Have you met the L.A. RIver?

Water Committee's Charming Evelyn (right) teaches kids about being water-wise in a fun way. Credit: George Watland

When I first heard about the proposed outing between the Chapter's Water Committee and the Little Hikers sections I wondered what they could have in common that would produce an outing. I decided to go and find out.

This outing last year was a learning experience regarding water and a fun place for kids to hike and play. They held the outing at a park trying to conserve water that is near the L.A. River named the North Atwater Extension. This park is part of Griffith Park in L.A. but closer to the border of Glendale. The North Atwater Extension is especially designed to filter out pollutants -- and that is why the Water Committee got involved.

The Little Hikers event was led by hike leaders Sylvia Darie and Judy Anderson at a slow enough pace for children to keep up. These trails went through lovely flowering native plants. We stopped at spots to identify the plants and to give little fun quizzes to the children regarding the plants. The park was specially designed to naturally filter out the pollutants that run off adjacent neighborhood streets through storm drains into the river. The ground was lowered so that dirty water coming from the streets slowly soaks into the ground during a natural cleansing process known as infiltration. Trash and other pollutants are removed before the water enters the river.

Storm water can also soak deep into the ground between sand, rocks, and clay and replenish the natural underground water storage system known as the aquifer. In the arid climate of Los Angeles this is especially important. The park is planted with native marshland and other native plants, which assist with water infiltration and encourage birds, mammals, and insects such as butterflies to inhabit the area.
 

Hikers checked out the concrete channel that is the L.A. River. Credit: George Watland

The trail eventually led to the concrete sides of the L.A. River and at that time we walked down the sides to actually get beside the river. I was born and raised in L.A. and this was the first time I had been up close to the L.A. River and it was a real thrill for me. 

There is a water filtration plant somewhere in the vicinity that releases cleaned water near this point in the L.A. River. Because of this, there was a wide river full of abundant water; the scene was filled with large green bushes, rocks and other plants.  Nearby there were two people fishing, and I kept thinking I was beside the large Merced River in Yosemite. This is one of three areas in the 51-mile long L.A. River that has a soft (instead of concrete) bottom; this soft bottom area where we were runs for about 7 miles. 

The other soft bottom areas of the L.A. River are in the San Fernando Valley Sepulveda Basin, for about 3 miles, and at the end of the L.A. River in the Long Beach Estuary, for about 3 miles.  

The day wasn’t over when we returned from the river. 

Chapter Senior Director George Watland and then Conservation Coordinator Jennifer Robinson and Water Committee Chair Charming Evelyn decided to engage local children regarding water. They set up a wheel that had different colors on it.  The child would spin the wheel and it would land on a color. The player would then pick a card that had that same color on it and on the back of the card was a question about water. The child would have to answer the question correctly to win a prize of a water coloring book, magnet or sticker. It drew a large amount of enthusiastic children.   

We are slowly but surely taking the L.A. River from just being a drainable ditch to becoming a real river. 

Here is a quote from Lewis MacAdams, founder of Friends of the L.A. River (Folar): "When I first got the idea of creating a nature friendly river I thought that all I had to do was convince people to take better care of the river but then I found out that I had to convince people that there was a Los Angeles River and that took about 15 years."

The outing was fun, scenic and educational. I encourage you to take your children, neighbors and grandchildren on Little Hikers & Junior Explorers’ outings; it could change their lives for the better.