Friends of the Los Angeles River Clean up 2009

Last weekend my boyfriend and I headed to the LA River in Balboa Park for another LA River clean up, this time for the 20th anniversary of the Friends of the Los Angeles River Cleanup. This was our 3rd LA River clean up in the San Fernando Valley's Balboa Park -- the previous 2 were with Heal the Bay.




Not the best photo, but the Friends of the Los Angeles River had a little tent set up, making them easy to spot. That particular morning the park was packed with soccer games and army recruiting. FoLAR provided us with tshirts with a rather cute drawing on the front and as my boyfriend and I collected gloves and bags, an egret flew overhead. "It's good luck!", one of the people exclaimed. Like the other cleanups I've done, we had to sign release forms, but instead of a long formal training, they let us immediately get on our way and begin cleaning! They also provided live musical entertainment and I couldn't help but to sing along quietly to myself when they played "16 Tons".





People walking along the edge of the LA River. There is a rough concrete steep walled surface in this area of the LA River, with a more natural river bottom in the center.















Stepping into the natural river is truly walking into another world when you consider the surrounding city. It's all overgrown with vines, bamboo, thistles and uncommon trees. The bird populations are different and the sounds they make are new music after hearing the birds that live in the more concrete areas of the city. There are sounds of water flowing over rocks and prickly plants to avoid. There are challenges in trying to figure out how to move and new views around every corner. I love seeing this all - it's one of the side benefits to the River Cleanup.









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But the nearby civilization makes itself painfully present when you see the various bits of trash all over. By far, the most common we saw were plastic and styrofoam.

I came across a large mound of styrofoam peanuts, cups, plates and other random packaging mixed in with dirt. Piece after piece, each smaller than the last. Plastic appeared in the form of all sorts of bags, food packaging, many sealed single-serve toothpicks, straws, caps, lighters, breath mints, Easter grass and other random bits. This group of individuals put some serious effort into dislodging a giant piece of plastic from the river.




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We had to leave a little early, so we didn't see the final result of the day's efforts, but this was the pile of sorted recycling and trash before we left.



This was by far one of the better organized cleanup events I've been to. They also provided reusable water bottles and a water cooler to fill up bottles, which was nice. I'm always frustrated with the large amount of waste simply generated by the beverages provided at some of these events. We brought along our Klean Kanteens and just refilled at the cooler. As long as I'm able to, I think this is another volunteer event I will add to my yearly calendar!