LA River Clean Up !!!!

Hello, I am Heran Zhan and have take English 101 class in this Spring Quarter with professor Hernandez. On the last Saturday 4/23, I attended this activity " A TOLERABLE PLANET "with my English 101 classmates. When I arrive at the destination , we found that there are a lot of volunteers to participate in this event. After entering the active area , the volunteers lined up in formation , we took the staff gave us ready gloves , garbage bags and T-shirts, we follow the direction of flow of people, we started to clean up the river.

In the process of cleaning up the river , we saw all kinds of waste, such as food packages transfer bags , discarded mobile phones, clothes , plastic boxes , trolleys , wood , etc., most of which is plastic garbage bag .Some garbage bags wrapped around the bush , it is difficult to directly get out . We have to walk in the dry river , at the foot of massive stones , but walking is not very convenient to be careful every step to go . When I was picking up trash in the dry river, I thinking why there has lots of trash and why there has no water in the L.A. River.Should we have a deep reflection about the environment? I think that we should take the initiative to protect the environment in which we live . If we do not litter items, do not pollute the environment, I believe that Los Angeles will look both better and cleaner than now，even the river will also have clean water.

When we returned , I saw on the ground there are a lot of other people picking up garbage containers in the garbage bag , I put my pick up garbage containers in garbage bag in there, we see them clean up garbage and I felt very satisfied and happy because we paid labor in exchange for a clean river. Although the weather is very hot, we sweat a lot when I clean up the river. But I think it is worth it, we do meaningful things for this city, for this river.

Actually，it is possible to participate in this event i feel very honored and very excited because this is the first I came to Los Angeles to participate in a volunteer activity. And the atmosphere of this event reminds me of the activities to participate in similar public activities in high school in China, and I feel so good that I can have a chance to be a volunteer in this activity.

If I can, I would like to call for more people to participate in environmental protection activities like this event that can let more people know the importance of environmental protection , protection of the environment allows us to live in a clean and no pollution place to grow , for our health , for our city, for our world.

L.A. River Clean Up

 Hello, my name is Teodora Gomez a student at Cal State LA. This past Saturday, on April 23, 2016, I participated in the Folar clean up at the L.A. River with my English 101 class with professor Ximena Hernandez. This was a great way to get hands on experience with what we were currently learning in class. We read the article "thirteen ways of seeing nature in L.A." by Jenny Price, which discussed the damage that was done to the L.A. River in the 1930's after being filled with 3.5 million barrels of concrete. In the process of trying to control the river it was destroyed. I saw for myself all the waste that covers the nature. I feel that in the two hours I helped clean up, I made a difference and I would definitely like to volunteer again.


As we discussed environmental destruction in class, we compared the damage we do to our environment to the book The Lorax. A lot of damaged was done to the river and now to fix it will take a lot more time and money. It was very easy to fill up bags of trash. There was a lot things from bicycle tires, to shopping carts, clothing, and plastic bags everywhere. That shows how some people do not care to take care of our environment. I was pleasantly surprised with the amount of people who showed up to the event. Although it will still take years to get the river as clean as we all want it. We should all pitch in to make a difference. We need to learn from our past mistakes and keep a sustainable environment.

                    

Juan Argueta

English 101-23

L.A River Clean Up

My name is Juan Argueta, I am a CSULA undergrad student taking English 101 with Professor Hernandez and participated in the L.A River clean up on Saturday April 23, 2016. This event was created to better and beautify our environment. Our environment is very important to us and we should all do everything we can to clean it. The LA River clean-up was a great way to clean our environment.  Most of the readings we did inn class were about the environment. I learned so much about the LA River readings the readings. I had no idea that there was nature in the river into I read Lewis MacAdams article, “A river-again-in Los Angeles”. I learned that there was still a piece of river left that had nature and wasn’t filled with concrete as much as the other parts of the LA River. It was very exciting to attend the LA River clean up because we were going near the place I read in the MacAdams reading. When I attended I was not disappointed, I love nature and seeing the river with living animals was really cool. I feel that my participation in the LA River clean-up had a big impact on the city. One person can make a difference in the environment and by participating in this event I know I made a difference. Anything is possible when everyone acts together and that day we all worked really hard to beautify our LA River.  While attending this event I experience many waste on the river. Some of the waste that I witness made me questioned myself how did something so big get even in the river? There were mattresses, a refrigerator, and a market shopping cart. This are all huge waste going into the river making our environment polluted. My experience connects to Prices article “Nature in Los Angeles” when she states that the LA river became a wasteland that people don’t consider a river no more. The group organization FoLAR, which means “Friends of the Los Angeles River” fought for the river to stay alive and to be consider as nature.

The FoLAR organization is similar to the reading The Lorax by Dr. Seuss because they are trying their best to keep the river alive, just how in the Lorax the Lorax was the one trying to protect their environment from the Once-ler.  All the Once-ler wanted was to grow his business and didn’t notice how much damage he was doing to the environment by cutting all the Truffula trees. This goes similar to the LA River situation, residents of Los Angeles don’t realize how much damage they are causing the LA River by making it a wasteland. Polluting affects the animals that live in the river and people need to realize that they are causing destruction towards the animal’s lives by not keeping the river clean. Cleaning the LA River was such an amazing experience and feels good to help clean the environment, I would definitely do this again. I always drive by the LA River but never realize how beautiful it really is until I attended the clean-up. Some people may not consider the Los Angeles River as nature or a river but if they took their time to beautify it just like I did, they will see how much nature and life there is in the river and how important it is to our environment. It is nice to know that there are organizations just like FoLAR to help beautify our environment. The L.A River clean-up was a two hour event and even though it was a really hot sunny day it was still fun and a great experience because as an event open and free for everyone I got to enjoy it with my family and friends.

               L.A. RIVER CLEANUP

             Arriving to the L.A. River was very confusing due to all the cross streets and the abandoned road leading to the parking lot. Along the roads was trash and graffiti along the cement and road way. Seeing this I thought I was in the wrong location. As soon as I was able to find the parking lot, I saw the majority of the younger generation ready to help our L.A. River. I met up with a friend of mine and we both walked into the river, I couldn't believe how great the turn out was for the clean up. Seeing whats become of the L.A. River shocked me due to how much litter was around. After noticing the condition of the river I soon signed the waiver and picked up my FOLAR t-shirt, gloves, and trash bag. Luckily my friend and I ran into a couple of classmates which made the experience better. We first started off right below the bridge and picked up what we could see and we moved further down the river to continue our clean up. A lot of the waste was stuck in between branches and little areas into the bushes that made it more difficult to pick up. However, seeing the river was a relaxing view.As we moved our clean up further along, we were able to clean up until 11 am. With all the help from everyone on Saturday the river was one step closer to being a clean river for families to enjoy. 

            Experiencing the L.A. River was something out of my comfort zone. Cleaning in an outdoor environment is not my typical idea of a Saturday however, being a part of it made me feel good about helping the environment. Knowing that our waste go to such a beautiful location really hit me  since our waste is affecting a beautiful part of where we live. Most people have never heard of the L.A. river and its so sad to think they will never be able to enjoy the beauty of it because waste continues to go in that part. Being a part of this experience has truly sown me that we should all take into consideration the environment after all, it is  where we live.

LA River Clean up

Hello, my name is Wenjun Luo, I am a sophomore student now and I am taking English 101 with professor Hernandez. Last Saturday we got the opportunity to participate the annual FOLAR clean up with my English 101 classmates. At first, When I know this activity, I was really excited, because this is my first time to join the volunteer activity when I am become an undergraduate. This is an good and useful experience in what we were learning in current English class.I was so surprised that there were so many people to clean the LA river, even I saw many young children and old people. It makes me feel that this environmental protection is for everyone, all age, all gender and all status, since so long as you having loving heart, you are expected into the education volunteers activity. 

In the LA River, there are many bags, gloves, snacks, water, and fruits provided, even we can get the T-shirt. When I get my gloves and bog, I started picking up trash, I picked up a lot of trash like beverage can, plastic, chips, even some materials. The plants are full of plastic bag and broken material. After I fill-up my trash bag, I cannot believe that there are many trash here. I realized that a good environment is important to our lives, and trash will harm our nature and living environment, even our health. During this experience, I have a better understanding of environmental protection. I hope I can do more and more volunteer activity in the future. 

The L.A. River Clean Up

Hello, my name is Taylor Galindo and I am currently taking English 101 with Ms. Hernandez. On April 23rd, I volunteered to help clean up the L.A. River in the FoLAR clean up. As a child growing up, my dad always bring my siblings and I to the L.A River to play and "admire nature". At the time, I didn't believe that it was a river. Rivers usually have blue or light green water, with fish living and swimming in the water. But when you look at the L.A.River, it's a total opposite. The water is a murky dark green with brown algae, like this one. Until now, a freshman in college, I now understand and appreciate the river although it may not be like rivers in Arizona or Canada. So in appreciation to the river, our community and class came to lend a hand to this beautiful historic river and revive it to its natural state. While picking up trash, I noticed that the majority of the trash was plastic bags. They were EVERYWHERE! Dried out, old, under rocks. After seeing this, it hit me that we use way too many plastic bags and that our society liters a lot. Thank God for the plastic bag discontinuation. After taking a break to look up from picking up trash, all I saw was a community together as one, here for one purpose. To help clean the river and help out the environment.

After helping out for over an hour or so, I started to realize the urbanization and expansion of Los Angeles. In the picture above, you will notice on one side, it is the streets and houses and on the other, it is electricity panels? And right in the middle, is the poor L.A. River waiting for society to take it over and to turn it into buildings or houses. This picture reminds me of the Lorax when the Once-ler started to overtake the forest and turn it into factories. Society expands without looking at the consequences. My experiences with the clean up was all positive, and I'm glad I volunteered. Los Angeles should try and do this every Saturday and I'm sure that the Earth will recover from all the pollution and begin to thrive again.

LA river clean up

Hello, my name is Paige Montoya and I am a first year undeclared student at CSULA. I am taking English 101 with Ms. Hernandez. On Saturday April 23, 2016 I attended the FOLAR clean up at the LA river. I didn't really know what to expect when I arrived, I just figured that I would pick up trash. The staff and organizers were so organized and knew exactly what to do to keep the program going. I was shocked that so many people attended. Different schools, young children, and people who care about the LA river were there to help. Gloves, bags, healthy snacks, sunscreen, and other useful information about the river was provided which I thought was very helpful and thoughtful. After I  received my items and a cool T-Shirt I was off to clean the LA river. I started picking up trash like it was Easter Sunday and I was looking for eggs but instead it was trash. I picked up many different things like a credit card, metal, but mostly plastic items. As I was picking up trash I was in total awe, looking and actually being in the LA river. I live so close to the LA river but I never really acknowledged it. I always passed by it and recognized it as a sewer. This relates to our class reading Thirteen Ways of Seeing Nature in L.A. by Jenny Price because she argued that people don't realize that LA actually has nature. She definitely proved me wrong because the LA river was a beautiful scenery to me and I would have discovered it if I never participated in the clean up. It also connects to The Lorax because after all the damage and corruption people have done the LA river shows the result of what happened. Luckily there are many people who want to help what others have done by cleaning up after them. At the end of the clean up I learned that we actually have a river and we should treat it like a river. The clean up to me was very a productive experience and would definitely do it again. I also learned that if cities in LA had stainless steal metal gates or bars on the sewer entrances that would make a big difference with all the trash in the river.