Preservation groups hope to restore Arroyo Seco back to original state

By Lisa Faught

PASADENA -- The Arroyo Seco, which means "dry riverbed" in Spanish, was once true to its name. But through a restoration project that diverts water from the concrete channel to wetlands along its banks, native plants such as cottonwoods and willows are sprouting up throughout Lower Arroyo Seco Park.

"You get a feel for what you would have seen in 1700, sans the eucalyptus trees," said Joan Safford, landscape architect and professor at Cal Poly Pomona. "This is like a piece of the past."

Safford and more than 30 others turned out for a walk along the Arroyo Seco on Sunday afternoon, one of a series sponsored by the Friends of the Los Angeles River. The Friends walk the banks of the Los Angeles River and its tributaries once a month to educate Angelinos about the history of the channelized rivers and the future for restoring them.

"Our vision is a greenway from the mountains to the ocean along the river," said Joe Linton, walks coordinator for the Friends of the Los Angeles River. "It's a critical link between us city folk and the environment."

The Arroyo Seco, which runs through Pasadena via Devil's Gate Dam to the Los Angeles River at Elysian Fields, is considered a model for restoring rivers in urban neighborhoods.

The Army Corps of Engineers installed the concrete flood channel during the 1940s after a devastating flood in 1938. But by channelizing the river, water that once fed the wetlands surrounding the river was shunted into the channel and kept from soaking into the soil.

As part of a legal agreement to expand Sunshine Canyon landfill in 1995, trash collection company Browning-Ferris Industries set out to restore a 26-acre section of the Lower Arroyo Seco Park by diverting water from the channel to streams running parallel to the river.

"Five years ago, this area was pretty dry and bleak," said Timothy Brick, director of the Arroyo Seco Foundation. "This is really lush growth now."

Led by Brick, the walk started at Lower Arroyo Seco Park and wended through the ribbon of riparian growth hugging the concrete channel to the section of natural stream past the 134 Freeway.

Along the way, Brick pointed out the Colorado Boulevard Bridge and "the slime slide" below, where the Arroyo Seco converts from a natural stream teeming with fat tadpoles to the symmetrical lines of the concrete channel.

While the restoration of the park has transformed the landscape from a stretch of dry weeds to thick green growth, Brick said tearing out the concrete channel could be the next step.

"Even more can be done," Brick said.

The Arroyo Seco Foundation is hosting a cleanup of the river from 8:30 a.m. to noon Saturday. Volunteers are meeting in the Lower Arroyo Park parking lot at Arroyo Boulevard and Norwood Drive. More information is available at (626) 799-5622 or www.arroyoseco.org.