Attending the February 9th, 2012 Grand Opening of Jan Perry’s South Los Angeles Wetlands Park was a wonderful celebratory experience for Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Urban Resilience and their partners in ecology education, Friends of Ballona Wetlands, LEAPS Action Center Environmental Stewardship, and Urban Science Corps, a project of the Youth Science Center in partnership with the City of Los Angeles Department of Recreation & Parks.
Newly planted vegetation at South L.A. Wetlands Park | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Helpful new signage | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
“It was like déjà vu for me,” said Friends’ Executive Director Lisa Fimiani. Back in 2003 the Ballona Freshwater Marsh looked so similar, with small wetlands plants ready to take hold and root. “Once I saw that Psomas engineering was involved in the project I knew it was done right. Psomas engineered the Ballona Freshwater Marsh, which has successfully withstood “50 and 100 year flood storm conditions”, a requirement for reconstructed marshes – especially in dense urban settings. “You can’t have the local streets wash over with a rise in stormwater during a large seasonal rain event, so if you are going to design a wetlands park to funnel stormwater into a creek, river or tributary, you want to make sure that’s where it ends up – but not before being cleansed by native wetland plants,” Fimiani went on to say.
South L.A. Wetlands Park: Before and after | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Newly planted areas in SLA Park show striking similarities to...
The Ballona Freshwater Marsh - Seven Years After Planting | Photos by Lisa Fimiani
Ballona Freshwater Marsh in 2002 (click to enlarge) | Photo by Edith Read
Ballona Freshwater Marsh in 2010 | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
The nine acre South Los Angeles Wetlands Park will improve the water quality of stormwater destined for the Los Angeles River that will be flowing into it from 600 acres of surrounding city streets. The 26 acre Ballona Freshwater Marsh is currently cleaning over 1,000 acres of urban space storm runoff from the 500 acre Playa Vista community and an additional 500 acres of businesses along Jefferson Boulevard, before it flows into Ballona Creek. What the Friends, the community of Playa Vista, and surrounding neighbors are realizing is – these reconstructed marshes really work!
“I took what we’ve learned from the Ballona Freshwater Marsh and applied those lessons to the Park,” said Dr. Edith Read of E Read and Associates Inc., who manages the Freshwater Marsh on behalf of the Ballona Wetlands Conservancy. She worked closely with Ecokai Environmental, Inc. and Psomas engineers to design the native wetland vegetation of the Park. “The Park was a real challenge, given its location and issues that were more about aesthetics than wildlife habitat.”
South L.A. Wetlands Park diagram | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Hundreds of well-wishers from local schools, businesses, city and county employees, were there on February 9th to watch Jan Perry cut a blue ribbon standing on one of the walkway bridges over the water.
Councilmember and project champion Jan Perry cuts the blue ribbon | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Mark Gold, former President of Heal the Bay, shared in everyone’s enthusiasm over the city accomplishing the creation of this Park that once was an old rail yard, by saying a few words.
Dr. Richard Shope and Araceli Gonzalez, both of the Youth Science Center, were excited about the science learning opportunities for neighborhood high school students as they prepare for paid summer internships with the Urban Science Corps through the REI-funded WATERS project and the Sempra Energy-funded AIRS project, both research and stewardship efforts in concert with the Friend of Ballona Wetlands. Seven members of the Urban Science Corps were playing in the Jefferson High School Marching Band that provided music for the Grand Opening event. During the summer, they will be leading EcoVoices Expeditions for hundreds of younger students at the South Los Angeles Wetlands Park and other urban recreation centers through the City of Los Angeles.
Araceli Gonzalez, Jan Perry and Dr. Richard Shope | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Dr. Eric Strauss, Presidential Professor at Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Urban Resilience was not able to attend but said,” Wetland systems such as these are critically important to the health of urban neighborhoods. They provide so many, many services to the community – from absorbing floodwaters and cleaning the air, to connecting stakeholders to nature and providing a welcome oasis in the middle of a city. Los Angeles should be proud of this great effort to restore some of what was once one of the Nation’s great wetlands. Congratulations to Jan Perry and her team for the vision and perseverance to complete this project.”
April Sandifer, with Dr. Eric Strauss and Loyola Marymount University’s Center for Urban Resilience, was thrilled to see there was now a new Park in the upper watershed of Ballona – in her hood. “The park I feel helps disprove the belief that African Americans don’t care about the environment. This will directly affect the health of the neighborhood in which I grew up and where my family continues to live. This is a huge triumph for South Los Angeles.”
Jan Perry and April Sandifer | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Rhonda Ford Webb, Director and Founder of LEAPS ACTION CENTER, a youth environmental stewardship program in Compton, also enjoyed the success achieved by the creation of this Park, saying, “The success of this project allows us (members of the Compton Creek Task Force) to imagine the possibilities of restoring the earthen bottom portion of the Compton Creek and to continue to working toward bringing this same “green haven” to those who live, work and play in the Compton Creek.”
April Sandifer and Rhonda Ford Webb | Photo by Lisa Fimiani
Funding was from Prop O, the BOS collections system Settlement Agreement 9SEP0, Prop 50, Prop 12, Prop 40, Prop K, MTA and the US EPA Brownfields Grant. The project was undertaken in connection with the settlement of two Clean Water Act enforcement actions, Santa Monica Baykeeper vs. City of Los Angeles and United States and State of California ex. Rel. California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los Angeles Region vs. City of Los Angeles.
The Friends are so happy to celebrate this new Park with Jan Perry, and have offered any assistance they might be able to give with their experience in the baseline monitoring and informal science programs that could potentially be offered and expanded upon by local community groups, schools and institutions.
Click here to see more photos at our Flickr page!
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