Saturday, September 17, 2011

Ganges Los Angeles: San Gabriel River

Wisdom Quarterly
The snowy, Himalaya-like San Gabriel Mountain range of LA (laobserved.com)

From Benares on the Ganges to the Sea
If "Pasadena is the Benares of the America," as Indian luminaries noted a century ago, then the Los Angeles River is our Ganges. Its holy mouth is the San Gabriel Mountain Range, and Mt. Wilson our Everest (Sagarmatha). The Santa Monica Bay is polluted because the LA River is polluted -- and that debris begin in the San Gabriel Mountains, river, and valley.

Working with the Army Corps of Engineers, L.A. County Public Works, L.A. County Parks and Recreation, and the San Gabriel Mountain Regional Conservancy, The Friends of the Whittier Narrows Natural Area, The Sierra Club Urban Park and Urban Environment Committee Angeles Chapter, and Surfrider Foundation...


Mt. "EverLAst" - archival footage of my pilgrim grandparents in the snow in Los Angeles


Angelenos can do something about it. Cleanup volunteering is available year round through these organizations. Join Wisdom Quarterly to get the trash out of the San Gabriel River in the foothills and the valley's reclaimed Whittier Narrows Natural Area. This part of the river has not been cleaned in more than six years.

Much trash, especially plastic bags, is snagged by vegetation and that trash affects the river. Not only is plastic trash bad for people but it is also bad for birds, bugs, assorted animals, and humans. And those clusters of plastic trash are accumulating in the Pacific Ocean Gyre.

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