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Healthy Streams for Angelenos

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Watershed Habitat Restoration

 

Our habitat restoration projects achieve positive changes in human behaviors that will not only improve the lives of the region's diverse communities, but protect ecosytem health and wildlife habitat.

  • Los Angeles River Arundo Control - A partnership effort to plan and coordinate the removal of approximately 80 acres of Arundo donax, a displaced riparian plant species, for the remaining areas of the Upper Los Angeles River Watershed. Efforts are focused on Arundo because of it's significant negative  impacts on water resources, water quality, wildfire fuel loads, habitat and infrastructure along the Los Angeles mainstem and upstream tributaries that begin in the surrounding San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica Mountains. 
  • Weed Watch - A CWH program highlighting monitoring and outreach accomplishments along with regional, local, and statewide efforts focused on the spread, control, and education of ecologically harmful plants.
  • The Los Angeles River Fish Passage Projects - The Los Angeles River Fish Passage and Habitat Structures Design (LAR FPHS) Project and the complementing Los Angeles River Fish Passage Restoration (LAR FPR) Project aim to provide key science-based information to support the potential recovery of Steelhead trout in the Los Angeles River Watershed. The scope of these two combined Projects is to examine various “fish-friendly” approaches to redesign the channel bed and banks within the confined urban stretch of the project location. This pilot effort will help to identify feasible design alternatives that can provide  increased flow complexity and habitat heterogeneity in the Los Angeles River mainstem channel and enhance fish passage and migration corridors to upper tributaries, such as the Arroyo Seco and Tujunga Creek. The results of this pilot effort will provide opportunities to address other sustainability, biodiversity, and integrated water management objectives and the needs of urban communities within the Los Angeles River Watershed, from the mainstem channel to upper tributaries.
Fishing on the LA River
Green Infrastructure
Operations and mainteanance assistance
Watershed Monitoring and Assessment

 

CWH provides water quality data to communities most in need so that they can make informed decisions on ways to protect their health and the health of their families. Check out our LA2050 Healthy Streams for Angelenos video to learn more.

  • Los Angeles River Watershed Monitoring Program (LARWMP) - CWH manages the LA River Watershed Monitoring Program on behalf of the City of Los Angeles and Burbank. Review the River Reports and ask our science team questions about the LA River

  • (San Gabriel) Cattle Canyon - CWH monitored the conditions of stream reaches of five focal areas used by visitors in Cattle Canyon located in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument. Trash and water surveys were collected at assessment sites for over 20 dates during the peak of summer. The data collected will determine the health of the streams in regards to the safety of recreational use. 

  • Marsh Park (Elysian Valley) - CWH is the technical lead on post-construction monitoring of Best Management Practices effectiveness at Marsh Park located adjacent to the LA River. The data used from this site is used to measure project performance in regards to water volume. CWH also hosts a "Bioblitz" at Marsh Park. Click here to share your wildlife pictures on iNaturalist to help us and other researchers learn more about our wild watersheds. To learn more about the multi-benefit green infrastructure at Marsh Park click here.
  • Avalon Green Alley Network Demonstration Project - CWH joined a partnership with LA Sanitation, the Trust for Public Land, the Coalition for Responsible Community Development and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps to develop Low Impact Development (LID) design for stormwater infiltration in South Los Angeles. CWH led the stormwater monitoring for the project, which looks into the effectiveness the BMPs have on water quality, supply, and the surrounding residents. 
  • Edwin Markham Middle School - LAUSD recently completed improvements on campus that included stormwater management strategies. These strategies are also known as Low Impact Development Best Management Practices (LID BMPs) and include permeable paving and bioswales. CWH monitored the water quality and water quantity improvements resulting from the LID BMPs. This data is being incorporated into the education and engagement component of the project. 
  • LAUSD Drought Response Outreach Program for Schools  - CWH is project lead for the DROPS project, which monitors and assesses the performance of green infrastructure Best Management Practices installed on five LAUSD school campuses:  Normandie Avenue Elementary School, Belvedere Middle School, Northridge Middle School, Webster Middle School and Victory Boulevard Elementary School. CWH partners with TreePeople and LA Audubon for the education and outreach component of this project. 
  • Community Trash Monitoring with Pasadena City College (PCC) - Beginning in August 2020, Council for Watershed Health partnered with Pasadena City College (PCC) to coordinate and train local students to assess their own communities for trash. Students have the opportunity to engage in a local water quality issue and scientific research by implementing trash surveys that map, count and categorize trash types.
Cattle Canyon
Watershed Reporting and Research​

 

CWH has the overall goal of improving water quality and human health through a community-driven process that will result in demonstrable and measurable changes.

  • Supplemental Environmental Project: San Gabriel River Watershed - CWH is working to monitor seven main LID BMP sites throughout the San Gabriel Valley. They include the following: Arrow Hwy, Dalton Park, Madrid Middle School, Smith Park, Pico Rivera Library, Downey Goodwill, and Congress Steve Horn Pkwy. The purpose of this project is to locate LID BMPs and green infrastructures, develop an effective monitoring plan, conduct and collect data and issue reports and findings.

  • Stanford Sun Valley Project - CWH is assisting a team of researchers from Stanford University and UC Berkeley with conducting an experiment on the potential for using geomedia (or natural materials such as wood chips and biochar) to filter out drinking water contaminants from stormwater before it reaches local water supplies. The study is being carried out at an existing stormwater treatment system at Sun Valley Park in the San Fernando Valley. The intentions are to test a low-cost way to remove contaminants from urban stormwater that will eventually infiltrate down into the drinking water supply. 

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For more information please contact Yareli Sanchez yareli@watershedhealth.org 

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