LA River Clean Up

Hey there, well my name is Stephanie and I am a CSULA student. My English 101 class, my boyfriend, my friends, and I went on a trip to the LA River on May third to help clean it. Even tough I wasn't looking forward to waking up early that Saturday morning I did and I'm glad I did and I'm also happy my boyfriend and friends were there to experience it with me. I must say I was surprised by how much plastic bags and wrappers I picked up that day. It was a hot and sunny day which made it harder for since we were in the sun all day. After our first hour we had lots trash and most of it was plastic from food wrappers. I'm amazed by some of the things we found there, there was just so much trash and not enough volunteers, although I must say I'm happy we all put our little grain of sand to help out for a good cause. When taking a break between what felt like hours of picking up the endless amount of trash we sat down near the river to see the slow stream and its inhabitants. There was plenty of birds and lizards around, although I never really got to see any lizards my friends did. I'm glad we were able to get at least fade several bags full of trash. Yet, it was depressing to seem that all the wild life had to endure such bad living conditions because of what we have done. Their home is a dump and most of the trash that we can find in the river are either food wrappers or plastic beverage bottles. I'm glad I was able to experience this with my classmates because I felt closer to nature and felt like I got out of the city by just taking a few feet down the river. Its amazing how many people don't really notice the nature in L.A. and I now know what  Jenny Price, the author of 13 Ways to View Nature in LA, meant that there really is lots of nature that we do not take advantage of. It was nice to take a break from the city and help out clean up our environment for a change. I hope that some day the river will be in better circumstances so that the wildlife that once lived there may get there home back.

-Stephanie Cervantes