Saturday, August 29, 2009

L.A. River Cleanup 2009

Sergio and I spent the morning out on the river. Yes, that paved thing that snakes its way across the city to the sea. He was a trouper to get up with me to be there by about 9AM -- and in this heat! Organized by FOLAR, there were plenty of kids with school/volunteer organizations participating as well. It's the first time either of us had been so up close and personal with the river. We were amazed to see how natural some of it was. Experiencing it by zipping by on the freeway does not do it justice. On the walk from the parking area to the clean-up site, we saw a red-tailed hawk just a few yards from us, circling towards the river. Pretty cool.

FOLAR provided gloves and bags, energy bars, water and bananas. There were cool posters and even souvenir buttons.

There was a really good live band playing latin music, and a series of booths featuring artists and local eco-oriented organizations.

Also surprising was how clean the river bed already was. The most interesting things we found were a series of nearly fully submerged shopping carts. We saw about five. Evidence of just two of them:



We intended to stay the full 3 hours until noon. But by 11, the heat had gotten to us and we went home.

(You can see the smoke plume from the La Canada fires behind me.)


Here's what we saw walking to the site.....and then walking away towards the car.

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