate change for companies. She works at RAND Corporation.
Beth Pratt-Bergstrom, National Wildlife Federation
David McNeill, Executive director of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy. McNeill has overseen the construction of buildings, gardens and hiking trails at the 8.5-acre Stoneview Nature Center, the 40-acre Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, which attracts thousands of hikers every week, the newly dedicated 2-acre Milton Green Street project in Marina del Rey, and is working to create a land bridge from Stoneview Nature Park to Kenneth Hahn State Park.
Danny Sciolini, project manager of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy
Gail Krippner, grant program manager of the Baldwin Hills Conservancy
Noa Rishe Khalili, park and recreation specialist, Baldwin Hills Conservancy
Lan Weber, Ph.D., P.E., hydrologist, WRC Consulting Services, Inc. Weber has over 25 years of experience in wetlands and river restoration projects, with strong expertise in hydrology, hydraulics, river erosion and sedimentation, flood control and drainage system design and analysis. She has been involved in over 300 multi-disciplinary wetlands, river, coastal and watershed management projects and has successfully managed design and planning for public and private agency projects ranging from $5,000 to over $5 million.
Margot Griswold, Ph.D., restoration ecologist and former owner of EARTHWORKS Restoration, Inc. Griswold has done restorations for the West Bluffs Slopes and Bluff Trail in Playa del Rey. She and Lan Weber of WRC designed and implemented walking trails and riparian corridor adjacent to Bonita Creek, an urban stream restoration for three endangered species in New Port Beach. They also worked in conjunction with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on Santa Ana habitat restoration too. Griswold is president of Los Angeles Audubon Society, has worked with Baldwin Hills Conservancy on the planting and maintenance of the overlook, and spoken out for natural freshwater wetlands at Ballona that preserve saltpan, and 12 other habitats at the site.
Rex Frankel has devoted his adult life to the greater Los Angeles urban and outlying wilderness. He is an avid hike leader, has achieved a lifelong goal of owning 120-acre Mount Rexmore in Chatsworth, where he is creating hiking trails. He envisions opening 10 miles of natural, daylighted streams from Los Feliz to Venice Boulevard, which will complete a 50-mile contiguous hiking trail around L.A. He also is president of Ballona Ecosystem Education Project. Read about the project at his blog.
Sierra Club Angeles Chapter participating individuals and entities include Elizabeth Bayne, Barbara Hensleigh, Will McWhinney, Central Group, Bev-Sue Powers, Jeanette Vosburg, Kathy Knight, Airport Marina Group, Lore Pekrul, Chuck Gooley, GIS Committee
Jeanette Vosburg is chair of the Chapter's Airport Marina Group and member of the Chapter's Executive Committee
Here are some resource links for background about the watershed:
Short Ballona Watershed Fly-Over Video Focusing on Park Expansion
LA Storm Water: LA's Watershed Protection Program
Ballona Creek Watershed | City of Los Angeles Stormwater Program