Are Rivers Our Secret Weapon in a Warming World?
Plus, Holiday Crowds and Holiday Trash, a Surfboard-Stealing Sea Otter, Night Sky Photography Tips, See the Northern Lights, Coastal Access Conflicts, and More
howdy
Growing up in Central Connecticut in what the kids are currently calling “the late 1900s,” most of what I remember about the rivers and waterways is that you didn’t go in them. The Clean Water Act had started to change some of our collective attitude toward waterways, but it still felt like most places just used rivers as convenient dumps that could flush your trash out of sight and therefore, out of mind.
Through middle and high schools, I watched as more and more people came back to the Connecticut River for recreation. Boats and kayaks re-appeared. People started tubing on its tributaries. You could even eat fish caught in it again without really worrying about it.
It is kind of crazy to me to think that so many places that were founded specifically because they were close to the natural resources that rivers and waterways provide had been treating them so poorly. One of the reasons Los Angeles was founded where it was founded was because of the relatively good water access from what would become known as the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Seco.
When I moved there, I remember seeing the L.A. River for the first time near Universal City and having the same reaction so many have had when searching for rivers—that’s it? This concrete ditch, strewn with trash and a trickle of a channel down the middle? That’s this city’s eponymous river? Now, part of that reaction was just newcomer bias, and I did learn to appreciate the L.A. River on its own terms as I watched heron along the river in Griffith Park, biked to its mouth in Long Beach, and even kayaked through the Glendale Narrows.
It has honestly been so inspiring to see the community around the river’s restoration grow and make progress, from the poems of Lewis MacAdams to the brilliant protest of biologist Heather Wylie, who went rogue in 2008 and kayaked the river in its entirety, proving it navigable and thus eligible for Clean Water Act protection (her employer and at-the-time L.A. River manager, the Army Corps of Engineers, was not thrilled about that).
I read this great article in the New York Times this week on the efforts to revive Munich’s Isar River (the story is unlocked for ya!). They spent $38 million over 11 years (which, honestly, seems unbelievably low to me) to help shore up flood-prone neighborhoods, build purification plants to prevent runoff pollution, and expand the river’s floodplains and banks to keep it safe during spring floods. But the benefits were vast:
The restoration was meant to benefit flood-prone neighborhoods, as well as the river’s flora and fauna. But today the river is also an easily accessible public space that offers essential relief from the heat. “I don’t have a balcony, I don’t have a garden, but I have the Isar,” said an apartment-dwelling friend who swims there regularly.
Now that I live in Portland, every summer I am near, on, or in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers as much as possible. I can’t tell you how much these experiences change the way I view the city and its relationship to the natural landscape, let alone how nice it is to have lots of places to cool off when those summer temperatures get higher (and higher and higher).
Portland has a lot more water than Los Angeles, but desert cities can revive their river waterfronts, too. When I was in Albuquerque, I loved biking along its huge open stretch of the Rio Grande, where people can also run, swim, bird-watch, and even float in kayaks or rafts. More parks like North Atwater along the L.A. River could form a similar system and be wonderful (and hopefully better maintained and not cut off from other parks by enormous freeways).
I know the L.A. River has a long way to go, but progress is happening. It’s not always in the city’s history to do so, but I hope Los Angeles can keep public access and benefit in mind when they’re reviving and restoring the river—and I hope it can serve as an inspiration for many other cities throughout the warming West.
Related:
Portland’s Harbor Drive history.
In 2020, 58% of the rivers and streams in Connecticut were still considered “impaired for water contact recreation.”
Your Parks
Your Places
Can We Pick Up After Ourselves, Please?
If you were celebrating the Fourth of July at Lake Tahoe this year, I hope you had a great time. But if you saw the condition of some of the lake’s beaches on July 5th, you might not have been in quite a celebratory mood. Over three hours on that day, 402 volunteers cleaned up a mind-boggling 8,559 pounds of litter left primarily from the single night before.
The cleanup is an annual event organized by League to Save Lake Tahoe, and while they noted that the more developed beaches remained relatively clean (thanks to infrastructure like trash bins and toilets), the more undeveloped beaches got absolutely hammered. Zephyr Shoals, an unmanaged beach on the east shore of Tahoe, had the equivalent of a ¾ ton pickup truck worth of trash on its narrow sandy strip.
Divers from the nonprofit group Clean Up The Lake also pulled trash from below the surface of Lake Tahoe.
People, this is how we lose public access to things.
via MyNews4.
Malibu Cuts Down Coastal Access Signs
If all you know about Malibu’s attitude toward outsiders is the police station scene from The Big Lebowski (NSFW language, obvs) you … uh … well, you pretty much have it right. The city has a long history of using some pretty sneaky tactics to trick people into thinking its very public beaches are not accessible to anyone who doesn’t own one of the multi-million dollar mansions that sit on the coast.
The Mountains Recreation Conservation Authority, which manages parkland and open space throughout Southern California, posted an Instagram video recently about a fight they were having with the City of Malibu. MRCA installed new signs directing people toward the public access points to Lechuza Beach, which MRCA maintains as a public park. And then Malibu allegedly cut them all down.
Honestly, I respect MRCA for calling Malibu out like this … but the comments on that video? Lots of folks complaining about leftover litter (along with your usual NIMBY stew, naturally). I’m a firm believer that public lands are for the public, always, but it does make that stance tough for people to sign-on to when they see those public lands being trashed.
Yosemite on a Holiday Weekend
Something about these scenes don’t necessarily read as “preserving unimpaired the natural and cultural resources,” right?
Tech Talk
Gadgets, Technology, and Hype
Capture the Milky Way
One of the first things I did when I got my first DSLR a thousand years ago was to play around with exposure timing to see how it affected things like flowing water and night sky shots. But anyone who wants to seriously step up their night sky photography game should read this set of tips for capturing the best Milky Way shots from photographer Stanley Aryanto (@wickedhunt on Instagram). Aryanto spoke with Atlas Obsura to share some beginner-friendly advice and share some stories behind his incredible imagery.
Related:
The Northern Lights will be visible tonight in cities as far south as Salem, Oregon, Cheyenne, Wyoming, and Annapolis, Maryland! Or … maybe not quite that far south?
Find International Dark Sky Parks near you.
Wildlife Crossing
Wildlife and the Outdoors
Plants are Wildlife, Too
Here’s some news on a literal wildlife crossing – Southern California’s Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which is under construction and will be the world’s largest wildlife overpass when it’s done – has just secured more than 1 million seeds from locally-collected seeds native plants. The seeds will be used to landscape both the overpass and the surrounding area to provide a strong habitat connection on both sides of the 101 freeway.
The seeds contain foundational species like coast live oak, toyon, ceanothus, buckwheats, sages, and others, and all of the seeds were collected from within a five mile radius of the overpass. The first stage of construction will include about 5,000 plants, while the second stage will require almost 50,000! I’ll keep an eye out for any volunteer opportunities, but you can also sign up for updates at 101 Wildlife Crossing and even check out real-time construction cams here.
The Surfing Otter of Santa Cruz
Surfers near Santa Cruz have been terrorized by a southern sea otter who has become habituated to human contact. Otter 841, as the critter is known, has taken to stealing surfboards from people in the water—sometimes riding them for a bit in very photo-friendly moments, other times tearing into the boards themselves and damaging them.
Otter 841 was raised in captivity at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is where authorities hope to return the otter if they can successfully capture her before transferring her elsewhere. There is no evidence she has been fed by humans, but if an otter does bite a human, state policy is to euthanize the animal.
These interactions are dangerous for humans, too:
Gena Bentall, director and senior scientist with Sea Otter Savvy, an organization that works to reduce human-caused disturbances to sea otters and promote responsible wildlife viewing. “Otters have sharp teeth and jaws strong enough to crush clams,” she said.
Via New York Times.
One More Thing
Oh yeah, before I go …
Thanks so much to everyone who (virtually) attended my recent hiking talk hosted by the Torrance Public Library! It is always great to get to virtually meet folks, talk about some of my favorite trails, and answer questions. As always, newsletter readers will be the first to know about any future events.
Also, stay tuned – the Modern Hiker Newsletter is now over 6 months old (!) which is pretty dang good for a “hey let’s see if I can do this” project, right? I’m going to do a bonus “behind the scenes” thing here a little later, just to give you an idea of where the project stands and how you can help it keep going.
Until then, savor an Anchor Steam while you still can, and Happy Trails,
Thanks for this disturbing information. I'd like to know how you and your readers are getting active to protect this river.