Would you like some river with that plastic?

John Muir once said that "In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks". Obviously, he loved nature. Even more obviously, he must have been inspired by the L.A River. The L.A River that, when I went to last Saturday expecting to pick up a couple pieces of trash littered along the bank, instead offered up a treasure trove of plastic and debris that seemed to have grown like weeds among the once flourishing plants and bushes. The plastic was so abundant that it quite literally had become a part of the landscape; there were strips of the stuff so fully intertwined with some of the tree branches there that to take the strips out would require breaking off the very branches they wrapped around. Very symbolic. Overall, however, despite the heat and the traffic and the wobbly rocks that I could never quite balance on, I felt that the experience was a good one. The goal of our class was to engage in some sort of service learning, and this opportunity of cleaning the river allowed us to physically do so while prompting us to reflect further upon greater ways that we might help the community. Personally, I enjoyed the event because I was able to participate in community service that I wouldn't normally consider - but that is clearly very important. In doing so, I was able to witness firsthand the consequences of a way of life that I take for granted, and as a result have begun to consider other ways of doing daily life that don't require using so much plastic.

LA River Clean Up On Earth Day

          Hello my name is Kevin Perez; I am currently going to Cal State Los Angeles University taking ENGL 1005B with Professor Ximena Hernandez. For the first time I was able to participate on the LA River clean up. It was a really nice experience, and the first time to step on the LA River. There I was able to see a problem; the natural environment was all covered with trash. I didn’t think that the LA would have nature like this river, which seems to be home for species such as birds, ducks, fish, and frogs. Due to the accumulation of trash, most trees were covered with plastic bags. Once I got there I knew there was a lot to clean, as I was picking up the trash I realized two things. One due to the tons of trash there no that many animals lived in the River, the first animal I saw was a female duck, the water was not that clean, but I was able to see a couple tiny fishes. Furthermore, later on I realized that there was a lot of nature in LA, but man did not care about taking care the environment, to the point where almost everywhere was contaminated. Also, one of the things that cough my attention was to see things like a shopping carts, car parts, rubber and pieces of metal all around the river. As I continued cleaning up, I found a huge frog, he was underwater and by himself just like the duck, alone with no other similar species. These two animals made think that people have destructed their home, a natural environment where many species disappeared because of trash and contamination. Also, I found different types of trees, one of them was full of fruit which were food for the animals around there. Another thing that caught my attention was the crops of corn that were planted to reduce pollution. The best part of this clean up in the LA River was that many people were actually participating, there were people cleaning up from different ages, even kids were all around collecting trash. It seems that people need to be more conscious that we are responsible of polluting the environment killing many species. So, we need to work hard in order to reverse it and save not only the river but the environment and many species living there. Overall it was a really nice experience, I feel glad that I was able to help clean the river, and reduce trash in the environment.

Riverbeds are the best thrift stores

     Last Saturday, April 22nd, I had the oppurtunity to participate in the Friends of the Los Angeles River cleanup. I was not expecting anywhere near the ammount of pollution I encountered that morning. Most prominent were the plastic bags strewn and woven into the undergrowth. Less apparent but just as frequent were the various articles of clothing and fabric in general wedged into the riverbed. I spent a good deal of time removing these large articles from under the ground. I didn't encounter anything particularly dangerous or too difficult but the river was a challenge unlike any I'd undetaken before. I've cleaned beaches and parks fairly often but the terrain made this one the most difficult to alone. I'd like to do this again next year. I'd have pictures to post if I hadn't been so winded after hunting trash all morning. Until next earth day.

A rotten vein bleeding in our oceans

     My name is Ramy Azer; as part of my critical writing for Engineers course taken with Dr. Ximena Hernandez, I had the opportunity to experience the detrimental effects our society has on the environment that sustains us. Shocked, to say the least, at how much toxic and dangerous trash was tossed in the only river of Los Angeles. My experience was at the mid-river where we spent 3 hours cleaning up the dried up river bed from a litany of waste. As I began to work, I noticed a lot of trash had already been accumulated and ready to be picked up and discarded properly; a chance to see what is coming my way when I begin doing my part of the clean-up. Plastic, was the predominant material present in the trash. The sad thing to see is how much stuff seemed to be actually functional and still useful. The trash had a lot of useful and usable items, like hairbrushes, perfectly intact plastic bags and a mirror! How does this end up in the middle of a river and where does it end up? The answer to this question is a reflection on who we are as a society.
    Our culture is that of a throw-away mentality; if you don't like it, if it is too old or if it is slightly not functional, then throw it away. One must remember that it is not just getting thrown away, but the items are being thrown away in an irresponsible manner that uncovers the lack of respect we have for our fragile ecosystem. People literally throw away what they don't like right in the streets. Storm gutters channel the trash along with water into the LA river. Trash accumulates in the river and goes right into our oceans. In the documentary, “Plastic Paradise The Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, I was shown where our trash ends up; the ocean, the recipient of all our throwaways. The documentary discussed some of the extents of where the trash ends up once it is in the ocean. Sadly, a majority of birds like seagulls fly out to the ocean garbage patch and they feed their babies the trash. The documentary showed multiple types of skeletons of birds filled with plastics that eventually killed them.
     It is scary to see how trash can layer over nature and completely change the way a plant or an animal grows. The trash is everywhere, and it seems like there is no end in sight with it. I was surprised to find medication discarded by and in the river. Full bottles of Vicodin and aspirin were just laying around. Full sized mattresses were tossed into the river! To say this is ridiculous, is to say the least. It is a river, a place where nature can grow and prosper; but people are choosing to use it as a trash channel instead. The unfortunate fact is that most people know that where tossing the trash in the street ends up. Yet people throw away so much right into the river without a second guess. This problem is big and terrifying, and it is getting bigger. We continue to manufacture plastic products, sell them at cheaper prices and more of them get tossed out. This issue is not going to stop without making some serious government enforced consequence to tossing out trash improperly. As this problem continues, we reach critical points of danger to our environment; we might not be able to reverse the damage and stopping our bad habits is not going to be enough. We need to change and fix the already done damage. What I witnessed, shocked me.
     Shrubbery, bushes and trees entangled in plastic everywhere you look. Massive pieces of metal laying in the middle of the riverbed, covered in rust and releasing the rust right into water. Plastic contaminating the water and when the river dries up, the plastic gets exposed to high heat from sun exposure which makes them release more carcinogenic substance into the river which goes to the ocean and hurts all the fish and birds that live in and off of the ocean. There was no spot anywhere in the river that did not look dirty and contaminated. Sharp items too which can hurt animals around the river. So much trash, it never felt so real until I experienced it first hand and it left me in shock and confusion. I would suggest a solution if I can really come up with a realistic one but unfortunately I can't think of one. I do hope that this changes and more people do their duty of cleaning up the LA river so we may limit the damage. All in all, the experience was sobering and scary; I believe everyone should experience this first hand as well.

Me at the end of the clean-up next to one of many piles of gathered trash

FoLAR: Earth Day Clean Up

Has it ever crossed your mind on where the trash that is not gathered by your cities waste management goes? I mean the filthy trash that accumulates on the streets instead of the trash cans. Well what if I said that the trash, especially in the streets, will eventually travel to the ocean and has caused countless issues with the health of our planet which will not have a solution to fix. Hello, my name Christian Flores and I am a first year at Cal State University Los Angeles learning about environmental issues that have arose due several reasons like pollution, overpopulation, etc. I have

spent quality time researching on the effects of pollution, particularly trash, and have participated in many a few non-profit organizations to gain a better understanding of the issue and to help prevent these issues.

I recently participated in the FOLAR River Clean Up; This was an organized cleanup for the L.A. River and was so surprised to see the turnout of people who contributed their time for the River. This is really important to me because I live near this River and bike down its bike path; I get so upset to see it filthy with other people’s garbage so always wanted to contribute to cleaning it up. I highly recommend participating in events like this to keep a cleaner community and to prevent any pollution from harming our natural resources.

So how did all this trash end up in the river in the first place? Well it is mainly due to the trash in the street, which gets blown or washed down into the sewer drains, and it is also just tossed by some careless people that don’t believe disposing of trash in the proper areas is necessary. This Creates an issue not only because of have a trashy L.A. River but also because it travels to the ocean. After reading articles from the non-profit organization Heal the Bay, I learned that all trash on the streets and not picked up will eventually find its way to the ocean. This is where the trash becomes really devastating to the environment.

FOLAR

                               (Someone could have ate that orange.)

     Hello, my name is Cameron Haynes and I am a sophomore at Cal State LA taking Professor Hernandez's ENGL 2030 course. On April 22nd I went to the LA River to help FoLAR(Friends of the LA River) pick up the trash scattered across the river. This was my first time attending such an event so I had little to no idea of what to expect, except the fact that there was going to be a lot of trash. When walking down the path to the river, I saw exactly that.

     The photo above was just a portion of what was picked up. Some common items people found were clothes, scraps of metal, and plastic bags(excluding the ones used to pick up trash). I didn't have any amazing finds myself, but to see old carts and mattresses piled along with what should be your everyday disposable items was very surprising. When I started to pick up the trash around the river, I noticed something strange about one of the bushes.

A bush with small flowers growing out of it.

     This is another one of the few things that surprised me about the LA River. I knew it was filled with trash but I didn't expect to see any kind of vegetation.With so many things around like the rocks, metal, and plastic within the soil I assumed it wouldn't be all that possible. It was still nice to see though.

More plastic by the river

As I got closer to the river, the concentration of plastic grew. In the picture to the left you can see there are many scraps of plastic in the soil.The difference between the amount of plastic by the rocks and the open soil was significantly high. This was also much harder to remove, since the plastic was lodged in pretty well.












We often hear about how littering and not recycling are harming our planet however not much attention is given to the issue. I was somewhat aware of the problem but to actually get a glimpse of what was going on made me wonder why people were still throwing their trash out so irresponsibly. I suppose it's because we don't see the consequences of our actions in person. If anyone were to see how much trash was lying around the river, I believe that they would be more conscious of their decisions. All in all this was an interesting experience. Seeing so many people take the time out of their day to improve their community was very inspiring.

FOLAR Cleanup

Overall, I really enjoyed this event. There is something oddly satisfying about getting your hands dirty for the good of the community. I had never participated in community service project that required volunteers to pick up trash so I was glad that I could come out and help.  

Many people who know me are aware that I am a very spoiled child who prefers everything to be clean. So even though the cleanup was a good experience, it was also a very gross one. 

The river smelled very questionable. Then again, I have been a city girl all my life so perhaps that is just how rivers smell in general and I had no idea about this 'natural river scent'. There were so many different pieces of trash embedded within the river bank. There was one instance where I attempted to pull up a wheel sticking out of the sand but was unable to because it was a shopping cart completely buried the sand. There were also many plastic bags within the trees and other foliage and they were meshed into the plant itself. 

My professor actually stated that this had been the dirtiest she had ever seen the river after many years of going to FOLAR cleanups due to the increased rainfall this past year. This event really made me think about where trash goes after someone just dumps it onto the streets. Stuffed animals, golf balls, CD's, charger cables, and computer RAMs were all found scattered across this river. Why weren't people deposing of their trash properly? Why did they think their littering didn't affect that environment? Why isn't there more events like this to help improve the city? Then I thought about myself and all of the one use plastic bottles I use, how many things I do not recycle, how many plastic bags I use so asked myself: why aren't I doing something to make a difference?

I felt very bad about this as I saw so many different people working to help make the LA River look like an actual river instead of a dump site. After an hour I returned to the original spot where I started to clean when I had first arrived only to find that there was barely any trash to pick up. The hard work and dedication of FOLAR and all of the volunteers made the city of Los Angeles that much more great and made me really happy that I went to this event.