A Seventh Year, Rain to Come?

This year is supposed to be a big one for rain in Southern California; up in the Pacific Northwest the El Nino is beginning to hit with full force. The North Coast Mountain ranges are now covered in a good snowpack with more on the way. This is a relief, but not a reprieve from the serious drought plaguing the US Pacific Southwest. Everything has changed this year, with the water allowances cut back by 25% and the lawns turning brown and now disappearing. The Los Angeles region is a major urban center that now relies too much on the rains of an earlier generation, and can no longer pull the vast amounts of distant water from the the three big aqueducts that were built in the early to mid 1900's.

We don't know yet how our climate issues will play out. With the culmination of the COP21 Paris climate agreement on Saturday December 12, we're now faced with a necessarily rapid turnabout in our carbon emissions.

To quote Michael Mann:

Finally, global energy policy is beginning to reflect the clear message of climate change research. We have only one atmosphere, shared by developed and developing countries. We have only one planet, and the steady upward march in greenhouse gas concentrations and the consequent warming of the planet and attendant rise in sea level, expansion of drought and increase in destructive extreme weather events will spare none from its impacts. With the Paris summit, we finally have an agreement that holds all countries accountable for taking action on climate.

This means that many, many things will have to happen across the globe and at home in our myriad countries. This is summarized in an article from the World Bank.This is simply a beginning that will encompass every sector of life in all countries.

This means that hope for our common planetary future, while faint now, is still alive for us.

A Sixth Year - The Rains Came

A dent in our drought, thanks to the Pineapple Express that developed suddenly in December, has appeared, and our gardens and hills are beginning to revive in the rain. The high-pressure ridge over California that prevented the storms from coming in has apparently dissipated.

"We've had a few weather systems come through," said Leslie Wanek, a meteorologist in Salt Lake City at the regional headquarters of the National Weather Service. "But it just keeps rebuilding there. It's kind of a mystery about why. Why is the global atmospheric pattern stuck like this?"

This resilient ridge has actually altered the geography in California, and has displayed some unusual warming in the local weather, based upon computer simulations.

Using these climate model simulations, we found that the human emission of greenhouse gases has very likely tripled the likelihood of experiencing large-scale atmospheric conditions similar to those observed in 2013.

This rainy season is just a small dent in this long-term drought, and we need a lot of rain to recover. Groundwater reserves throughout the state are drastically depleted and need years of good rain to recover.

The climate change that has heated up the atmosphere apparently contributed to the lessening precipitation all across the globe, it's not an isolated phenomenon. That, along with the increased human consumption and pollution of rivers and waterways, is a recipie for stressed landscapes and scarce water. While our public policies around the world have moved towards "resilient design" to cope with this new climate, it's imperative that we rapidly take the steps necessary to reduce emissions to zero before climate change becomes irreversible.

A Fifth Year, Now Without Rain

We've entered a period of drought here in the Southwest; last year's record dry winter appears to be the new normal. This pattern has been predicted by the climate models, and so here we are. Planning is in place now with appointments at the State level for a drought management team:

U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Jim Costa (D-16) on Dec. 9 sent a joint letter to Gov. Jerry Brown asking him to declare a statewide drought emergency that would activate the state’s emergency plan and permit some relaxation of state regulations concerning water. Cowin hinted a drought declaration could be coming.

There's more to consider than just the economics and logistical problems of water scarcity. We have forests and an urban biosphere that are severely stressed already. The ecology of forests and their complexity rely upon sufficient water and soil humidity to maintain the forest structure and underground water and nutrients. During droughts, the resiliency of these forests and landscaping are greatly reduced, and the recovery is a slow and complex process, potentially threatening its viability. A video from the University of British Columbia examines the nature of this integration of the living forest.

In this real-life model of forest resilience and regeneration, Professor Suzanne Simard shows that all trees in a forest ecosystem are interconnected, with the largest, oldest, "mother trees" serving as hubs. The underground exchange of nutrients increases the survival of younger trees linked into the network of old trees. Amazingly, we find that in a forest, 1+1 equals more than 2.

Update Dec. 21, 2013: There's a reason for that.
The extraordinary California dry spell continues: 2013 will probably be the driest year on record (from California Weather Blog)

Just a Pixel

The City of Los Angeles has posted its Climate Change portal which examines in detail a study area that is simply one pixel in the large climate models:

The study looked at the years 2041–60 to predict the average temperature change by mid-century. The data covers all of Los Angeles County and 30 to 60 miles beyond, including all of Orange County and parts of Ventura, San Bernardino and Riverside counties, and reaching as far as Palm Springs, Bakersfield and Santa Barbara. The study overlaid this entire area with a grid of squares 1.2 miles across and provided unique temperature predictions for each square. This is in contrast to global climate models, which normally use grids 60 to 120 miles across — big enough to include areas as different as Long Beach and Lancaster.

It's a recognition that Los Angeles takes climate change very seriously; it's not a theoretical problem, and is trying to help the businesses and residents of the city prepare for the coming changes. The local Los Angeles Times has covered the issue of climate change denial in its press coverage. For example, the attitude of the climate deniers is challenged, in an interview with E.O. Wilson:

What are the consequences of this attitude on, say, climate change?

I've been asked this numerous times: Are we going to be able to pull this thing out in time? I believe in a dictum I first heard from the [deputy] prime minister of Israel, Abba Eban. He said, when all else fails, men turn to reason. Maybe this will happen in time, but right now we are pouring species and biodiversity down the drain for nothing.

Another LAT article questions the wisdom of ignoring the problem:

Droughts in Texas and Louisiana, melting glaciers in Alaska and wildfires in Arizona -- with combined losses running into the tens of billions of dollars -- might lead some to conclude that fighting climate change would be cheaper than ignoring it. But such logicians probably aren't members of Congress from those states, many of whom have deep ties to the oil and gas industry or are simply philosophically opposed to environmental regulation.

While climate change is really a discussion about carbon emissions and how to drastically reduce them, the conversation in Los Angles has been about local efforts in city planning and the restoration of the LA River. What's not mentioned is the impact of the Ports of Los Angles and Long Beach, the single biggest pollution source for the region, as well as their transportation infrastructure which stretches all across Southern California via the Alameda Corridor and designated highways. This transit corridor issue has reared its ugly head again with a new attempt by Metro to run freight through local cities. The surrounding communities are dead set against a massive, destructive proposed project which will drastically increase truck emissions, the 710 connector.

That issue aside, the approach that the city is taking in its local region is an emphasis on restoration projects, which includes habitat regeneration and the accompanying job creation that results from it. These projects can go far beyond simply restoring ecosystems, as a Volkswagen production facility in Mexico demonstrates.

A New Vision

The Hahamongna Watershed Park is undergoing a public review as a result of the public outcry against the devastation of the Arcadia Woodlands and the discovery of the LA County plans to move massive amounts of sediment into the park, which provides for the natural drainage of the Arroyo Seco. Hahamongna is a precious natural resource, not a sediment dump, as chief citizen defender Mary Barrie has documented extensively in public hearing. This has forced the County into an EIR process to show the public what it intends to do in response to the sediment piling up behind Devil's Gate Dam, as a result of lack of maintenance as well as a consequence of the Station Fire. The announcement for the scoping meetings by the County is here on their website.

Karen Bugge, the Altadena Hiker, has posted her story for the EIR process here. I have also participated in the scoping meeting, and submitted the following recommendation for management of this watershed in a new era that is "post-hydraulic" in terms of dealing with nature's processes and the consequences of treating natural water systems like a plumbing project:

Dam reconstruction is effective and entirely feasible in the restoration of natural processes which carry away the sediment instead of trucking it from behind an outdated and unmaintained dam. The short-term costs to change the dam structure and clear out the obstructions to natural flow are vastly smaller than ongoing sediment removal programs which are not actually carried out, for cost reasons, endangering all the communities downstream of the dam. Life cycle estimates (100 years) should be the basis for cost comparisons that include the maintenance and repair for all structures, and this would integrate the value of natural ecosystems into the equation.

Sediment management is the self-inflicted result of placing dams in the way of natural water processes that carry the sediment to the base of the mountains and create a fertile alluvial plain. In order to replenish nutrients in the soil, as well as recharge the natural aquifers that supply well water, these natural drainage patterns must be restored. That doesn't preclude artificial water storage, but these strategies must engage the natural terrain properties that exist free of charge. Water flow moves sediment, and managing that flow rather than stopping it provides a sustainable way to provide water, soil nutrients, sand, gravel and mud into areas that sustain the ecology of the region.

Natural flood protection can be attained by protecting and restoring wetlands and floodplains, and by restoring a river’s natural flow and meandering channel. Giving at least some floodplain back to a river will give the river more room to spread out. Furthermore, wetlands act as natural sponges, storing and slowly releasing floodwaters after peak flood flows have passed.

The following steps should be taken:

1. Adopt a strategic conceptual plan identifying the watershed region and its component functioning parts. Begin implementation of this concept by adopting public-private partnerships that can continually fund the ongoing restoration efforts through private fiscal investment repaid with bond or tax structures. Partner with communities and their leadership, mountains conservancies, conservation nonprofits and the County. Everyone working together can make this happen.

2. Implement reconstruction/modification of the dam to allow water and sediment flows downstream into the areas that need these natural flows. Develop water storage strategies that are effective and multivalent, possibly a series of check dams that work in optimal natural locations and recharge the Raymond Aquifer.

3. Establish a flood plain easement program to minimize flood impacts, reduce repeat damages and store floodwaters for benefits of downstream residents and communities.

Baby Steps

The maps above show the intermodal density maps for several large rail operators, and reveals the volume of rail activity across the country. Rail is a huge part of the equation for energy consumption and pollution in all regions, but the picture is immediate and obvious in the scale of activity locally here in the Los Angeles basin. The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are the busiest container seaports in North America. The two ports combined move more than $350 billion worth of goods and materials annually. (Here's my earlier discussion of the rail network.)

That, combined with our unique geography of mountains that ring the regions and capture pollutants under an inversion layer, makes our environment the third worst air quality region in the nation, even under the old EPA standards that remain in force as Obama just recently scrapped new EPA regulations.

The ports have made a commitment to reducing these pollutants as well as lowering emissions of toxic chemicals. They are among the biggest contributors to the environmental problems we're dealing with, as well as the player with the largest capability of making major changes to the big environmental picture. Since the ports require upgrades and rebuilding in order to handle the growing cargo traffic, major upgrades are being incorporated into the rebuilt infrastructure. Many strategies are being implemented to deal with the transport issues.

These include The improvements to existing port rail stock and enhancement of the short rail system for "first-mile" and "last-mile" cargo loading and unloading. Their Clean Trucks Program was just recently decided in favor of the ports, which means that trucking companies are responsible for keeping the rigs in compliance with the emissions guidelines, weak as they are.

BNSF Railway has proposed a Southern California International Gateway (SCIG). This near-dock rail facility, located a few miles from the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, could allow cargo to be transferred onto rail closer to the ports, increasing use of the Alameda Corridor and improving local traffic and air quality. This is controversial due to its impact on residential areas near the ports, but it gets the truck traffic off of the 710 freeway by relocating the rail yards 20 miles closer to the ports.

This is among many steps the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are undertaking, but some game-changers would rapidly transform the region and move it towards Net Zero energy consumption and emissions. The ports have technology incubators that are developing new initiatives to address these issues. PortTechLA and San Pedro Bay Port Technologies Development Center are examples of the kinds of incubators that can team with cities and universities to bring innovation into the redevelopment picture.

For example, at the international scale, energy is the biggest single driver in the environmental picture. China is buying energy in this country in the form of extractive oil and tar sands with its contracts and investments within the USA to foster its growth. A better scenario would be for the ports to be part of an energy production center on the coast, with biofuels from algae, which can be produced and sold without the destructive impact of mining and drilling. These renewable fuels are easily and most cheaply shipped from the ports to global destinations, as well as burning the biofuels as they go. In this very big picture, it's a major impact that can also clean up the ports and eliminate the toxic load of oil production and refining. When you have a clean port, then people will be interested in living in the area. Port cities have been the most vital and dynamic cities throughout history, and an integration of living areas, commerce, and restored environmental marshes and habitat could create a new nexus for Los Angeles that actually regenerates the environment rather than retaining the old destructive industries, even as it accommodates more living space for people in a sustainable way.

A Special Place: Hahamongna

Another video produced by Time River Productions, involved with the Urbanwild Network, provides an excellent documentation and background of this endangered watershed and Arroyo Seco floodplain. This watershed is still under threat of destruction by the LA County DPW, and public objection is on the rise. Even MWD Director Tim Brick has given testimony before the Pasadena City Council last year in July regarding the critical importance of Hahamongna. This video writeup is below:

The Hahamongna Watershed in California consists of the stream drainage in the Arroyo Seco as it exits the San Gabriel Mountains near Pasadena and La Canada. Hahamongna was the name of the original Tongva Indian Village that occupied the Arroyo Seco area from at least 1200 CE until the European invasion. In 1920 the County of Los Angeles build Devil's Gate Dam across the Arroyo to help control flooding and to aid water conservation. Silt, mud, and debris collect behind the dam. The 2009 Station Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains has led to an increase in the debris accumulation such that the dam's operation is becoming impaired. The County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works put forth a plan to remove the debris, which also involves removing well established native trees and vegetation such as California Black Willow Trees and threatening the habitat of the endangered species, The Arroyo Toad.

Earlier in 2011 the Department of Public Works created a public outcry when it destroyed 11 acres of over 200 old growth native oaks and sycamore trees in the Arcadia Woodlands to make a temporary storage area for mud and silt Concerned citizens demanded an independent environmental impact statement be drawn up for County's Hahmongna Plan. Questions were raised about why the County allowed silt and debris to build up behind local dam to a point that tthe problem has become an emergency. The dams were built in the 1920s and 30s, so it has been argued that the County has had more than adequate time to clear the build up behind dams.

This video provides a mosaic of the Hahamongna watershed area, so the viewer can see the area in question and make up their own minds about the proper course for this natural ecosystem.

The Threat Remains

On May 24, a Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee public meeting reviewed the various issues involved with the water, dam repair and sediment issues, as well as the various user group agreements for the site. A report on this meeting is here at Friends of Hahamongna. An additional blogged response, a very effective one from Dianne Patrizzi, is here at Mademoiselle Gramophone; a map posted here shows the issues very clearly.

This project has become a long, drawn-out fight about the use of natural riparian habitat area for a soccer field, about which no one seems to know why it's being proposed in this location. It appears to be a manufactured use, since the public demand for soccer fields is centered in the schools. It's in an isolated area that has seasonal flooding, perfect place to take your kids to drown in the muck, I suppose. It will destroy the habitat with tons of sediment fill (I think I see the hand of the County and the MWD in this) that currently sits behind the dam. Unfortunately this one-time solution of piling sediment here does not solve the ongoing sedimentation issue with a functional redesign of the system which could sluice the sediment and bank more water than the old original design is capable of. Where does the next pile go? The discussion has a long, involved timeline of over a decade, which can be read in a series of articles on the Save Hahamongna site.

An earlier report from June of 2010 documents a public meeting that, as always, registered serious public protest over this proposed development in the Hahamongna Watershed Park. Somehow the actual public desires and goals for this public open space are being lost to destructive management solutions, so that this threat to our local natural ecosystems remains to this day.

We must redefine this problem to respond to the actual impact of increasing runoff and silting that occurs now and in the future; that was never part of the original plan which was to just park this pile of sediment inside the Watershed Park. And so what does the County plan to do with the next pile of dirt in a few years? Just fill in the whole thing? This makes less and less sense the further this thing moves along, particularly since the County doesn't do the necessary maintenance that would mitigate the problem.

The destruction of the Angeles National Forest during Sept. of 2009 has not been taken into account as it should be for any EIR mitigation process; when things change necessarily so do the plans and strategies. Look at the lessons that we're having to learn from New Orleans and the Missisippi Delta; the old way of brute-force engineering doesn't work any more, nobody can afford the cost to keep it up, and the resulting destruction is massive. So the game has now changed to working with natural terrain and watershed forces; a different approach.

Justice 4 Earth Day

The photo above, taken in La Tuna Canyon, is among the most endangered woodlands in our region, according to the Urbanwild Network. You can see that this ancient oak has been tagged for removal, along with most of the other magnificent oaks in this habitat. This group has also listed as under immediate threat of destruction the remaining 10 acres of Arcadia woodland and the Hahamongna watershed, where plans are to clear woodland for sediment disposal and build soccer fields. A detailed examination and discussion of the La Tuna site is here at LA Creek Freak, by Josh Link, who accompanied Cam Stone on the excursion into the canyon.

Yesterday the Urbanwild group assembled for a protest of the arraignment of the four tree sitters at the County Courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. The Arcadia Four were present, as were spokespersons Darryl Hannah and Ed Begley, as reported by the National Examiner. This group vociferously defended the tree-sitters and condemned the LACDPW's process and exclusion of public input on their destructive activities in compensating for historic lack of maintenance in order to stay on budget within the County's fiscal constraints.

The tree-sitters were arrested during the January 12 razing of the Arcadia woodlands, which was carried out with a blockade by the County to keep out reporters and citizens, ostensibly for their safety. The Arcadia Four were offered the option of community service, which they refused, presumably because they've already performed it with the actions they are being arrested and indicted for. The County is determined to make an example out of this kind of interference, which will happen on Earth Day, April 22nd. Going beyond the County's provocative actions, Cam Stone is now asking for a probe of LACDPW and its activities.

Update: Arcadia Patch reports that the pretrial conference has now been rescheduled to May 26 at the Alhambra Courthouse.

In further developments, a "listening session" was opened up at the LACDPW headquarters in Alhambra on Monday, April 18th, the day before the arraignment, for the purposes of developing the sediment management plan which includes the most endangered areas. While not an official public session, the representatives of Urbanwild Network were in attendance and made their positions known, as was reported by the Poetic Plantings Blog. In a move to make actual public input known, they were prepared to mitigate the Delphi Technique employed in this and earlier sessions by the County, intended to defuse public opposition to the County's methods of dam and sediment management.

The agenda consisted of the following:

Goal: Manage sediment in order to provide for the flood protection and water conservation needs of the region while balancing environmental, social, and economic impacts.

1. Welcome
2. Sediment Management Strategic Plan: Follow-up from 1st Task Force Meeting
3. Listening Session: Project Development Process Feedback
4. Sediment Management Strategic Plan: Alternatives Screening Tool.
Additional comments on the evaluation criteria may be sent to Dan Sharp
5. California Department of Fish and Game and California Regional Water Quality Control Board Permits
6. Upcoming Reservoir Cleanout Projects: Big Tujunga, Cogswell, Devil's Gate, Pacoima, and Morris.
7. Wrap Up

Update: Environmentalists feel that Cooley should respond to the Arcadia 4 with a "Courageous Citizen Award" rather than arrest and incarceration. The Tattler has an excellent article about the County's response to the public protest of the DPW's actions.

Unbuild Freeways

Another way of traffic-calming our way to a vibrant and livable community with open space and pedestrian access instead of impassable concrete structures carrying traffic is presented on StreetsBlog. The full post can be read here.

It's a good site for examining the arguments for removing existing highways that have become barriers to central city development and community engagement. It's called "Moving Beyond the Automobile" and presages the coming era of expensive gasoline and far fewer resources to maintain large infrastructure projects. The history of the highway and freeway in the USA is that of a military legacy that was ultimately offloaded to the states and counties to maintain, which is becoming more and more burdensome.

In this presentation, CNU president John Norquist stars in this video from Streetfilms about the problem of inner-city highways and the steps some cities are taking to get rid of theirs.

"If you look at the real estate anywhere near a freeway, almost always its degraded," says Norquist. "You'll get surface parking lots, or buildings that have high-vacancy rates. No walking. Because it's really hard to design a freeway that would look good in a city."

Freeways are a problem of divisively clashing scale in an urban network, which famously isolates parts of cities from each other, creating areas of lower valued real estate that is essentially left to blight. Cities are in the process of undoing freeways, undergrounding their viaducts as in Seattle, the removal of the Embarcadero in San Francisco, or creating lids over existing freeways to connect the fabric of the city together. It's an opportunity to make these locations part of the urban fabric and “lid” the freeway and incorporate parkway (like the High Line in NYC) or water (like the Freeway Park in Seattle). A decent-sized lid can create pedestrian and small commercial opportunities as well – the precedent for that is the Ponte Vecchio in Florence, Italy. Ljubljana, Slovenia is building more pedestrian/shopping bridges to complement its old bridges in newly traffic-free zones around the river and weave the fabric of the city together. Seattle is in the process of replacing its old viaduct with a deep-bore tunnel which will reconnect the waterfront to the city and provide open space as well as opportunities to rehabilitate the areas that are currently down at the heels, facing directly into the viaduct structure.

This new paradigm makes the effort by LA County to ram the 710 freeway extension through South Pasadena to the 210 freeway in Glendale seem to be quite a retrograde and piecemeal project. The highway system is an old answer from another era - a little 710 history here - and it needs to move into our evolving sustainable future. New alternatives have been proposed for this problem, such as the rail extension of the Alameda corridor which would keep freight traffic off the freeways and minimize the impact of a below-grade route for these clusters of impacted cities.This alternative concept originates from a new vision of the Port of Long Beach transformation into a completely green facility that eliminates the need for the 710 tunnel for freight, as presented by David Alba. In addition, a light rail solution to this problem for human transit is proposed at, once again, LAStreetsBlog.

Update: Seven Cities Consider Removing Major Urban Highways, from The Architect's Newspaper Blog.

Urban Watershed Restoration

I was formerly involved with a nonprofit, North East Trees, that uses nature's services and mimics hydrological cycles to restore natural conditions in the urban environment. This includes creating rain gardens, green streets, unpaving the concrete jungle, and providing pocket parks in disadvantaged neighborhoods. Some of this work, like tree planting, is done through the youth program that involves kids in stewardship of their local neighborhoods.

Examples of this are the Oros Street project, and the Garvanza project, which is ongoing and updated here. A map of other projects can be found on this web page. These projects implement specific stormwater conservation measures as they have been adopted by the County of Los Angeles. They also incorporate local works of art as part of their functional design elements.

Stormwater conservation techniques, known as Best Management Practices (BMP's) can be applied through management techniques specified by Los Angeles County. There's a stormwater quality page here, and a Low Impact Design Ordinance page here, as well. These strategies need to be incorporated early in the design phase, using urban design tools and planning integration. The full LA County Southern California LID Manual is available for download here, as a 6 MB pdf file.

There are four distinct Integrated Regional Water Management (IRWM) planning regions within Los Angeles County: Greater LA, Gateway Cities, Upper Santa Clara River, and the Antelope Valley. All of them have strategic plans for integrating these watershed management techniques using the the BMP tools for implementation. Planners and designers should become familiar with these tools very early in the process so that their plans throughout the County comply with these regulatory measures.

In summary, North East Trees is about involving the local residents in youth and community networks to restore their neighborhoods with green spaces that work to save water and replenish our aquifers.

Destruction: Public Resources

A post from Cam Stone regarding La Tuna Canyon:

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works is well along on its planning to destroy another pristine urban wilderness to create a new regional sediment dump. The parallels to the destruction of the Arcadia Woodlands is striking. This is yet another pristine wilderness that has been owned by the DPW and fenced off from public access for decades. I was able to circumvent the formidable fence and hiked into this wilderness with a friend to take pictures and see what we could descover up in this beautiful canyon. What we found was a magical place of extreme historic and natural value. We also found that the DPW has already hammered death tags into over sixty mature oak trees including a 400 year old patriarch with an eight foot diameter trunck! The canyon now has survey marker sticks all over. See the photos here.

As Cam points out, the County DPW strategy of encroaching on public lands in order to destroy them is all too familiar. The Arcadia Woodlands was the first example of circumventing the public process, and intimidating the public and the citizens who are trying to raise awareness of these tactics used to remove valuable watershed and riparian areas for the purpose of sediment dumping. All to "preserve" an ill-designed and poorly maintained system for watershed management. This amounts to the removal of valuable ecosystem that is important to the watershed and regional ecosystems and destroy it for short-term financial reasons. It would seem that the County is not qualified to manage this public resource that has immense natural value.

An article from the LA Weekly outlines the issues that have come to a head with the arraignment of "The Arcadia 4" in the Arcadia Woodlands debacle:

“The preeminent threat here is the large population pressures on the edge of development,” Quigley says. “Whether it is to dump, or build roads and housing, government agencies have traditionally undervalued these natural resources, and they routinely draft plans to bulldoze right through them.”

The foursome’s stand lasted just a day, as they sat in the great, gnarly oak trees, defied the bulldozers and 50 Sheriff’s deputies, and made the nightly news.

But the reverberations continue to ripple, calling into question the actions of the county’s Department of Public Works, the alleged complicity of County Supervisor Michael Antonovich in the destruction of the woodland, L.A. County Sheriff Lee Baca’s deputies’ successful attempt to block close-up media coverage and Cooley’s seemingly heavy-handed prosecution of the four activists.

Defense attorney Colleen Flynn, who represents all four protesters, says she is hopeful Cooley’s office would see the folly in playing hardball with the eco-activists.

These actions bode ill for the Hahamongna Watershed Park and La Tuna Canyon, which are now facing the same fate as the Arcadia Woodlands from the County in spite of public protest of these actions.

The Crux of It

The video above, from the Coalition for a Sustainable Delta, runs at 8.5 minutes or so. Sit back and relax. It summarizes the Bay Delta issues I've been covering for over a year now, in these posts.

Now for the politics: NORTHERN CALIFORNIA REJECTS LONG-TERM WATER TRANSFER AGREEMENT 2/25/11

Just days away from a program scoping process comment deadline, northern California water irrigation districts stand firm behind their February 2nd letter, which states they will not agree to sell their water to Central Valley water contractors.

The proposed U.S. Bureau of Reclamation’s 10-year “Long-Term North to South Water Transfers” program, would ship up to thousands of acre-feet of water from northern California to the San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority; which represents agricultural water districts in the San Joaquin Valley and Southern California. The realization of this program is contingent on the willingness of northern California sellers and that willingness has yet to be seen.

A week few weeks ago, Glenn-Colusa Irrigation District, Maxwell Irrigation District, Natomas Central Mutual Water Company, Pelger Mutual Water Company, Princeton-Codora-Glenn Irrigation District, Provident Irrigation District, Reclamation District No. 108 and River Garden Farms, all rallied to formally submit a letter withdrawing their participation in the long-term water transfer program. In the letter, the districts voiced concern for the long term protection of the right to their water supplies. The letter further explain, “[the Bureau of Reclamation’s] position threatens landowners within our service areas of not having enough water to irrigate crops, puts at risk endangered species and water fowl that rely upon the continued irrigation of their lands, and could ruin the regional economy.”

With this in mind, it begs the question: In these cash strapped times, is it necessary to spend state, federal and local money on pursuing the development of the water transfer program when a vital component is not willing to participate?

From Public Policy Institute of California:
The pdf section "path to reform" on this website is an excellent outline of proposed statewide policy that asks for integrative balance of resources and environmental restoration in watersheds.

So we are at a critical point in the dialogue between the state government, private interests, cities and counties, and the residents of this State over its most important resource, water. Hopefully things will break along the lines of conservation dialogue, not the "pumping out the Delta to its limits" dialogue, that's the old MWD and Army Corps of Engineers "rape pillage and burn" approach. The regenerative and life cycle positions are critical for the preservation of this resource for future generations. In other words, a sustainable approach.

The impact of short-sighted policies and infrastructure are being debated right now because of the 9.0 earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan. The intelligent view of the world and allocation of resources and effort are a result of learning the limits of resources and the human intervention into natural cycles. That's the lesson of systems. You can't push into natural systems without consequences, our human impact is that large now. That means not building in flood plains and fire-prone areas, for example. Pull back. Conserve energy, money and resources for societal benefit as well as the conservation and restoration of the natural world that provides life for all of us.

Cracking the Face of Stone

Yesterday morning the first cracks in the LA County fortress appeared. At the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in downtown Los Angeles, a group of 20 people representing Urbanwild Network attended the Board meeting with the County Supervisors to ask that Supervisor Antonovich's motion to require the DPW to obtain an EIR for the Hahamonga Sediment Removal Project be passed.

Speaking on behalf of the DPW in front of the Board were DPW Director Gail Farber and Deputy Director Mark Pastrella. Their position was basically that there is significant public safety risk that must be mitigated as an emergency measure due to the impact of the Station Fire, and that lives and property were at risk. There was a group of DPW people present for this argument.

Antonovich spokesman Tony Bell then made sure that everyone in the Urbanwild Network was signed up to speak in favor of the motion because he felt that public input was critically necessary in this case. Each person spoke earnestly and rationally for the need for an EIR to address the impacts on the Hahamongna riparian habitat that have been pushed aside by the DPW in the declaration of emergency.

And in this way the Urbanwild Network carried the day. The facade fissured, and the motion passed.

Update 3/3/11: The Save Hahamongna group has posted more background on this achievement.
 

What Remains

The video above, of the Hahamongna Watershed Park, is from the Save Hahamongna site. It's a citizen lobby group focused on the preservation of this unique natural area that is currently threatened with sediment infill and development. A detailed discussion of the planned Devil's Gate Dam Sediment Removal proposal is here. It has been laid out by the County of Los Angeles despite the long-expressed feelings of local residents:

"Hahamongna is the rare spot in the Arroyo Seco at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains where the mountainous watershed meets the urban plain. Periodically floods roar into this basin. Bounded on the north by the mountains and Jet Propulsion Laboratory and on the south by Devil's Gate Dam, Hahamongna contains five unique habitat zones that only exist in alluvial canyons near the mountains. Most sites like this in Southern California have been destroyed."

The effort behind the video has been galvanized by the fate of the Arcadia Woodlands, which was bulldozed into extinction on January 12, 2011. My followup article on the civil disobedience required to draw attention to the habitat destruction, as well as the impact of the ongoing plan to do the same at Hahamongna, is here. A new campaign by Urbanwild Network to save Hahamongna from these plans is outlined here, supported by the Pasadena Group of the Sierra Club.

This last Friday at a meeting of the County Supervisors, Antonovich made a motion to study the Hahamongna sediment removal plan in further detail to try and mitigate the impact of this, particularly the removal of the willows. However, the County Public Works Department is reluctant to engage in a full EIR and permit any delay of this plan.

The County DPW is simply out of control and completely subject to financial shell games that lead to the least maintenance and cheapest, most destructive solutions that can be funded with "emergency" monies as soon as an emergency can be legally established. There is no effort devoted to the stewardship of natural processes and environments, it's simply a plumbing problem created by the earlier engineered water systems that are not performing in a sustainable manner. Legal bullying compounds the original engineering shortcomings, exacerbated by age and lack of a forward-looking plan for modifying and replacing the water system components so that they work without tremendous requirements of maintenance and money. Many ideas, such as a sluice system that works with the natural watershed characteristics, have been proposed to replace the old local dams that are failing and silted up. It's time to take a different direction in our remaining watersheds with state-of-the-art practices and conservation.

Update from Cam Stone early this morning:

A County Board meeting will be held on Tuesday March 1, 9:30 am, at the Hall of Administration in downtown LA, and Supervisor Antonovich will put forward a motion to require the DPW to obtain an EIR for the Hahamonga Sediment Removal Project. The DPW will be at the meeting pleading their case as to why they should be able to move forward on their project without any public input or EIR.

Christle Balvin, Don Bremner and I met with Edel Vizcarra and Tony Bell at Antonovich's office on behalf of the Urbanwild Network to discuss the fallout from the Arcadia Woodlands debacle and the DPW's plans to use an emergency declaration to remove sediment from Hahamonga without any public input. This meeting took place a week ago Friday. Both Tony and Edel were very open to our concerns and vowed that what happened in Arcadia would never happen again. We were all very excited by the tone of the meeting and what seemed like a genuine desire to work with the public and environmental groups on all future DPW projects.

We specifically asked that Michael Antonovich require that the DPW obtain an EIR for the Hahamonga project. Both Tony and Edel supported that notion to ensure the buy-in of the public and environmental groups. They said that the DPW had told them that the safety of the dam was at stake because the dam's valves were currently clogged with sediment and that an EIR would take over a year to complete. We told Tony and Edel that if the county agreed to complete an EIR for the entire project, we believed that the environmental community and local citizens would agree to the immediate removal of sediment from the rear face of the dam out to 40 -50 yards from the dam face without an EIR. I hope that we can all agree to this concession.

Remnants

The photo above shows some of what remains after the removal of most of the Arcadia Woodlands. The tree sitters from the now-destroyed Woodlands have expressed their gratitude for community support of their civil disobedience on the day the County sent in the bulldozers to rip out the trees and wildlife:

Dear Arcadia Community,

I can't thank the community enough for your tremendous support not only during and after our incarceration, but amid the action as well. Activism requires strength and persistence through many facets and it took all of us to shed a brutal light on the devastation that unfolded the day the Woodlands were destroyed. Thank you for your heartfelt support at the Community Meeting at Eaton Center. It is truly inspiring to see how much positive collaboration has come forth through such a tragedy. Our budding committee is a progressive force mirroring those who are driving it towards powerful change and those who refuse to be muted as our old growth woodlands are destroyed

Although those of us who climbed into the trees are currently facing multiple criminal charges for this action, we haven't the slightest regret. It was an act of civil disobedience, a peaceful, yet powerful act that has only reinforced our conviction to confront injustice and stand up for what is fundamental to the diversification and survival of all life, regardless of its legal or political status. John, Andrea, Travis and I would like to share our Arcadia4Justice website with you all. Through this site you can stay posted on our case, find media links about the action and most importantly give to our legal defense fund. We need your contributions to continue our fight. It has been a pleasure to get to know this community, thank you all.

My Best,

Julia Jaye Posin
arcadia4justice.org

Built on Sand

An angry public distrust of both government and the financial sector has resulted from this deep, seemingly unending recession. A completely self-inflicted growth bubble based upon financial weapons of self destruction, to quote Warren Buffet, has been based upon inflating property values to the point that landscapes are littered with unneeded and abandoned "projects" that enriched only banks and developers, leaving taxpayers with the tab. Ireland is a devastating case in point.

Building and development became the sole support structure for revenue and taxes, and ballooned into the stratosphere due to lack of fiscal oversight formerly provided by the Glass-Steagall Act passed in 1933 that established the FDIC. This was overturned by the Republican-sponsored Gramm–Leach–Bliley Act in 1999 on behalf of the banking industry, and signed into law by President Clinton. While this was going on, the housing industry pushed the State legislature into forcing more development through massive housing requirements (RHNA allocations via SCAG) in order to keep the bubble ballooning. SB 375 is a legislative device designed to bust CEQA and force more development into communities, rather effectively disguised as a regulation designed to reduce traffic while forcing massive additions of square footage.

Today in Los Angeles, Development Overlay Zones are being created that void the need for public review and, again, bust CEQA guidelines and public oversight, promised to the Neighborhood Councils. Los Angeles, like Sacramento,appears to be still hooked on the same deadly development drug. It finally fell to Orange County cities to quit the League of California Cities over SB 375 housing allocations and threats of developer litigation. A deeper issue underlies the financing that was supposed to carry all this development; in the ensuing collapse of the CDO market, the banks are no longer lending. The supposed underlying mortgages do not in fact exist, so there's no product upon which to leverage sales of these tranches. The evaporation of assets has hit the public in their pockets in the form of public ownership of big banks (Freddie and Fannie) as well as millions of home foreclosures and the disappearance of jobs.

This has led to an early signal on State policy change with respect to population increase. There is a dawning understanding that profits come more effectively from streamlining instead of physical construction and development. If the artificially instigated pressure comes off of Sacramento for growth, then the overdevelopment simply goes away.The Jerry Brown grab for CRA money is the front edge of a major policy change that will shift investment towards many industries as well as the streamlining of infrastructure and business. If money must now be used wisely in productive strategies, the old brute-force buildout has seen its final days.

Sim Van der Ryn is back!

A Tribute to What Was

Arcadia Woodlands Tree Sitters: arraignment Set for Thursday, February 3, 2011

News Conference to Follow Court Appearance

Tree sitters John Quigley, Andrea Bowers and Julia Posin will be arraigned on charges of trespassing and obstruction of an officer in the performance of his duty on Thursday Feb. 3, 2011. Following their court appearance John Quigley and Julia Posin will hold a news conference to discuss their case.

Local community resident and one of the leaders in the fight to save the Arcadia Woodlands, Camron Stone will comment on the response by the Board of Supervisors to calls for an investigation into the LA County Department of Public Works.

WHEN: Arraignment:Thursday, February 3, 2011 at 8:30 am

News Conference:Immediately following the court appearance, Approximately 10:30 am

WHERE: Alhambra Court House
150 W Commonwealth,
Alhambra, Ca
Judge Jose A Rodriguez

PURPOSE: To discuss the case of the brave Tree Sitters and to update the press on the call for an independent investigation of the LA County DPW and its deception of local citizens, communities and elected officials throughout the entire three-year planning process for the Santa Anita Dam Sediment Removal Project. That process finally led to a trampling of rights of local residents and environmental groups who desperately wanted to talk about alternatives to the Woodland destruction with minimal impact to the major stated goals of the project.

Update: Arraignment Postponed Until February 18 - see article from Arcadia Weekly Also, Cam Stone's photos of the remaining wasteland. And now a legal defense is being mounted by the "Arcadia 4"

Sounding the Call

The destruction of the Arcadia Woodlands by the County, and the impending removal of wooded areas in the Hahamongna Watershed Park has sparked a reaction from the residents and public because of the lack of public notice on these issues and the determination by the County not to consider alternatives to the destruction of critical natural habitat. As a result of these actions, there was a meeting on Saturday January 29 at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center of concerned residents and environmental organizations to thrash out a coalition and challenge the decimation of natural resources with outdated brute-force engineering models. Petrea reports on the meeting here.

The County has issued an invitation to the public for a task force meeting today, asking for RSVP's:

The LA County Flood Control District (LACFCD) is organizing a Task Force to develop sediment management approaches that support the continued operation of the region’s dams and debris basins while minimizing impact to the environment and surrounding communities. The first meeting of this Task Force will be Monday, January 31, 2011.

[LACFCD] would like to work together with local and regional stakeholders to develop additional methods of dealing with sediment in a sustainable manner – taking economic, social, and environmental impacts into account. This is intended to result in creation of a 20-year Long term Sediment Management Plan for the period 2012-2032.

Your participation in the Task Force is crucial to developing a comprehensive Sediment Management Strategic Plan that will address the region’s long-term sediment needs while considering local and environmental issues as well. The first meeting will be held on Monday, January 31, 2011, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the County of Los Angeles Department of Public Works Headquarters located at 900 South Fremont Avenue, Alhambra, CA 91803. The meeting will be in Conference Rooms A and B. The Task Force will meet several more times as the plan is developed over the year.

Attendance at the County's meeting today will be the beginning of a task force with respect to the County's sediment plan, however these incidents are also instigating a coalition of organizations to come together in order to additionally reform the County's practices and return them to lawful process. The group feels that the County has violated their right to have a say on the preservation of natural habitat that is critcal for managing water flows and ecosystems that buffer urban areas and provide open space. This is the beginning of some very serious public action around the County's behavior in managing public resources.

Is Green about Civil Disobedience?

More action on the Hahamongna front right now. Last Tuesday night, there was a meeting of the Hahamongna Watershed Park Advisory Committee at La Casita on Arroyo Boulevard about the HWP Annex and Environmental Education Center Planning. The attending public was asked to participate in a Vision and Mission statement for the Annex project, facilitated by Cyndee Whitney, City of Pasadena Dept. of Human Resources. A bit curious, since the facility has already been the subject of a long debate on its size and purpose, as a replacement for the existing structure.

All public input since 2008, including the Visioning exercise last Tuesday night, has emphasized restoring the natural character of the site and incorporating natural materials into a minimal building footprint in the reuse scenario that has become somewhat of a compromise. On this round, it appears that the HWPAC is searching for metaphors to put into writing a desire for a structure that goes beyond the usual parks facility barn typology and potentially could be a demonstration facility that addresses the watershed and riparian habitat realities of managing human presence in a dynamic natural space. It could demonstrate, by its design, how watershed management starts with a structure that flows with the watershed contours, opens to the sun and seeks views of the forest and ridgelines to the north from an earth berm roof, for example. The desire is there to instill a closeness to natural environments and show by example what this means for sustainable process to produce a unique place for education and appreciation of Pasadena's largest natural asset, the Arroyo Seco.

The issue of sediment removal behind Devil's Gate dam and its use to infill Hahamongna is still ongoing. The County is currently considering ways to remove sediment from the dam; the presentation made by the County to the HWPAC last November is here. The plan is to remove about 15 acres of willow trees in order to clear sediment around Devil’s Gate Dam in September. A report on this part of the meeting is from Petrea.

There's also a meeting this Saturday at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center for the growing pushback on the silt and infill issues at the Arcadia Woodlands site that disastrously resulted in destruction of natural riparian habitat near the Santa Anita Dam, to be used as infill for silt. The Santa Anita Dam Riser Modification and Reservoir Sediment Removal Project was based upon an emergency presumably created by the Station Fire of 2009. Activists are hoping to form a committee that will have timely input into County sediment projects in the future, due to the lack of notice in the Arcadia situation.

This Saturday's meeting is a serious development in local environmental circles, and the hope is that it will force responsible watershed management at the regional level in the future through public pressure and activist support for sustainable practices in these areas adjacent to natural ecological systems. The Arcadia Woodlands and Hahamongna Watershed issues are flashpoints that illuminate the need to temper regional human encroachment and live within the means of the local watersheds and ecosystems.