Malibu Lagoon: Paradise Lost

Save Malibu Lagoon Supporters on Peaceful Walk

For the last eight years when I have been staying in Santa Monica and West Los Angeles, Malibu Lagoon has been my Paradise.  This Paradise has now been raped, despite enormous efforts of Save Malibu Lagoon , environmentalists, scientists and even Malibu City Council.  More about that later, but first this is my personal Celebration of the Lagoon.

Many hours of my childhood were spent by Scottish lochs, picnicking and watching birds.  Although certainly much warmer, Malibu Lagoon fulfilled this remembered idyll.  I would take sandwiches and my camera, and wander down winding paths through undergrowth, rich with plants and shrubs and nostalgic smells:

   

Always there was the excitement of wondering what/who you would come across round each corner- sometimes a Great Egret taking a stroll:

 Sometimes a rabbit, hiding in the undergrowth:

Then I would arrive at the bank on the North West side of the Lagoon- so near the Pacific Coast Highway, but you might be miles away...There I would sit on a tuft of grass, in Heaven, gazing around me...it was always different, always unexpected.  When the Brown Pelicans were about there was the constant loud report of them landing on the water and beating their wings, thus creating a musical beat in the background.  Here are some sitting together:

    Cormorants were a constant visitor, always stretching out their wings to shake the water off:

 And just a few weeks ago, there was a Mallard with her nine ducklings- how are they now, I wonder?

  Ahead of me, there was the little island, nearly always occupied: 

 And beyond the island, there was the busy beach, with colourful, out of scale bathers and surfers:

The Heron family- the Great Blue Heron, the Black Crowned Night Heron, the Snowy Egret and the Great Egret- are among my favourite birds and were a constant delight.  Here is the Great Blue Heron:

Here are Great Egrets fishing:

 Now they are joined by a Black Crowned Night Heron:

  Two of the Night Herons, waiting patiently for food:

 So many amazing birds- I've just shown a few...

When I took these last photos, I knew they were probably the final ones I would take before this Paradise for me and the birds was demolished.  Sure enough, when I next went, 6' high fences, covered in tarpaulin, had been erected all round the perimeters and I was faced with this notice:

 Restoration and ENHANCEMENT??  California State Parks, backed by the California Coastal Commission, seem to think this is so...they want to turn it into some sort of sterile, concrete Amusement Park.  Their excuse for dredging the lagoon is the contaminated water but scientists say their plan will not solve it, the contamination coming from the hills above.  Somehow, they can bypass laws- laws protecting birds in the nesting season, laws protecting endangered species- in this case: the Tidewater Goby fish, the Least Terns and the Snowy Plovers- all of whom seem to be able to survive the contamination...

The bulldozers were not then yet in action, but last Sunday- June 17th- I went again- so very, very sad- and this is only the beginning....

 One of their first actions was to uproot 7 Sycamore (London Plane) trees- proudly announcing that the trees were going to remain on the site, some in the water for birds to perch on and some as park benches...likewise, we were told all forms of wildlife were being rescued- really?  Above and below are the remains of the trees:

 Piles of earth and discarded undergrowth everywhere, and below you can see one of the delightful wooden bridges that lead you through the centre of the lagoon on your way to the beach- they are being removed too:

  And finally, this wasteland....

Santa Monica City Hall: Junipers Last Days

In October 2011,  I wrote at some length of the lost fight to save Santa Monica's magnificent, sculptural Juniper trees- see Link.   Sadly, in the next few days these trees will be gone.  The four trees flanking the entrance now have the dreaded red-taped "Tree Removal Notification" attached to them:

This means they will be cut down- it being declared their roots are too intertwined with the structure of the building to re-locate them.  The two trees towards the sidewalk will be re-located to a new park that is being built.  Thus a wonderful city image will be lost- these fantastic, wild, dark silhouettes against the very elegant white Art Deco (or Deco Moderne) Landmarked building, to be replaced by a nondescript landscape design.  Here are some images of what we are losing:

Apart from the visual impact of the Junipers, they are valuable environmentally, being evergreen, drought tolerant and sustainable. Their replacements will be deciduous pollarded Western Sycamores...

Although yesterday I joined fellow Treesavers in a demonstration to mark the removal of these trees, we were unable to make an Appeal to save them, owing to a clause in the new Urban Forest Master Plan (which I, among others, objected to at meetings).  This states that: "Tree removal appeals do not apply to trees that have been identified for removal as a part of a City initiated public improvement project as defined in the Urban Forest Master Plan".

Apart from the loss of the Junipers, I find it hard to understand the designer has been permitted to replace with a "water feature" the Rose Garden that leads up to the entrance .  This was planted by the Gold Star Mothers on Armistice Day in 1951- in memory of local men killed in the 2nd World War.  One redeeming fact is that the roses are going to be given away (following in the steps of Treesavers' "Tree-for-all") this Saturday.

Junipers: Santa Monica City Hall

I have long been an admirer of Santa Monica City Hall. This Landmarked building was built in 1938- 1939. It is described as Deco Moderne, a cross between Art Deco and Art Moderne and seems to me to be an archetypal town hall. An elegant geometric white structure, detailed with rich terracotta tiles, its facade is wonderfully contrasted with the dark green, exotically sculptured shapes of Juniper trees on either side of the entrance. Two more Junipers act as sentries when you enter the grounds. The whole effect is both grand and iconic.

Here it is: but alas not for long!




Now, apart from being so decorative, these evergreen Junipers are drought-tolerant and having been there since the late 40's could carry on helping the environment for another 100 years. So what does the City Council do? agree to get rid of them!

This is all to do with a wondrous new plan, a redesign of the landscaping to complement and connect to the planned new Palisades Garden Walk. I am extremely puzzled: are we not in a financial crisis, are there not countless unemployed and homeless people? Is this the time to redesign a beautiful, stately design? And with what? a nondescript, bit of urban design- regardless of being by James Corner, a designer of repute. The layout has no stature, no character:



Yes, they have included more trees- pollarded Western Sycamores- and a boring water feature replaces the Memorial Rose Garden. The Rose Garden may not have been stunning but at least it was made up of living flowers, rather than a series of familiar spurts of water.

However, the design has finally been approved by the City, after an appeal regarding stipulations by the Landmarks Commission, which were overthrown. I attended this meeting on October 25th, trying with other Treesavers to save the Junipers. The Landmarks Commission had wanted to retain the planters which housed the Junipers and also the original red brickwork of the steps, which continued as a pattern round the paving, connecting the building to the courtyard:


James Conner, however, wanted to remove the handrail on the ramp on the Southern approach. This entailed extending the ramp to a shallower gradient. To maintain the symmetry, he wanted to repeat this on the North side - this meant removing the Junipers. The brickwork he regarded as incompatible with the new materials- therefore it, too, must go.... A rather odd solution to the patterns of bricks on the courtyard was to score demarcation lines where they had been! One Councilmember, Kevin McKeown, made a stand for both the Junipers and the brickwork- but receiving no back-up joined in voting to accept the plans...

The four Junipers against the facade cannot be transplanted as they are too interwoven with the fabric of the building, but the plan is to relocate the other two.

What a tragedy- to lose six magnificent, valuable trees and a wonderful, iconic landscape...and what a waste of money...

Hollywood Junipers Destroyed:

May 5th, and I still have a lot of catching up to do...

A month ago, on April 5th, Santa Monica City Council yet again sanctioned the destruction of healthy, useful trees for "design" purposes- this time 45 Hollywood Junipers- so named because they have been very popular and successful in the area.

When I first came to Santa Monica I was immediately attracted to photograph these crazy trees (described by one person as "Drama Queens"!), their dark green colour and mad misshapen, sculptural shapes making a great visual note in an urban setting.

These particular ones bordered Reed Park's tennis court on Wilshire Boulevard, between Lincoln and Seventh Street and I always enjoyed walking past them. However, the powers that be decided to re-design the park and this involved the removal of the trees, in spite of the fact that they are drought tolerant as well as environmentally invaluable- and have a life expectancy of 300 years! They were to be replaced by vines growing up the tennis court fence.

When Santa Monica's Treesavers learned of these plans they immediately took action, gaining the support of the local Wilmont Neighborhood Group as well as many individuals. City Hall's reaction was to say that these trees were a threat to pedestrians who found them "spooky", providing shelter for homeless people. Apparently, the trees obscured visibility of the tennis courts and area from the police- which seemed strange, as they were high upon a bank, with a clear view of the courts between their trunks...Next, it was decided that the Cities' own severe pruning had made them lose their structural integrity...



Although the battle was lost, at least the City climbed down in that it asked the Designers(!) if three trees could be incorporated in the design. This was a agreed, and 3 out of 48 trees were spared. Regardless that this was a nesting time for birds, the 45 Junipers were felled on April 5th...by Santa Monica, Tree City USA, in the Year of the Forest...

I just cannot get my head round this: every day we are made aware of the necessity of our tree canopy to fight global warming and yet every day City Councils all over the World- for no good reason- destroy them.



And who can seriously think that a few vines climbing up this fence will compensate for the loss of the Junipers?


First 4 photos taken by Cosmo Bua and 5th by Monica Mejia

Arcadia Woodlands Again

The devastation of Arcadia Woodlands cannot be forgotten: over 200 ancient Native Oaks and Sycamore trees, not to mention the wildlife, lost forever for a load of mud. I previously wrote of how an "umbrella" group was emerging from the destruction. This has now been named Urbanwild Network, a network to enable all environmentalists to help each other in times of crisis and to create a powerful force to make people aware of the magnitude of what is happening to our land.

Learning that two of the four Arcadia Tree sitters, John Quigley and Julia Jaye Posin, were appearing for Arraignment at Alhambra Superior Court, I joined members of this new group to support them. This group included some Santa Monica Treesavers who- apart from being totally shocked by this needless carnage- feel a debt of gratitude to John Quigley, who tirelessly helped to train us during our Ficus Tree emergency. Julia Posin, as a young College student, became a Treesaver at this time, so it was great to see her continuing her battle.

Here are John Quigley and Julia Posin outside the Courthouse:


And here they are together with some supporters and their Attorney Colleen Flynn, left of John. To her left is Camron Stone, a prime mover in trying to save the Woodlands, who has provided us with wonderful photos of them:


They are facing charges of trespassing, disturbing the peace and delaying a peace officer. The arraignment was in fact postponed until March 23rd, when all four activists will need to sign a conflict of interest waiver so that they can be tried as a group.

And all they did was to try and protect us all by protecting our environment...

They have set up a website to keep us informed- click here.

We all feel the importance of keeping the momentum going- making it a worldwide issue, because it IS a worldwide issue, destruction of our wildlands and our invaluable, irreplaceable tree canopies throughout the world.

Just to remind you of what we have lost, two photos- "after and before"- by Camron Stone.



For Camron Stone's full collection click here.

And to experience the full horror of this unbelievable act from one of the Tree sitters, Andrea Bowers', point of view, watch her video here:

Arcadia Woodlands Follow-up

Here's a visual reminder- from Terry Miller's article and photos in the Arcadia Weekly- of what happened to the Arcadia Woodlands:



Further to my last post regarding their needless destruction, there have been some exciting consequences. There was an enormous emotional response not only in Arcadia but in other cities. This resulted in the activists who had been fighting to save the invaluable woodland realizing that if this energy could be harnessed something magically positive could grow from the tragedy. So today they organized a meeting, held in Eaton Canyon Natural Area County Park, at the foot of the San Gabriel Mountains in Pasadena.

Together with a group of fellow Santa Monica Treesavers I participated in this meeting. The general idea- still to be finalized- is to set up a kind of "umbrella" group, enabling all the diverse like-minded groups and individuals to pool resources and help each other. Thus we would become a more knowledgeable, empowered force.

During the meeting we heard many moving stories from the speaker's of their tireless efforts to protect this land. It was good to hear of the experiences of one of the young tree sitters- Julia Posin- who had joined Treesavers as a student at Santa Monica College, when we were being trained by John Quigley to defend our Downtown Ficus trees.

Following this energising meeting, unfortunately we only had a short time to see something of Eaton Canyon- but it was delightful enough to make one want to return there. I will show a few images of what caught my eye, starting with a Native Oak- similar to those of the lost Woodlands:


And here is the remains of one that has rotted away but can still maintain a bunch of foliage:



On closer examination, I was fascinated by the intricate patterns that had formed in the decayed trunk:




Walking by the clear water of a mountain stream, here were yet more patterns:



Let's hope- figuratively speaking- that something wonderful grows from the acorns of those felled oaks...