Two large creeks once flowed through the east and west sides of
the UCLA campus. But in order to construct more buildings in the
early 1930s, most of the two creeks was buried.
But starting on Sunday, members of the UCLA community will begin
the first stage of restoring the only remaining above-ground part
of the creek, located behind the Anderson School of Management, as
part of a larger plan to restore other parts of the creek and other
waterways in the Los Angeles area.
Jessica Hall, the Ballona Creek Watershed Coordinator with the
Santa Monica Bay Restoration Committee, first proposed the
restoration of the creek.
“I have been mapping streams that are buried (in Los
Angeles) for four years and I find out where there are leftover
pieces all over the city,” Hall said. “I was looking
for opportunities to draw attention to these buried
streams.”
Hall contacted Rafe Sagarin, a post-doctoral researcher in the
UCLA Institute of the Environment and project leader for the Stone
Canyon Creek Restoration Project, and proposed a restoration of the
creek as well as potential funding sources for the project, Sagarin
said.
A few months ago, they applied for a grant from the Southern
California Wetlands Recovery Project’s Small Grants Program
and were awarded with $30,000 last month.
Sagarin said the grant does not cover the entire cost, but it
helps with the expenses.
Sagarin has worked closely with organizations such as Heal the
Bay, the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission and Environmental
Bruins in planning the restoration and in organizing a group of
volunteers to assist with the project.
Bobby Walsh, a fourth-year ecology and evolutionary biology
student and the activities coordinator for Environmental Bruins,
said Sagarin contacted him because he was looking for a group of
students who were “environmentally-minded” and who
would be interested in helping with the restoration.
“I think it’s going to be a lot of work, but
it’s definitely going to be worth it in the long run,”
Walsh said.
“(The current landscaping) is an illusion because even
though the plants look pretty, it’s useless to the
wildlife.”
Restoration of the creek will entail pulling up non-native
vegetation along the creek and replanting the area with small
native plants in an effort to restore as much of the original
habitat as possible.
Sagarin said the restoration will be completed in about a
year.
Many of the plants currently growing in that area are invasive,
meaning they overtake ecosystems and edge out native species, and
must be removed several times before they stop growing by the
creek.
“The creek has been hidden away and we want people to see
what it used to look like,” Sagarin said.
By restoring the original habitat, Sagarin and Hall anticipate
native birds and amphibians will return to the area.
There was at one point about 180 miles of flowing water
throughout the Los Angeles area, but to further develop the city,
all but 20 miles of the waterways have been buried, Hall said.
She also said that restorations of the waterways will change
people’s perceptions of Los Angeles.
“You would think of (Los Angeles) as green and not just
asphalt,” Hall said.
Sagarin said he hopes this restoration will be the first stage
of incorporating the creek into the campus.
He said the long-term goal is to have many parts of the creek
running throughout the campus like it did originally.
Stone Canyon Creek originates in the hills of Bel-Air and runs
in the same direction as Westwood Boulevard.
“This campus was originally built under the control of
nature,” Sagarin said.
“It’s so clear from those first years that there
used to be a beautiful meandering creek running through
here.”
Walsh compared Sagarin’s plan to the UC Santa Cruz campus,
where the creeks located on the campus have become an
“integral” part of the school.
Sagarin said getting approval for the larger project of
“daylighting” the creek ““ actually bringing it
back to the surface ““ would take a lot of time and
funding.
“Until we can make a real case that we can do this (in a
safe manner) and benefit the campus, there will be opposition along
the way because people don’t like to change things. What
we’re saying is that we should all come to the table and talk
about the possibilities,” Sagarin said. “We want to
make this a campus-wide discussion.”
He added that he is trying to get the UCLA elementary school
involved with the restoration as well, because it would provide the
students with a “great learning opportunity.”
Sagarin said it is important to get students involved with the
restoration of the creek.
“While you’re here, this is your home, and this is
an opportunity to do something really good with your home,”
Sagarin said.