4,000 expected for Los Angeles River cleanup today

So how do you clean up a river? This morning you can find out firsthand.

The Friends of the Los Angeles River is holding its 20th annual river cleanup starting at 9 a.m. at 14 locations along the 52-mile river from the San Fernando Valley through Pasadena to Long Beach.

You can find the cleanup locations at http://folar.org/?page_id=5. 

The organization supplies disposable gloves, trash sacks, snacks and water.  Volunteers are asked to wear clothes they don’t mind getting dirty and sturdy shoes, and bring reusable water bottles, work gloves, sunscreen and hats. 

The sites where volunteers will forage for trash are all natural-bottomed, sandy areas in the river and there’s not much chance of getting wet except at the Betty Davis picnic site in Griffith Park, where water is ankle deep.  In fact, going into the water is discouraged. Otherwise, “there are almost like little sand bars or islands” that you walk on, according to Shelly Backlar, executive director of the organization.

Expect all manner of trash. “We’ve had hot tubs and phone booths,” Backlar said. “It’s almost like ‘What am I going to find?’”  

 There will be live music at all the sites. And Backlar says it can be a pastoral experience. “You’re pulling out chip bags and 7-Eleven cups and you look up and a great blue heron will fly by.” One year, she said, “we had a seal come up into the estuary at Willow Street in Long Beach.”    

 They expect 4,000 volunteers this year. No word on how many seals will show.

--Carla Hall