Los Angeles River Clean Up

Hello, 

My name is Tatiana Landaverde. I am part of Prof. Ximena Hernandez's English 101 class at California State University, Los Angeles. This course is part of the PRESTIGE program, which focuses on the environment. My classmates and I join the Friends of Los Angeles river and others organizations to participate in the L.A. river clean-up on May 18, 2013. 

It was my first time participating in this event and I was very excited to being part of this clean-up. One of the reasons is because I am very interested in environmental topics and I have done some clean-up before with other groups. Another reason is because I did not know there is a river at Los Angeles, it was until I started this PRESTIGE classes that I knew about the river, so I really wanted to know this place. 

When I arrived to the Marsh Park, I was very impressed of how the river looks. It was beautiful but I could not believe it was the river because of all the constructions that have been done around it. 

My teammates and I started the clean-up at a part where the river that have dry out and there is trees and grass. We found a huge amount of trash such as plastic bags, plastic cups, rubber cables, aluminum cans and parts of cars. We also found a sign stand that was stuck in a tree branches and another group near to us found a shopping cart. When we finished the clean-up, I saw some people who were fishing and it make feel sad in how we depends on the rivers but we are polluting them and we are causing damage to the species living in the river.

I feel happy that we have done this clean-up. However, we do not only have to go and pick-up the trash, we also have to be aware of not throwing trash at any place that way we are not causing damage to the environment.