Creek Week Session 2-Day 3, July, 20 2011

Dear PAVA and students,

Hi, this is Angela Oh again after the third day of the 2nd session of creek week.
Today, the students met at Rio de Los Angeles State Park, where they saw much more human influence today than either of the two previous days. They had a brief introduction game, where they had to use team work and communication to put a floating pole down while keeping two of their fingers always touching the pole. After walking down to where the actual creek is, they had time to explore around and see the habitat around the water. There was a visible view of concrete surrounding the entire creek and the students were able to discern the effect of all the concrete and man-made influences in their tests.

They completed the macro-invertebrates and water chemistry tests by themselves and found more tolerant than sensitive bugs and insects in the water. We all walked back up to the park area, had lunch, and played a game of Capture the Flag. The teams were split amongst their groups and they had more team-bonding.

Finally, the students gathered in their groups and I led and presented the advocacy portion of the program. I was able to introduce myself and my experience with Heal the Bay and PAVA and tell them the brief history of the Heal the Bay Creek Education Program. They were very interested in volunteering and going to talk to the Los Angeles City Council meetings. All the groups seem very ambitious and excited to pursue these projects and research papers.

Group 1 wants to research on the filters for all the outfalls in the Los Angeles area and find methods to prevent trash from coming into the creeks in the first place with a type of filter. With this research, they plan on gathering sponsors from Heal the Bay and PAVA and speaking to the LA Council about attaching new filters. This way, they can divert the trash from the Los Angeles county in different ways through a filter system.

Group 2 plans on writing an actual research paper on the physical effects of pollution and human influence amongst the Los Angeles River and creeks and then propose the Los Angeles County to personally host many beach cleanups around the city. This way, advertisement and campaigning can spread throughout the city and much of the community can actively work to cleanup and pay attention to their wasteful and harmful habits. They wish to gather support from the councilmembers and have them support LA sponsored street and beach cleanups.

Group 3 focuses on the plastic use amongst Los Angeles, by writing a research proposal on the effects of plastic on the environment especially the biodiversity and aquatic and land creatures near the coastal areas. By concentrating on the harmful effects of plastic, they may expand to focusing on stopping the use of plastic bags in the Los Angeles County area, possibly with Heal the Bay.

Group 4 wants to create a documentary video on the general idea of pollution and on how they saw the rapid changes coming down from the top of Big Tujunga Creek to the bottom near Long Beach. Their video will also consist of interviews from Heal the Bay staff-members and people who can help and teach them about more environmentalism.

All the groups are extremely dedicated and determined to plan and then pursue these projects and research papers. I hope that PAVA will be in full support of their creative ideas, which are now in the process of being refined and even more focused. For the next two days, they will continue to plan for requirements to fulfill, people they need to talk to, and missions statements to officially discover the purpose of their projects.

Thanks so much.

Best,
Angela