The Sustainability of OC Great Park

From Central Park to Golden Gate Park, landscape designers historically created urban oases amidst city skylines. However, if a park could be created in a populated area today, what would be done differently? Would there be a change in how designers approach the landscape?
Among other regions, the State of California is, once again, facing a potential water shortage. And with population growth, urban dwelling Californians also lack extensive parks for education, leisure, recreation, and art. Considering the needs of a growing state, with enough space, how would a park of the 21st century look?

Recently, the developing Great Park of Orange County addressed such questions. With the acquisition of land from a decommissioned Air Station in Irvine, an urban space opened with the potential to become a true park of the 21st century. Not only do the park plans function to entice local communities to explore its nature habitats, hike upon trails along the revitalized Agua Chinon stream, and enjoy art and educational opportunities, but Orange County Great Park employs innovative sustainable design strategies and unique park features to capture the interest of wandering folk.

Unlike most developments, Orange County Great Park plans to develop using recycled materials. Ranging from the reuse of removed paving (nicknamed “toro stone”) to the reuse of building demolition materials, walkways and bridges will be constructed in the Great Park. Dispersal and replanting of the over 8000 trees that existed on the air base will also contribute to the ‘sustainable’ construction of the park. Once established, Orange County Great Park plans to use reclaimed water to fuel a manmade stream that will meander through the park. At the terminus of this “Bee Creek,” the reclaimed water will collect into a large holding pond that will, not only, provide for recreational opportunities, but will also function as a water source for nighttime park irrigation. Other sustainable features include the use of native vegetation to minimize water needs, site wide composting to minimize waste, and an integrated transit system to encourage alternative transportation and minimal greenhouse gas emission.

Technology and Conservation

Technology and Conservation

The emergence and perfection of hyperspectral technology has tremendous potential for revolutionizing conservation efforts. Since its emergence in the 1990’s, researchers used the technology for a variety of purposes, ranging from updating maps to managing agricultural lands and exploring for minerals. The implications for conservation, however, is the ability for researchers to identify ecosystem function, evolution and change; identify threatened habitats of endangered species; indirect approximations of species richness and diversity; and calculations for carrying capacity, all with unprecedented efficiency. What once required tedious surveying and exploration by foot now requires aerial flights over the area of study.

What is hyperspectral imagery? In simplest terms, hyperspectral imagery is the detection of reflected electromagnetic energy from the earth. After an electromagnetic ray is transmitted and received, hyperspectral technology produces high resolution images created from the variety of wavelengths received. In the end, the technology produces an easily interpreted map of a specific target, ranging from a mineral to a specific plant species. Most recently, Earth Search Sciences Inc. patented their third generation technology, called the “OmniProbe.” A fraction of its original size, the OmniProbe is the size of a shoebox and can be easily attached to aircraft for research excursions.

With the perfection and evolution of hyperspectral technology is increased surveying abilities. Regarding conservation efforts and research, the technology can now reveal vertical canopy structure of a forest, percentage of land cover by vegetation, the productivity of primary producers (via Chlorophyll), information on ocean color and circulation, climate and rainfall data, percentage of soil moisture, phenology cycles (leaf turnover and flower/fruiting cycles), and the identification of target species. Pertaining to field research, the technology has been used to detect invasive species and identify and survey critical habitat for endangered animals from the Great Panda in China, to the Black Rhino in Kenya and the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda.

In Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota, the emergence and spread of the invasive species “Leafy Spurge” has created habitat damage and loss to the park’s grasslands. To reverse the damage done by the spread of this noxious species, the park has sprayed infested areas with an herbicide or released flea beetles as a bio-control ally; flea beetles prey upon Leafy Spurge. With the help of hyperspectral technology and imagery, the park has identified and mapped the locations and extent of the infestations throughout the park. With a map in hand, park rangers and researchers now fight to eradicate the weed.

Across the globe in Africa and China, conservationists and the Worldwide Wildlife Fund fight to save token endangered species like the Great Panda, Black Rhino, and Mountain Gorilla. All three species are not only threatened by poachers, but reduction in critical habitat areas and limited ‘sanctuaries’ or places free from human harm. In Rwanda, the Center for Conservation Technology, a division of the Dian Fossey Gorilla Fund International, uses hyperspectral technology to understand habitat loss, ecosystem function, and extent of human encroachment to dictate field conservation and ecosystem management strategies. The extent that the new technology will alter and assist conservation strategies may influence the fate of the Mountain Gorillas of Rwanda. Regarding the Black Rhino and Great Panda, hyperspectral technology could be used to locate suitable critical habitat areas for conservation purposes. If sanctuaries could be created for these animals from acquisitioned land, species abundances may once again rise.

Currently, population of Black Rhino in Kenya has dropped from over 20,000 in 1970 to approximately 450 individuals today. With the help of field research, critical habitat was identified and a small fenced and protected rhino sanctuary, called “Sweetwaters,” was created for the Black Rhino. Surveying the habitat by foot, researchers calculated the carrying capacity of the sanctuary, and 22 rhino were translocated to the area. In this scenario, hyperspectral technology could have potentially replaced the need for tedious field work to accelerate the establishment of the sanctuary.

Hyperspectral technology can largely replace tedious field surveying yet provided thorough data sets for calculating carrying capacities of study sites for target species. The implications are that it can expedite surveying processes and eliminate the need for extensive field research to assist park management strategy and decision-making. With the use of the innovative technology, the identification of critical habitat and data collection for carrying capacity calculations could occur to create and extend existing conservation areas.


Brandon Perkins
Content Coordinator
NGS/LA FEATURES-Special Projects
Phone (888)477-9241/Fax (323) 559-2256
www.linejumpertalent.com via www.nationalgeographic.com/ngexplorer
DIRECT E-MAIL: brandon@linejumpertalents.com

The Importance of the Greening of California

The majority of California lies within an ecological zone named the “California Floristic Province,” which is considered a Mediterranean ecosystem. Across the globe, Mediterranean ecosystems represent less than 3% of the land and are considered more threatened than rainforests. In California’s ecosystem, only 25% of original habitat currently remains, as the remainder has been altered by agricultural, industrial, and residential uses. Consequently, numerous endemic vegetative species have declined in population numbers.

Within the California Floristic Province, the Santa Susanna Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, and the Santa Monica Mountains collaboratively form a watershed that fuels the Los Angeles River that extends through the entirety of Los Angeles. Once upon a time, the 850 miles of the Los Angeles watershed fed a meandering river lined with vegetation. Trees thrived, scrubland grew, and birds and wildlife flourished along the Los Angeles River’s 51 mile length. However, with the onset of settlers and population growth, the unpredictable river and its changing path and periodic flooding instigated its concrete channelization in the 1930’s by the marine corps. The wild river became a glorified storm drain and lost its identity. As for the river’s watershed, today over 60 percent of its expanse is paved in concrete.

Across the globe, urbanization leaves a concrete footstep, and often the effects not only marginalize wildlife habitat, but interrupt nature’s water cycle. Considering the Los Angeles area, the paving of its watershed produced impermeable surfaces that inhibit nature’s normal cycle of water percolation into underground aquifers. Throughout history, such aquifers provided freshwater for various civilian uses, including drinking water. Before urbanization of the Los Angeles watershed, 80% of rainwater percolated into the ground to recharge aquifers. Today, eight percent of rainfall seeps into the ground. Most the remaining stormwater flows over concrete before being funneled into the Los Angeles River and ultimately into the Pacific Ocean. Freshwater is lost.

On the cusp of a statewide water shortage, various Los Angeles politicians, scientists and visionaries are striving to address the issue. In particular, one component is the greening of the Los Angeles River, known as the Los Angeles River Revitalization Master Plan….

Brandon Perkins
Content Coordinator
Direct Phone line: (310) 427-2740
NGS/LA FEATURES-Special Projects
Phone (888)477-9241/Fax (323) 559-2256

Art and Orange County Great Park

Remember the original pin-hole camera? An enclosed box containing no trace of light, except a small ray that passed through a pin-sized hole on the front side, produced the world’s first photographic image. Manipulating the original photographic technology, a group of artists in September 2007 created the world’s largest photographic image by creating an unusually large pin-hole camera. How was this done? In the future site of the Orange County Great Park, a remnant hangar on a decommissioned air base became the camera, and an emulsion-treated enormous canvas became the film negative. The result was tremendous: the world’s largest photograph, certified by the Guiness Book of World Records. The gigantic image was of the decommissioned air base, essentially an oversized record of the ground zero of the Orange County Great Park. In essence, art began the documentation of the grandiose transformation of an air base into a revolutionary park of the 21st century.

Throughout history, passion drove artists to express their emotion, ability, and vision through various mediums. For the observer, art inspires awe, wonder, and evokes an array of emotion. In Orange County Great Park, art, and its appreciation, will continue to flourish. Beyond the wildlife and recreational opportunities that the Great Park will provide, artisans will have opportunities to showcase their work. In places such as the Exposition Center, which will contain a museum and cultural center, and the main amphitheatre, artists, musicians, and thespians will have a place to display and perform art.

Currently, the Legacy Project team that created the Great Picture have continued their photographic exploration of the base site. To date, the team has collected over 90,000 photographs of the property, documenting existing building art, graffiti, and the initial stage of the Great Park’s transformation. With plans to include areas to showcase local art, perhaps the metamorphosis of the park captured by the Legacy Project will become an artistic display for all to appreciate.


Brandon Perkins
Content Coordinator
Direct Phone line: (310) 427-2740
NGS/LA FEATURES-Special Projects
Phone (888)477-9241/Fax (323) 559-2256

Boston Hailed as East Coast Champ in Urban Mega Park Building

(LJT) Boston - There was a time, mostly in the 1970s, and all through the eighties and early 90s, most people traveling to Boston would not linger to take in the sites. How times have changed. The construction of a new urban park on a island, notoriously used as a landfill, located in Boston Harbor, as well as, the cleanup of the Harbor itself, has reinvented Boston as the East Coast's Green Capital. The addendum construction of a sewage treatment plant on nearby Deer Island and the abatement of sewage discharges from combined sewer overflows has significantly improved water quality in the harbor and transformed the sites of Boston's Harbor Islands and Spectacle Island itself. The landfill is now capped with 30 feet [nine meters] of dirt from the excavation of the highway tunnel in Boston's massive Central Artery/Tunnel project - the “Big Dig.” As part of the environmental remediation effort, the island has been vegetated with native and non-native plant species and the large urban park is networked with five miles of bike paths and hiking trails. In addition, five-acres of artificial reefs were created east of the island.

It took twenty years of dispute settlement, constant dialogue and compromise with varied agenices, non profits and island stake holders, a consortium called 'The Partnership'. The outcome of this 'partnership' has transformed an urban eyesore into a beautiful large island park in the center of Boston Harbor and provided a lesson on water and health issues and compromise for any city considering a large scale urban park revitalization effort.


Because the Partnership is comprised of federal, state, local and private sector organizations, an advisory council (made up of members appointed by the National Park Service) learned through years of rough patches to work together to implement the park's General Management Plan, which has a 15 to 20 year outlook. The National Park Service does not own the park lands, rather the islands have remained in the hands of municipal, state, or institutional owners and the U.S. Coast Guard.
Following the milestone event of opening Spectacle Island to the public, the Partnership plans to continue to work toward enhancing the harbor island experience for visitors by upgrading infrastructure and improving access for the disabled. Major projects planned include rehabilitating the buildings of Fort Andrews, built around 1900, on Peddocks Island. The National Park Service is beginning to do inventory of island resources to determine the appropriate level of use.
For a tour of the islands, ferry schedules and information for educators visit www.bostonislands.org.
PRESS CONTACTS

Mitch Apodaca
Line Jumper Talents Group
INFO@LINEJUMPERTALENTS.COM
Phone (888)477-9241/Fax (323) 559-2256

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For More Information on Boston's Big Green and urban parks and related water filtration issues: see




http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/24/us/24boston.html

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TRAVEL/getaways/07/26/spectacle.island.ap/index.html

http://www.gulfofmaine.org/times/fall2006/bostonharbor.html

CELEBRATING STORIES OF GEOGRAPHIC DISCOVERY

Wednesday, October 3, 2007


Geographic Size Matters in Watershed Protection and Mega Park Planning

New Era of Urban Mega Park building is planned
for LA and surrounding Region

LA River near Taylor Yard/LJT Images-Artist's Projection

The LA River, a meandering story of complex conflict points, is once again
rerouted atop LA's Urban Mega Park building agenda

(LJT) Los Angeles - Launching a new era for park construction and watershed management, a consortium of environmental and public action groups announced a shared vision for the Los Angeles River and urban parks, setting a coordinated tone for a 'geography of practicality' that chronicled a turning of the bend on the way Angeleno's look at its river and its urban parks and how varied special interests, buoyed by enormous public works funding are learning to work together for a common good. By citing statistics that Los Angeles ranks last among major cities in per capita open space, a coalition of private and public organizations,forged by politcial interests, are now actively engaging in a nonprofit Urban Land Trust designed to,manage develop, connect, enhance existing and neighborhood parks. From pocket parks to large park developments, many of which are planned for major portions of the 32 miles of LA River that is in LA's jurisdiction, this land trust and billions of dollars in new state and federal income streams for park funding and construction, are destined to radically transform the urban landscape. Most notably, the LA River, through a revamped and revitalized LA River Master plan into a interconnected and mixed use mega park See:, http://www.lariver.org/


Although the announcement was well timed with other recent announcements related to integrated water use plans for the greater LA County region, seizing upon a revitalized LA River Master Plan and urban park needs, and now flushed with long sought after funding and banking on growing environmental needs, the momentum has some of LAs Council Members already positioning themselves for the Green future. Although just who or what office will ultimately control the conglomeration of overlapping plans for the lengthy River and its connected park within LAs jurisdiction, ranging from wildlife centered in the upper part of the river to recreational and watershed use at river midpoint, overall management of this 'common' large green landscape entity is still in question. Yet the announcement has galvanized other regional groups to synchronize their visions, customized their message and set their sights on the LA River as the general geographic green funding focus. The LA River, running through LAs urban core and some of it's poorest regions, has long been ground zero for a broad range of water resource and green space needs and issues.


Above~From mountains to sea, 32 miles of the LA River's 51 miles runs through LA

Said a Greater LA County Integrated Regional Water Management Plan representative, at their own recent conference, "Of course,with a growing population of 10 million, LA needs parks, but it also needs a sustainable approach to intergrating water management that, instead of directing it towards the sea, captures a valuable resource and uses
(LA River themed) green projects to increase watershed friendly recreational space. Our advocacy at www.lawaterplan.org performs this task by positioning the region for more funding from local, state and federal sources to implement these projects."


This conjoined chorus of voices has forced the heralding of the official dawning of the revitalization efforts, setting in rapid motion a sequence of future planning bids and plans for the LA River, and green space, placing these somewhat alternating 'Big Green' visions on the geopolitical map and agenda, of Los Angeles officialdom's urban park projects 'to-do' calander.

In a city that has historically turned it's back on it's River, "We are talking about bringing together private, public and government entities to explore how we can be creative about our land use," said Jerilyn Lopez Mendoza, of Environmental Defense.

Evident by the amount of LA Council press releases announcment of park openings, land purchase plans and ribbon cuttings already in play along the river front, the political will is now strongly engaged in changing the LA River from largely a 1934 Army Corp.of Engineer constructed and managed Flood Control Channel,to a true river ecosystem that encompasses urban parks, as well as, wetland habitats.
see: http://www.lacity.org/council/cd13/cd13press/cd13cd13press13231266_07222005.pdf

The additional announcement in May of a city $50 million bond measure, Proposition O, sponsored by LA Council Member Ed Reyes, for more investments in park and river amenities, was the largest measure passed by a civic institution. States a Reyes staff member, "just Google the great deeds of this Councilman, he's been on the forefront of a revitalized river issues for years, and the timing of his drumbeat message about River revitalization has come."

"His noted battles for river restoration stem from his experiences growing up along the LA River, have provided LA's public officials, rewards for a greater public works platform, rewards for his early Prop.O advocacy and investments, wisely offering greater chances to partake in a larger undertakings of providing the public, specifically his districts urban core inhabitants, with green space on par with other industrialized cities its size. A chance for future investment in a vision, that few local politician have rarely taken." said a longtime Reyes aid.

Stewarding a rivers change of course, LA Councilman Reyes

Converging interests strike a balance for a common Cause


"This active engagement from all fronts is turning LA Green and reawakening not just the possibilities, but the probabilities based on all these immense funding amounts and diverse funding sources and new ability to have once conflicting interests now dialogue for a common vision," said Andrew Dimpfl, environmental writer and artist.

"We are realizing the dream that harkens the call of Frederick Olmsted Jr. 'All things, great and small, are possible." The rewards are also found in defining the details that comprise a dream.
"It just takes political willingness to perform the defined points." Continues Dimpfl, "It seems we've reached that milestone and now turning a corner on getting LA needed green space and its River revitalized through connecting the dots of planned pocket parks with large urban parks linked to enhanced habitats...along the river. "


If the organizers behind the new land trust get their way, the "emerald necklace" of small and interconnected larger city parks along the Los Angeles River, proposed for Los Angeles early in the last century by the son of famed 19th-century urban planner Frederick Law Olmsted, designer of New York's Central Park, may finally be realized in Los Angeles' urban core, as well as, along a mega length of the LA River. In the 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Regional Plan for the Los Angeles River, which encouraged proactive urban planning by utilizing public and purchasing private land for optimized water shed protection park creation, enhanced wetland protection and creating livable communities along the river for parks, playgrounds and beaches in the Los Angeles Region. "The plan," according to Robert Fishman, author of Bourgeois Utopia; The End of Suburbia," was a model for ambitious, intelligent sensitive planning, but after a flurry of enthusiasm in the newspapers at the time, it dropped from sight and no action was taken on its proposals. The Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce and city officials simply dropped it from sight. A lost future and classic sensitive planning overlooked for political and economic gains that did not benefit the citizens of the region in the long term."

"An essential document many Angelenos and landscape architect students know about, but is also a story that encapsulates the opportunity LA's early urban planner purposely neglected can be found in the acclaimed novel, 'Eden by Design' by Hise-Deverill," continues Fishman," underscores where we, as a community, were at in our collective thinking, and were we are now, seventy years later, as the west's largest city."

Learning from the Olmsted Plan

Three quarters of a century after LA rejected the Olmsted vision, an urban land and water use revolution has indeed begun and is picking up speed evident by the regional conference links with announced park funding. Coincidently timed with the LA Urban Land Trust announcement, is the nonprofit Local Government Commission Los Angeles and regional conference visit. With a mandate that is 'working to build livable communities, the conferences utilize a planning mission for wise use of Proposition 50 measure money, a California River-Parkway which allowed allocating $6.9 billion in state bond revenue towards watershed creation and management; an initiative that passed in November of 2002. The LGCs focus is on livable communities through open conferencing,paid for by Prop. 50 funding, highlights areas such as 'smart growth'. This offers local elected officials, land use and transportation planners, public works engineers,hydro technicians, developers and architects and local activists , a series of event workshops and informational exchanges for linking water and land use in the Los Angeles Region. To register visit http://www2.lgc.org/events/

LJT Images

Water Resource Wise, Commissioner Daniels

Balancing the need for urban park space, in a region hit often by drought, are series of water resource conferences and water use planning events are ongoing throughout the state, but covering a very LA River topic theme; that of watershed protection,lessons in preserving water resources and wetland restoration.
"The LA River encompasses these opportunities, requiring sensitive design that encourages both human interaction and wildlife habitat to coexist, and utilization of innovative technologies, hydro technologies, and resources management," said Paula Daniels, key note speaker at the Los Angeles Regional Conference,and Los Angeles Commissioner of Parks and Recreation.
Whatever the reason, perhaps cost effectiveness, cohesiveness with different voices based on common goals, the extraordinary shift towards regional greener thinking is evident in Angelenos’ willingness to pay higher taxes to infuse the metropolitan region with more open space. "We’re seeing a paradigm shift in thinking," said Corey Brown, a director of California’s chapter of Trust for Public Land, a nonprofit organization that has been instrumental in helping the state and local governments acquire and preserve park lands.


In the early 1990s, California’s policy towards preserving and creating open space was virtually nonexistent; budget crises tied the hands of the state government, and in 1996, California’s state land acquisition office was closed. There is a great deal of ground to be recovered with this new influx of capital, including nearly a decade of maintenance that was neglected or ignored during the lean recession years of the early 1990s and the State Park system has to deal with that legacy.

Below~Golden Rule in Watershed Enhancement
In a region sticken with drought, a new purpose in
the Politics of Green of ' watershed stakeholders'




Revenue Streams rebuild a River and a watershed

The flood doors for funding operations were opened wider in 2002, when a third bond measure, the California Clean Water, Clean Air, Safe Neighborhood Parks, and Coastal Protection Act of 2002 (Proposition 40), secured an additional $2.6 billion in state funds for the preservation and creation of parklands.79 Called "the most elegant park bond" in California history by State Assemblyman Fred Keeley, Proposition 40 added critical resources to the state’s open space initiatives.

With the new funding sources, the process of building the potentially 32 miles of the 51 miles, has again been focused largely on implementing a Revitilized LA River Plan, incorporating riperian greenspace that restores the natural hydrological functioning of the watershed, better optimized water resources while improving water quality and restoring habitat and community connectivity that enhance open space. The LA River Plan, has, in one form or another, been in existence since 1930. The Los Angeles River Greenway—named for the parks system proposed by Olmsted and Batholomew—is finally beginning with the instrumental conjoining of voices from private groups and action committees,such as FoLAR, Friends of LA River, a group founded by Louis McAddams who some modern local environmentalist call, 'the father of the LA River.' A collective voice, with alternative visions for urban green space by groups, such as the Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy. A group led by Joe Edminston, soon to be honored with a 2007 “Rivie” Award for accomplishments with environmental stewardship and commitment to the Los Angeles River. Said a FoLAR spokesman, "His involvement with conservation awareness and active involvement in two distinct regional water and land issues, epitomizes interconnectivity to regional park issues, and using tremendous financial creativity to connect these large spaces." Announced for Friday, Oct. 19, the LA River Awards recipient this year has brought greater attention to the current climate of interconnected environmental activism.


States award winning landscape designer, Marcia McNally, hired to prepare a 20-year agenda for the Conservancy along the Los Angeles River, "One way the Conservancy has been able to convince people to take on big visions is to blend ecological planning with good design to achieve an outcome that is sound, as well as, pleasing to the public. Usually these innovations seem out of reach, but they are so well grounded in political ability and good science that what seems to be a risky business is not so risky in the end.To reclaim the River, a concrete flood control system requires thousands of little moves to build momentum for the big ones."


Now willed by more movable parts, lubricated by enormous amounts public and private funds, are making for a healthier body of watershed coordination and park building projections. With each new announcement of public parks funding, a synchronized publicity drive carrying the message of river and park revitalization, based on the need and use of the funds for green space investment is making historically recalcitrant civic parts move more quickly then at any time in the past.


A river runs through it. 'Coordinating diverse
voices to promote water conservation, community
and institutional partnerships' the River is LA's commons'


"It (funding need for watershed/urban green space) is being heard in Sacramento, albeit from varied camps, where more legislation is being constructed, based on projected and soon to be announced severe water shortages." says State Water Board Advisor, Adan Ortega, See:http://www.calwatercrisis.org/pdf/ACWA_PR_ProgramLaunch9.12.07.pdf

Adds Ortega, "The need and opportunity are now...!"

Ortega's words ring with such velocity of wide respect throughout many political and business jurisdictions based on his tenure with state water issues and his team role in the LA River Revitalization Master Plan.

LJT Images-Ken Matthews

Navigating the future for regional water needs;
Water Warrior-Adan Ortega

Regional public and private land and water affairs activists are seizing the opportunity to lobby for park and habitat creation along the Los Angeles River, acts not lost on rival candidate LA River vision makers, urban parks and watershed managers. Observing these developments for the creation of these potentially conflicting and diverse claims for project funds largely aimed at the same geographic areas, can be seen most demonstratively by local officials whose districts benefit directly from the windfall of park infrastructure revenue. If timing and change has been the currency of politics, then the timing to be green is political gold in California, as well as, national politics. From presidential candidates voicing green claims and proposals, to local precinct and district elected officials, cashing in on the chances taken earlier, enacting green strategies and providing greater advocacy of green issues, the green movement and its evidence of rewards for politicians can now be seen and heard at all levels.



Below~Notes on local water needs: Green is the new Gold in Politics



It's said all great rivers have rapids that change and change is the gold currency of local politics; making the new gold...green. Rapidly the LA River, at one time in the 1970s considered for a possible freeway route during the dry season, to alleviate car congestion, has taken on current green space attention that contemporary politicians, as opposed to those in office during Olmsted's plea, may now be the local political gold standard in green space implementation.

May 9th, 2007, may have been the starting gun for Mega Park Design for the LA River when elaborations on the LA River Master Revitalization Plan were approved. Practicality and political expediency this time were on the Green Movement's side. The new plan, now offered in an era of greater ecological awareness and political climate, makes the agreed upon points, including water depth and temperature,now easier to implement," said noted environmental writer, Andrew Dimpfl.

The enormity of present and future water and park funding ,as well as, the political green climate inspired by Al Gore's green battle cry on global warming, water and energy use, has offered Los Angeles a unique opportunity to address the lack of urban green space, the crime rates associated with this lack, a current educational site building boom by the Los Angeles Unified School District and the LAUSD's look at river front property for 'green learning' has, at no other time, offered such a solid core green manisfesto to draw from in coordinating geographic reference opportunities. Implementing the existing LA River Master Plan has allowed, and sometimes geared, city officials to time their green heritiage, and branding to the opportunity," said Dimpfl.

Garcetti, getting high marks along the
LA River with new park construction

Stewarding Green Growth

Los Angeles has currently in place a few politicians and city officials quite capable of leading the charge in the cry for state revenue to be spent on LA River Park creation on a scale with the original Olmsted 1930 plan. Along side Councilman Reyes's efforts, The Urban Land Trust has been crucially assisted by LA Council Members Eric Garcetti, who co-chaired the Urban Land Trust Task Force, much of whose district is bisected by the LA River and whose community will benefit by a resurgent and healthy river. Garcetti's blog claims, ' head to toe, or headwater to confluence; there is a total body of health affect. These include many multiple and measurable, healthy hydro-systemics and factors, such as water temperature variables; the heart of pumping/filtration systems for sustainable goals. Together, they measure not just the health index and quality of the LA River but the bond rating that's associated with communities along the river.'

"'Metaphorically, what Councilman Garcetti says, is right on cue: Healthy investing in the river environment from any point of view, just makes good sense. Check out the great Moody bond rating performance as benchmark of investments to come,"rightly claims an LA City blogger.

Below~Committed to benchmarking the successful restoration
of the Cheonggyecheon, a 4.8km-long waterway flowing through
the downtown of Seoul, L.A. Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa visited
Seoul City Hall to meet with his counterpart Mayor Oh Se-hoon on
Oct. 16.




As the saying goes, 'in politics, timing is everything,' and ultimately positioned for the Green Space timing advantage is LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa. An early advocate of its revitalization, he's the man that could possibly head the charge for a revitalized river flowing through it's entire urban core currently with enough political clout to dismiss the cemented aesthetic look of the LA River. "With one fell swoop we’re going to turn the Los Angeles River from an eyesore into a jewel running through the city," said a then California State Assemblyman Antonio Villaraigosa.




~Above-Historic reminders from the Past -LA River's major
flooding cycle cemented its current condition as a 'flood
control concrete channeled river'

The announced revitalized LA River initiatives and connected urban park construction plans, do indeed contain many elements that embody a regional ecological and economic perspective that incorporates a familiar echo of the past. Containing long range water conservation senstivities with incorporated advances in hydrotechnology, enhanced watershed awareness and offering a grand 'mix-use' interpretation for these public spaces, such as trails and adjacent river-themed urban school sites within LA's jurisdiction. Some would even say the improved LA River Master Plan supercedes the original 1930 Olmsted-Bartholomew Plan on fronts Olmsted's firm could not have envisioned, such as technology advances that incorporate water filtration plants, storm water treatments and new water technology used to conserve and replenish water tables along the river for aquifer replenishment.

"Accordingly,... the revitalized LA River Master Plan, the LA River and urban state park systems, already partially administered by a State Park at a strategically precedent setting, urban park site,along the river, formally known as Taylor Yards and the Cornfields, offers an element of which, once completed, would become an enormous collection of parks, ponds, trails, wetlands and mosaic of riverside green spaces. In essence, a mega park in scale, that ultimately will have the potential to interconnect an accompanied dozen or so municipalities that line the river all the way to its confluence with the Pacific Ocean. The potential for civic, city and state conflict seems always just a river bend away with different entities and complex matters testing the water's management scheme. Cites Marsha McNally, "Valencia Spain has managed it's river with a trial by water. The city offers a working model of a 1000 years of fair land and water management."


She offers, "In deference to other plan challenges, I would say that for the River to perform well as a wildlife refuge, the only missing partner at this point is the US Fish and Wildlife Service, because they are in charge of the national wildlife refuge system. A good precedent is the Don Edwards Wildlife Refuge in the SF Bay Area, also a complex arrangement of partners, but very effective. I also think the Water Quality Control Board needs a stronger presence since one goal of stormwater management is to improve water quality. Other than that, we’ve got the other interests and goals covered (e.g. recreation, flood control, etc.)."

LJT Images-Jack Fleming

X marks the Spot, OCGP Team on the former El Toro Air Strip;
Engineering the evolution of 'large green space' Design

Akin to a symphony in two movements, modern day urban green planners, some elected and civic officials ,as well as, green space advocates are learning notes from the past and present and timing their message to the political green climate . They are channeling this new Big Green thinking and offering views and pressing implementations of urban green space use with the enormous amount of funds geared for park creation and watershed protection on scale not seen before. Multiple public and private action groups, hydrotechnicians and new technologies and dramatic advances in public space use, innovative architectural landscape designers and most importantly, in a drought ridden southern California, hydro-technology and constant progressive innovations by companies in tune with the customized needs of communities that are currently undeserved by catch basins, park space and and enhanced watershed protection. "Companies, such as AbTech, and HydroPhix, connect value of life and innovative and elemental hydrotechnology to large space design for enhanced water, wildlife and human habitat sustainability," said a hydroindustry spokesman.

'By interconnecting these needs...recreational needs, habitat revitaliztion and long term community sustainability with innovative and bio sensitive management, technology, community needs, urban planning and engineering showcases Olmsted's vision in Orange County'... Said Ken Smith, Lead Designer for the OCGP Design Team.

LJT Images-Jack Fleming

New York based, 'Olmstedian' Visionary, OCGP designer,
Ken Smith harnesses technology and the art of 'listening'
in creating Orange County's Great Park


Coinciding with this new political will and community cry for large park design and development, currently heard in Los Angeles, is now seen in the first phase of actual construction in the City of Irvine, found in Orange County, south of Los Angeles. There, on the former El Toro Marine Base, a huge portion of the land, twice the size of New York's Central Park, has been set aside for a multiple-use park, known as the Great Park. Amenities that showcase how far advanced landscape architectural design and interconnected communities, in want of green space and water quality, have come in terms of commonality of purposeful 'state of the art' resource protection and enhancements for healthy communities.

LJT Images- Ken Matthews


Above- Better and Bigger plans
Big Plans for LA and Orange County
Mia Leher in her LA office

"Irvine is so well ahead of the pack, in terms of innovative land use, resource management and green space park building, even with the revitalized Agua Chinon River running through this urban Great Park, that this is hardly a tale of two cities or counties," cited Brandon Perkins, a landscape architect student studying the landscape design differentials between Orange County's, and LA's own eventual, Mega Parks.

" In terms of designing this Great Park", says Great Park Designer, Mia Leher, "you evolve from your experiences, make and communicate the connections. I drew from my design experiences offered in the very competitive LA River Master Plan."

Continues Perkins,"Historically, the City of LA hasn't been in the enlightened, ecological urban leader for the development of great parks like the LA River system. Creating the most elaborate freeway-like flood control channel in the world, was LA's mark on antiquated park architecture and water use planning, in contrast to other more insightful civic, and a bit more modern, urban planners, such as San Antonio River Walk, who've enhanced their urban river fronts. Orange County's Great Park, aside from the cost of ecological clean-up from the base closing, a bill flipped by the U.S. Navy, will have the added cost benefits of creating green space design largely from an open canvas, much like Olmsted timed opportunity in the last Century."



Above-The sky's the limit in mega park planning
OCGP Balloon Ride; Geographers documenting the change in landscape,
Below-A watershed moment, City of Irvine Mayor Beth Krom
makes great park points




Stewarding wise land and water resourcing; Great Park planning in Orange County offers a heightened perspective in a shrinking world

Among these factors for the quicker creation of an urban mega park in synch with the base closure, aside from greater water and toxic clean-up conservation awareness , is a group think of private and public organizations. Later grouped as their own OCGP Land Trust, located in a county that is already pretty well planned, and in comparison to LA, lacks the long history of entrenched political animosity and, public intransigence,and rather uses its combined energy for park building rather then trust building measures, makes OC's whole regulatory ride to Great Park building easier then LAs.
. Additionally, the demographic base of its inhabitants, largely educated, upper income, has the addendum benefits of the quality of life, utilization of technological advances in the sciences that make for better communities and green spaces that past landscape designers, such as Olmsted were not privileged to, because of their era of design. However, the tie-ins that LA and Orange Counties great park visions share, is the creation of a single body to incorporate a land trust and shared message. The Orange County Great Park entity does just that,quite successfully by marketing it's message with free Helium Balloon rides offered to anyone wanting to see the future of Great Park planning at the Great Park site. www.greatparkballoon.org


Nearly fifty miles as the crow or any wetland bird flies, from the LA River's banks, Irvine's Great Park serves as a microcosm, although without the rich history of LA's river wars, of how different governing bodies and potential rivals, led by proactive politics, aided by community action, can share a similar vision on revitalizing large land, river and watershed space and settle on a common vision for the future.



LJT Images-Ken Matthews

Offering room to think, Lehrer inspires a soulful
landscape student Brandon Perkins

Orchestrating a two county assessment, LA's urban planners have been encouraged to view the future of green space construction, first hand, by the OCGP. The ride offers a heightened perspective in a shrinking world, made smaller by technology and common resource needs. "More then an amenity, OCGPs Agua Chinon River shows the integrated complexity of revitalization of watersheds and park creations," said Mia Lehrer," best seen from the air, the financial and future Green landscapes of great park planning comes down to integrated river and water issues that involves the humans and ecology directly. For our own well being, we have to finance an interconnected, web of life, that incorporates and manages all these elements and sustains them as resources.

Adds Lehrer, "Great Parks replenish not just our water tables and wildlife cooridors, but in crowded urban areas, room to think is a human resource need, that's also good for your soul."