Scott Wilson: In Memoriam

Image from Los Angeles Times.  All Rights Reserved.

Sad news for the entire landscape of Los Angeles today as Scott Wilson, the founder of North East Trees died suddenly.  His impact was felt in his beloved neighborhood of Eagle Rock and throughout Los Angeles.  From the EagleRockPatch:

Scott Wilson, a longtime Eagle Rock resident, retired Eagle Rock High School teacher and landscape architect who was instrumental in the greening of large parts of the neighborhood, died Monday morning after a fatal fall sustained while cutting flowers from a tree in the garden of his Olson Street home. He was 89.

In 1989 Wilson founded North East Trees, a nonprofit environmental group devoted to planting at least five trees a day for the rest of his life—more than 50,000 so far—as well as ensuring jobs in the green industry for at-risk youth. He was trimming flowers on a tree in his Eagle Rock home for the altar of his Pasadena-based Unitarian church when he fell to the ground on Saturday, his daughter Catherine Richards said.

For more information about North East Trees, visit their website, and read a nice profile about their quiet, prolonged impact on Los Angeles from this past July by Emily Green at the Los Angeles Times:

Unless you are active in the field of urban greening, you probably haven’t heard of North East Trees. Unlike the better known TreePeople, North East Trees has not seen its founder land on "The Tonight Show."

Rather, the nonprofit that Scott Wilson started in 1989 by planting 700 oaks at Occidental College in Los Angeles' community of Eagle Rock has quietly been planting many more trees (50,000 at last count), working with low-income communities to create parks, and partnering with city and county agencies on water-harvesting projects. North East Trees has been at the cutting edge of L.A.’s ecological makeover.

As Wilson sees it, what sets North East Trees apart is that he was a landscape architect when the group started. He built a staff of foresters, designers and educators with the goal of strategic greening, going far beyond planting a tree streetside and hoping that it lived.

“It’s not about how many trees you plant,” said Wilson, right, during a brief meeting last week in the courtyard of the Department of Public Works in Alhambra (more on that later). “It’s about the right tree in the right place and about how many of those trees live.”

SEEDBOMB!

It has been a while between posts, but what better way to start up again than with a SEEDBOMB?  Ran into a SEEDBOMB dispenser while out to dinner in the Miracle Mile area on Saturday night.  For only 50 cents, you can buy a SEEDBOMB, not for consumption but for an act of ecological insurrection.  Not sure how successful the dispenser has been in terms of sales, but I would imagine it has been highly effective at communicating a measure of ecological literacy and spreading the good word. 

National Tree Benefit Calculator

Speaking of the importance of well-planned and supported street trees, The National Tree Benefit Calculator is an excellent new website from Casey Trees and Davey Tree Expert Co. that allows you to calculate the benefits of a street tree in your neighborhood.  Just type in your zip code and select an extensive list of tree species, and you can determine how much the tree is, or could be, adding to your property value, air quality, stormwater management, and utility savings.  Even better, the result also points out how much more benefit the tree is if nurtured and allowed to grow to even larger diameter, and provides a conceptual summary of how a tree can impact site performance.  The website is only in BETA-testing right now, but this is going to be a great outreach tool for engaging the public,and potential clients, in the value of planting, and maintaining, trees.  Below is a bit more about the assessment tool:

The Tree Benefit Calculator allows anyone to calculate a first-order approximation of the benefits individual street-side trees provide. This tool is based on i-Tree’s street tree assessment tool called STRATUM. With minimal inputs of location, species and tree size, users will get an understanding of the environmental and economic value trees provide on an annual basis.

The Tree Benefit Calculator is intended to be simple and accessible. As such, this tool should be considered a starting point for understanding trees’ value in the community rather than a scientific accounting of precise values. For more detailed information on urban and community forest assessments, visit the i-Tree website.

Credits:
The National Tree Benefit Calculator was conceived and developed by Casey Trees and Davey Tree Expert Co.

This tool is powered by i-Tree; the data generating the results comes from the i-Tree Tools CD ROM: http://www.itreetools.org/

Significant text and graphical content was originally published by the USDA Forest Service’s Center for Urban Forest Research through their Tree Guide series of publications. Credit should be given to authors of these publications.

Facts about personal carbon production based on driving and flying courtesy of Conservation International

For questions about this tool, contact Mike Alonzo (Casey Trees) or Scott Maco (Davey Tree Expert Co.)

LA Streets: Existing Conditions

I am pulling this one out from the files of design and construction miscues.  Ran into this tree while on a field visit in San Gabriel.  Why in the world a tree ever got planted here is beyond any reason, but, apparently, an ongoing testament to a miscue in a design office, missed plan checks in permitting, and a disastrous installation process in which the contractor refused to question the plans, and construction observation went out the window.  We put our street trees through enough (note the 4' x 4' planting area, massive surrounding imperviousness, residual nursery stake, and largely ineffective staking efforts), but planting them underneath a guy wire for an electrical pole just seems cruel.  There is no doubt this is a losing proposition from the get go.  While trees, always the optimists, make a good go of it, I am sure DPW will be coming to chop this tree back before long to make sure the electrical pole is not compromised.  With street trees being at a premium in Los Angeles, effective planning and installation for healthy, long-living trees can't be a luxury, but must be a necessity to build an effective and long-lasting urban forest.  Given that the well could have easily been installed ten feet to the left, I think it is fair to say we collectively dropped the ball on this one.

Santa Monica Civic Center Parks - Sustainable Park Workshop

Tomorrow at 1pm, the design team for the Santa Monica Civic Parks project will be hosting an educational workshop on sustainable park landscapes.  The talk will focus on, among other things, how native plants and ecologies in Southern California work, and how they can inform and participate in the Santa Monica Civic Park project.  More on the workshop from the project's website below:

As part of the series of workshops to engage the Santa Monica community in the design process for two new Civic Center parks, an educational workshop on sustainable park landscapes will be held on January 29. Members of the park design team under the leadership of James Corner Field Operations will make in-depth presentations on sustainable landscapes and discuss opportunities for the new parks. (pdf announcement)

Speakers: 
Bob Perry, professor, author and preeminent expert on ecology, water conservation and California native plants

John Greenlee, internationally-recognized horticulturalist, grass and meadow expert, author and lecturer

Lisa Switkin and Sarah Weidner Astheimer, lead park designers with James Corner Field Operations

When:   Saturday, January 29 at 1 pm
Where: Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, East Wing (1855 Main Street, Santa Monica 90401)
Questions? Email ccs@smgov.net.

Tejon Wilderness Conservation Easements Approved

The state of California approved the purchase of conservation easements for 62,000 acres in Tejon Ranch a few weeks ago, ensuring the preservation of at least 62,000 acres, but hopefully laying the groundwork for more than 240,000 acres to be protected in the future.  This initial, but critical step, is vital to helping preserve ecologically diverse open space in Southern California for future generations.  The LA Times has the fully story:

The state on Thursday approved the purchase of conservation easements on 62,000 acres in Tejon Ranch, the first step in implementing an agreement that would protect up to 240,000 acres of wild lands in one of the largest pieces of private property in California.
The $15.8-million grant from the state Wildlife Conservation Board will establish one of the largest conservation easements in California's history.

"If the Tejon Ranch is the Holy Grail of conservation in California — and it is — the Wildlife Conservation Board is the people's knight in shining armor," said Joel Reynolds of the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of five conservation groups that signed the 2008 agreement with the Tejon Ranch Co., which owns the 270,000-acre ranch that stretches from Los Angeles County to Kern County and is thought to contain some of the state's most ecologically rich landscapes.

The conservation board's grant will be used by the Tejon Ranch Conservancy, which was created to manage the newly protected lands, to purchase easements on five parcels that include Joshua tree and oak woodlands, Mojave Desert grasslands, riparian woodlands and San Joaquin Valley grasslands.

Graham Chisholm, chairman of the Tejon Ranch Conservancy board of directors and executive director of Audubon California, said Thursday's announcement ensured the original deal will be honored.

"While the 2008 agreement was a landmark achievement for the conservation of these lands, the purchase of these easements really cements the victory," he said.

The conservation easements will prevent the Tejon Ranch Co. from future development of the properties but allows ranching and hunting activities to continue. The conservancy will have authority to plan for conservation of the land and public access to the property.
The Tejon Ranch Co. has agreed to place 178,000 acres in conservation easements, but that process is dependent on approval of the company's development projects elsewhere on the ranch.

M56 - A Window into the Life of an Urban Cougar

Map from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved. 

The LA Times has an engaging and challenging story about M56, a 20-month old cougar tagged in Orange County back in March by researchers from UC Davis.  The story highlights his journey of almost 100 miles over two months through the urban matrix of Southern California before eventually being trapped and euthanized after attacking livestock.  It draws out the difficult realities of integrating wildlife, particularly predatory animals, into the urban matrix, while underscoring the profound capacity of certain wildlife to adapt and navigate through the urban landscape.  An excerpt from the article is provided below, and a slideshow of M56 and places he wandered during his journey is available here:

For eight weeks, M56 moved relentlessly, guided by a primordial compass. He covered more than 100 miles and climbed from sea level to a mile high. He traversed saw-toothed mountains, navigated busy highways and furtively skirted suburban neighborhoods.

The 20-month-old mountain lion, wearing a tracking collar affixed by UC Davis researchers, left his mother in the foothills of Orange County in early March and struck out on his own.

He traveled south through Camp Pendleton, then turned east toward the high country of eastern San Diego County, which opens on the horizon like a centerfold in a coffee table book.

M56 stunned scientists by becoming the first cougar in a decade of study to cross Interstate 15 — most likely via an underpass where signs point to housing developments that have pushed deep into Southern California's mountain lion habitat. Weeks later, M56 emerged from chaparral-choked wilderness and ducked under Interstate 8 about 45 miles east of San Diego.

Like any juvenile cougar, M56 was searching for food, potential mates and territory unclaimed by another male. Above all, he avoided people. He was learning to survive.

The night of April 24, he moved through a wooded area and stopped a few miles from the Mexican border, just north of Campo. After two months of moving south and east, M56 turned and headed northwest back into the woods.

Maybe it was the light of ranchettes less than a half-mile away. A stray dog might have spooked him. Or maybe he had picked up the scent of another cougar and turned to avoid a fight.

One thing is clear: M56 was about to make his first — and last — mistake.

LA River Events and News

Image from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved.

The LA River has had a good couple of weeks, including first its designation as a navigable river by the EPA (which might seem laughable given its general low flow and concrete banks, but is actually an important step towards potential restoration of the river), and then a couple of interesting profiles of cultural uses of the river from the LA Times.  The first showcased a couple of environmentalists attempt to kayak down the LA River, and the second highlight an artist's performance project within the river. 

Image from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved.

Image from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved.

I thought both were interesting because they provided striking images and views of the river in a mix of environmental, cultural and aesthetic contexts, highlighting how the current form of the river has a unique value that shouldn't be minimized or lost, but also a great future potential. 

Green Walls, SoCal Style #2 - Au Natural

  A local pub is even more "Cozy" with a vine wall.

In a continuing look at green facades and green walls in Los Angeles, I had to include the tried and trued method of just letting nature do its thing.  Vine-covered walls (or masonry walls on which self-climbing vines have attached themselves to) have been a long-loved part of LA for many years, and they come in many different forms based on the type of vine used, maintenance practices employed, and overall project type.

Much like plant-use in a traditional landscape, plant selection and horticultural practices dictate different aesthetic outcomes, presenting interesting opportunities for reworking building facades and little-used spaces into greener niches of the urban fabric.  Vine walls soften what would otherwise be a painted or barren masonry wall, and, when used en masse, can transform an entire building into a green shell of Algerian Ivy or Creeping Fig.  Each transformation is unique and compelling, providing texture, varied colors, and graphic qualities to urban form.. While vine walls require time to fill in, that time provides a strength to their character because it engenders a sense of time, history, and perhaps even a touch of romanticism.  You know this plant has been here for awhile, which in a place of constant change like LA, is meaningful.  What is also great about vine walls in LA is how varied the types of establishments are that have embraced them.  Whether a 5-star restaurant or a local dive bar, or whether in Beverly Hills or Culver City, vine walls flourish.   Here are a few images of some different vine walls near my house in LA, with more sure to come.    

  The sheared green facade creates a clean, architectural look.

 

  Another wall transformed through the mass and void of the creeping vine.

   Full vines provide screening and a softer, more naturalistic look.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My (Okay, just Lions . . . Mountain Lions that is)

(Image from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved.)

So, after a busy couple of weeks away from the blog, what better way to return than with a great story about nature persisting, and hopefully enduring in the midst of our urban context.  The LA Times reported that a litter of three mountain lions was discovered in Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area! 

The Santa Monica Mountains welcomed a litter of three mountain lions, officials announced today.

According to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the kittens were discovered on May 26 near Peter Strauss Ranch. Two are female and one is male, according to a news release.

"Each mountain lion kitten has been implanted with a tracking device that will allow researchers to follow the kittens’ movement," according to the recreation area. "This is the first urban mountain lion study that has had the opportunity to track mountain lion kittens from such a young age. National Park Service researchers will study the new litter to see if the male mountain lion kitten will attempt to disperse to more expansive habitat when he matures, and if the females will have litters of their own in the future."

Officials say it marks only the second time officials have documented a litter of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains. The first was in the summer of 2004.

Great news, and an incredible opportunity to learn more about the migration patterns of mountain lions.  Like many large range predators, mountain lions have suffered a lot of negative consequences due to expanding urban areas throughout the southwest.  Hopefully this discovery provides both a positive sign for mountain lion populations, and a chance to improve our ability to protect and accommodate mountain lion habitat more successfully.  And, baby mountain lion pictures in the daily news cycle are always a good thing.

 (Image from LA Times.  All Rights Reserved.)

Green Walls, SoCal Style #1 - Woolly Pocket

As part of living in a semi-arid or arid environment, the question has always arisen about whether green technologies that are so successful in other regions make sense in ours. What type of green technologies  work, and what form might those green technologies take in our environment?  Do green roofs make water sense?  What about green walls?  And, what aesthetic opportunities exist for designers looking to incorporate these technologies into our environment? 

This post is the beginning of a running series showcasing the various forms of green walls that exist or are being introduced into Los Angeles. Each post will provide a brief overview of the system and show some images of each type of green wall.  All of them provide an interesting, and unique, aesthetic solution to regreening the urban environment, although some might be more water sensitive than others. 

This post looks at the Woolly Pocket (a recent post also discussed the system's application in school gardens).  The Woolly Pocket is self-described as:

Woolly Pockets are flexible, breathable, and modular gardening containers. They`come in two styles: those designed to be placed on horizontal surfaces, and those designed to be hung on walls for vertical gardening. You can use Woolly Pockets both indoors and out; they have built-in moisture barriers to help protect furniture, and they're equally at home outside in the elements. They're perfect for creating urban gardens where you have space to garden but no land to garden in.

The system is a modular concept based on individual, sewn pouches that provide a durable, lightweight planting container that can be repeated multiple times to cover a larger area.  Originally the product used a felt-like material, but now it is made out of a more durable nylon-like material that breathes for proper oxygen exchange.  Each pouch includes a moisture barrier to protect adjacent surfaces.

Detail of system from Woolly Pocket.  All Rights Reserved.

The system has been advertised as both an indoors and outdoors solution. The one example I have seen firsthand is on La Cienega Blvd. between Washington Blvd. and Venice Blvd.  It wraps across the front facade of a car repair business.  This installation incorporates the older, felt-like product line, and has a few additional components, including irrigation, and plastic sheeting to protect the masonry wall.  The plastic sheeting was installed initially to form a base behind the pockets, and then the pockets were installed in an overlapping pattern to cover the majority of the facade.  Main irrigation lines were installed at the top of the wall to gravity feed lateral lines running along each row of pouches.  Below are some images of the system.

 View of facade of Woolly Pocket installation on La Cienega Blvd.

  Additional view of facade of Woolly Pocket installation on La Cienega Blvd.

 Additional view of facade of Woolly Pocket installation on La Cienega Blvd.

  Detail of installation showing plastic sheeting behind overlapped pockets.

  Image of main line (see white pipe at top) protruding from wall

 Detail shot of irrigation lateral feeding a bubbler to an individual pocket

All in all, the effect of the system is pretty impressive, both at masking the facade of the building, but also in the diversity of plant materials that have been successfully grown in them.  I do wonder about how much irrigation is devoted to this particular installation, but given the simplicity of the installation on what appears to be an existing industrial-use building, this is a pretty cool, retrofit system that could hold a lot of regreening potential, and a lot of aesthetic opportunity based on plant selection and patterning of installation. 

Community-based Water Harvesting

My neighborhood just got a welcome, new addition.  A local community group recently built a raised planter / stormwater management cell in a parkway to help control runoff from a nearby parking lot.  The cell incorporates broken concrete slabs to frame the planter and provides raised beds planted with vegetables and flowers.  While the cell is definitely a small, primitive intervention compared to many of the well-publicized, pilot projects we see in Portland and beyond, the project underscores for me the power of simple, community-based efforts for reworking our urban landscapes in a more sustainable fashion. Something as simple as some concrete, small grade changes and soil can help reduce runoff and increase planting area along a street.  Can't wait to see how well the cell works in a rain event, and the maturation of the plantings. 

Council District Nine Neighborhood City Hall

 View from roof garden of arrival courtyard, stormwater pond, and solar panels.

As part of National Landscape Architecture Month, the SoCal ASLA Chapter hosted a lecture and tour at the new Los Angeles Council District Nine Neighborhood City Hall.  The lecture included a talk by Simon Pastucha from the City of Los Angeles Urban Design Department, and an introduction of the project by the designers and project sponsor, District 9 Councilmember Jan Perry.  Paul Murdoch Architects, Rana Creek, and Pamela Burton and Company designed the project, which offers an interesting approach to green urban infrastructure in the park poor, highly urban area of South Central Los Angeles.  The 37,000 acre site was envisioned as two things: first, a demonstration site for sustainable technologies for the surrounding community, and, second, as a new, safe open space for the community.  The resulting design incorporates a 7,000gallon underground cistern, a stormwater collection pond, green walls, parking lot bioswales, drought-tolerant plantings, solar panels, and a huge, accessible roof garden designed as a new community open space.  Open since January, the project has already been a huge success, and hosted a number of community events.  As Councilmember Perry noted, the site has provided a space for people of all ages to gather at night safely, and has also reintroduced a bit of nature into the highly urban environment.  Both squirrels and butterflies have been seen on the site, which most of us might consider seemingly common elements, but rare are features in District 9.  Great project, and great model for ways to retrofit our built environment.

Stormwater management pond with rain chain

View of the accessible roof garden.  A mix of succulents, grasses, and wildflowers fill the planters.  A strong scent of sage permeated the space when we visited.

View of the parking lot and bioswales used to manage runoff. 

Arid Lands Institute - Spring 2010 Design Workshops

The Arid Lands Institute at Woodbury University in Burbank has announced their Spring 2010Workshop series.  Focusing on "Smart Design Strategies for Managing Water + Energy in a Changing Climate," it should be an excellent series featuring a nice mix of design professionals, sustainability experts, and advocates.  The free workshops are designed to introduce laypeople, developers, stakeholders, and design professionals alike to water- and energy-conserving design strategies. While I imagine some of the content may be general for knowledgeable participants, it promises to provide regional case studies, and an opportunity to dialogue about sustainable design strategies for Los Angeles.  Registration information is available on their webpage.

Workshop_1: Smart Buildings: Green Roofs/Green Walls
Saturday, March 27th
9 am – 3 pm
Linda Taalman, Taalman Koch Architecture
Deborah Richmond, AIA, Touraine Richmond Architects
Stephanie V. Landregan, ASLA, UCLA Extension Landscape Architecture


Workshop_2: Smart Landscapes: Yard, Driveway, Sidewalk, Street
Saturday, April 3rd
9 am - 3 pm
Fritz Haeg, Edible Estates
Holly Harper, NorthEast Trees
David Fletcher, Fletcher Studio


Workshop_3: Smart Systems: Rainwater Harvesting + Greywater
Saturday, April 17th
9 am - 3 pm
Leigh Jerrard, California Greywater Corps
Jenna Didier, Fountainhead Design

Bimini Slough Ecology Park

(image from LA Creek Freak. All Rights Reserved.)

Great overview from LA Creek Freak on the Bimini Slough Ecology Park, an interesting urban restoration project near Koreatown.  The article provides a nice history and background for the project including how the project came to be, details on its construction, and most importantly, how to get there to check it out.  A small excerpt from the post:

Fast-forward to the late 1990’s, and two non-profits which are located on this block:

• The Bresee Foundation grew out of the First Church of the Nazarine at 3rd and Juanita. Bresee provides services for youth and their families. In 2001 Bresee opened its community center building at the corner of Bimini and Second.
• Los Angeles Eco-Village (a project of its parent non-profit the Cooperative Resources and Services Project – CRSP) purchased two apartment buildings on the north end of Bimini Place. (Creek Freak Joe Linton lives there.)

The Bresee Foundation, under the leadership of Jeff Carr, began to make plans to close a block of Second Street to create a small park. Initial estimates for park construction looked to be about $400,000… until the city requested a $400,000 underground storm drain be built to get rainwater from one end of the park to the other. Carr told eco-village founder Lois Arkin about this, and she brought in the non-profit North East Trees to use that water, instead of getting rid of it. The solution of flowing that water on the surface of the park ends up being cheaper and better than building the infrastructure necessary to put that water in a huge pipe underground.

North East Trees designed a small park that features a creekbed bio-swale running through it. During much of the year, the creek is pretty much dry. When it rains, water from streets runs into the park. Vegetation in the creekbed slows down flowing rainwater. This helps settle pollutants carried by the stormwater. The pollutants settle into the soil and are broken down by microorganisms. In addition, some of the rainwater infiltrates into the soil, recharging our groundwater.

In addition to providing recreation and relief for the community, the park provides multiple watershed management benefits. It improves water quality (and air quality), increases water supply, provides habitat, and reduces risk of flooding. I like to say that we need thousands of parks like this spread throughout our communities, then we will have restored more healthy watershed functions, then we can more easily remove much of the concrete from our rivers and creeks… and daylight many of the creeks that we’ve buried underground.

Life without the Lawn?

Increasing water scarcity, rising concern for native habitats, and the need to reduce energy use and greenhouse gases are threatening the very existence of lawn in Southern California. And, while many would see this as good riddance, it also poses the question: what is life without the lawn?  This is the first of I am sure many posts considering the ramifications of our life with the lawn in Southern California, and what it might look like potentially without it.  First off - issues with lawn:. ASLA's The Dirt shared this report this week from the New York Times:

The New York Times’ Dot Earth blog reports on a new study on urban green space from Geophysical Research Letters, a publication of the American Geophysical Union, which contends many urban green spaces emit more greenhouse gases (GHGs) than they absorb. This is due to the high amounts of emissions from lawn irrigation, fertilizer, mowing, and leaf blowing. The study argues: “Turfgrass lawns remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere through photosynthesis and store it as organic carbon in soil, making them important ‘carbon sinks.’ However, greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer production, mowing, leaf blowing and other lawn management practices are four times greater than the amount of carbon stored by ornamental grass in parks.”

Claudia Czimczik, a researcher at University of California, Irvine, and a co-author of the study, told Dot Earth: “Lawns weren’t initially invented to store greenhouse gases — they have a lot of other purposes such as recreation. But there is a lot of recent political discussions about lawns as carbon sinks, and if that is the case we need to consider the whole package.”
According to Dot Earth, the researchers looked at four parks in Irvine, including open lawns and athletic fields. Open lawns which use fertilizers emit “heat-trapping nitrous oxide,” which “offsets 10 to 30 percent of the carbon dioxide captured and stored.” Additionally, the fuel used in mowing and leaf-blowing ”releases four times more carbon dioxide than the lawns soak up. Athletic fields fare even worse because they require more maintenance.”
Czimczik said Californian parks may be a special case because park officials maintain their parks year round. More research needs to be conducted on the emissions of green spaces in other regions. She added that push mowers should also be considered.


Dot Earth points to the EPA’s GreenScapes program, which can encourages homeowners to think about land, water, air, and energy use in their lawn maintenance. Unfortunately, the article leaves out the Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), a comprehensive new rating system, which addresses all of these issues (see earlier post).

Clip-on Architecture

(image from Urban Omnibus)

Nice summary article presented on Urban Omnibus called Clip-on Architecture: Reforesting Cities.  It presents a succinct overview of the different systems that exist for greening and revegetating our existing built environment to make them more sustainable.  Overall, none of the strategies are particularly new to most design professionals, but representing them in a public friendly way is always appreciated, and the final graphic (see above) showcasing how the systems could work together in a more holistic fashion is an inspirational gem.  Here the strategies transform from simply 'clip-on' architecture to function more successfully as a comprehensive landscape solution.  Because, ultimately, green efforts matter only in regard to their scale of influence. Site-scale solutions solve site-scale problems while holding a potential to affect larger-scale concerns.  It is by coordinating these smaller interventions that these potential impacts are actualized to realize larger-scale change.  Together multiple site-scale solutions begin to produce a community change that can potentially affect a region and beyond.  Hopefully cities like LA can partner an interest in 'clip-on' solutions with an effective landscape-scale understanding to truly reforest our built environment in a profound way. 

Ballona Wetlands

I visited the Ballona Wetlands in Playa del Rey on Saturday for a guided tour of the Freshwater Marsh.  It is a wonderful example of a constructed wetland that not only provides stormwater management for surrounding development but also helps reconstruct lost habitat in an urban context. 

The project was the result of a compromise between developers and environmentally-minded community activists.  They successfully negotiated a reduced development footprint for the nearby Playa Vista development, as well as the creation of a constructed wetland to manage stormwater and replace lost coastal habitats. (A number of other habitats were preserved or restored as well, including a saltwater marsh and dune habitat).  In addition, HOA fees from Playa Vista help support ongoing maintenance of the wetland along with the active efforts of the non-profit Friends of the Ballona Wetlands.

Since it was completed, monitoring of the project has identified over 200 species of birds utilizing the marsh, including 5 indicator species.  Although still a work in process, it is an ecological asset for wildlife and nearby residents who can see a wide diversity of California flora and fauna right next door.  During my visit, I saw white egrets, green-winged teals, red-tailed hawks, bushtits, a kestrel, red-wing blackbirds, and coots among many others.   Check out more about the project's history here.  

Draft LID Ordinance Approved

Continuing the theme of stormwater management, I am happy to report that on Jan. 15th, the Los Angeles Board of Public Works unanimously approved a draft Low-Impact Development (LID) ordinance for LA.  The ordinance would require 100% of the runoff generated from a three-quarter-inch storm at newly constructed homes, larger developments and certain redevelopments to be captured and reused or infiltrated on site. If compliance is infeasible on site, developers could pay a stormwater pollution mitigation fee to help pay for off-site public LID projects like green streets and alleys.  Accordingly to Board of Public Works Commissioner Paula Daniels, "the new requirements would prevent 104 million gallons of polluted urban runoff from washing in to the ocean." (LA Times)  Supported design strategies in the ordinance include rainwater storage tanks, permeable pavement, infiltration swales or curb bumpouts to manage the water where it falls. A penalty of $13 per gallon of runoff that was not handled on site would be applied.

The ordinance will now move on to two more committees before facing a council vote and approval by the mayor.  Hopefully the ordinance will be approved in the next six months, and go in to effect by the end of 2010.  If so, next rainy season could be a whole lot greener.  For more information and coverage, check out Spouting Off - a blog by Mark Gold, President of Heal The Bay, for a great discussion on the significance of this ordinance, and LA Stormwater for a discussion of what LID is, including its benefits and examples of applications elsewhere.

GUERILLA GARDENING - LA STYLE

For those not sure what Guerilla Gardening is, a few quotes from LA's Guerilla Gardening Chapter (LAGG) website sum it up:

"The illicit cultivation of someone else's land." - Richard Reynolds
"Gardening public space with or without permission." - David Tracey

Guerrilla Gardening is a grass-roots, worldwide movement begun in London that has a radical name and what some might perceive as a revolutionary agenda because of its manner of appropriating public or private space towards a communal good.  Empty lots, barren planters, weed filled right-of-ways, and even posters are appropriated under the cover of darkness to grow plants, and so-called "seed bombs" are thrown to propagate wildflowers and beautify neighborhoods.  Most often these unused spaces are converted into flower beds, but some groups have converted these spaces into productive urban agriculture landscapes or native plant havens.

This appropriation of spaces could be illegal depending on the locality, although the (il)legality of the act is lot more murky in Los Angeles.  Interestingly, though, many groups have found not just community members but property owners, and even municipalities, receptive to these initiatives.  In large part this has been the case in Los Angeles, probably due to the LAGG's mission which seems to be more of a community-based approach to improving our often neglected public spaces than an assault on private property.  As LAGG describes it, their mission is:

"To not only get our hands dirty and start gardens all over Los Angeles, but to become a resource for other potential Guerrilla Gardeners and a homebase for people interested in brightening their own communities."

That doesn't mean they aren't stirring things up, and enjoying the anti-establishment edge of the movement.  Many members have adopted clever pseudonyms (Phil O'Dendron and Lord Aloe are two personal favorites), and the group coordinates a number of social outings with the air of cloak and dagger ecological missions.  Ultimately, that might be the greatest success of the Guerilla Gardening movement is interjecting some intrigue, coolness, fun, hipness, and sexiness into gardening.  They aren't just planting a few shrubs, they are part of an anti-establishment movement.

Whether the groups mission seems overly radical to you, it is certainly an opportunity to work together to maximize the limited open space we have in urban areas to transform them into functioning aesthetic and ecological elements within the urban fabric.  Perhaps the key for even wider adoption is working to create partnerships that don't require the cloak of darkness to achieve this, even if the bandanas make it hip to be an urban gardener.

Some cool links about Guerilla Gardening in LA and beyond:
http://www.laguerrillagardening.org/
http://www.guerrillagardening.org/