Stolen bulldozer in gully
Alex Man
Belin Arellano, Laura Lopez, Nancy Navarette |
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THE LOS ANGELES metropolitan area has one of the worst parks-per-resident ratios of any major urban center. Within the L.A. metropolitan area, the sprawling East Los Angeles district is among the worst off. Hazard Park is one of four parks that lie along the abandoned Union Pacific railroad tracks.
Bisected by the tracks, this 25-acre swatch of hilly green space is heavily used by people who live and work nearby. The two baseball diamonds accommodate 58 teams. One typical mid-week afternoon, uniformed schoolchildren were doing calisthenics on the tennis courts, white-coated hospital workers lounged on the grass eating bag lunches, women pushing strollers stopped to chat under pine and eucalyptus trees.
Until this year, few people outside the area knew or cared about Hazard Park. Now, however, it has become a magnet for scientists, environmentalists, and officials from various public agencies at the local, state, and federal levels. They have been drawn to Hazard Park by the news that it harbors a highly valuable natural feature, rare in any city and certainly in this one: a freshwater wetland.
This natural treasure was discovered in a densely overgrown gully that traverses the park with the old tracks at its bottom, hidden by lush vegetation. Giant reed, date palm, and other invasive species grow up the gully's sides, mixed with willows, cattail, mulefat, and other native wetland plants. The thicket provides refuge for birds and small wildlife, as well as for homeless people. Not long ago a stolen bulldozer was dumped here and was not found for months.
It was Alex Man, 76, chairman of the Friends of Hazard Park and a warrior in the park's behalf for 34 years, who "discovered" the wetland. He had noticed that there was moisture at the bottom of the gully and wondered why. So he dug into city archives and found a map produced in 1894 for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power which showed a stream, Arroyo de las Pasas. He also found evidence of zanjas (irrigation ditches) that crisscrossed the region as part of an intricate irrigation system dating back to Spanish settlement, which diverted water from the Los Angeles River for agriculture and municipal use.
Man cares for Hazard Park with a passion that only a committed activist can sustain. He helped found Friends in 1966, when the city appeared ready to destroy it. Negotiations were under way for a land trade that would have allowed the nearby veterans hospital to use Hazard Park as a building site with a new park to be constructed in Westwood, a prosperous area 16 miles away. Friends pointed out that there were plenty of other potential sites nearby for the hospital - including one being used for a junkyard - and that Westwood already had a lot of parks, while East L.A. was in dire need of more. Hazard Park was saved.
Now retired from his job as a technician at the USC Medical Center, Man has never stopped working for this park. Because it is surrounded by large institutions ever in need of more space - The Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center looms above the park, the USC Medical School is just across the street - he believes it's important to stay vigilant against any further attempts at a land grab.
Besides, the park's amenities have been neglected, he says: "There's not a single drinking fountain, not a picnic table or barbecue pit on the eight-acre eastern section." Hoping that the presence of a wetland might help obtain such improvements, and would also assure the park's survival, Man invited biologists and science teachers to check out his discovery.
Botany professor James Henrickson, of California State University, Los Angeles, came and found the wetland "much deserving of recognition and restoration." Gina Schultz, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was astonished at the variety of native bird species she saw on a visit. "These urban parks tend to be dominated by introduced species such as the European starling," she said. Yet here were a downy woodpecker, common yellowthroat, bushtit, Anna's hummingbird, and the California towhee. "Even in the current condition," she said, "Hazard Park provides an essential food source to a variety of migratory birds."
Soon Dennis Pilien, science teacher at the adjacent Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet School, was using the wetland for environmental education, and three other magnet schools were interested in doing likewise. Man talked to Dorothy Green of the Los Angeles and San Gabriel River Watershed Council, who came to look along with Hendrickson and Chris Kroll, project manager of the Coastal Conservancy.
The Conservancy granted $10,000 to the Watershed Council, which represents public agencies, nonprofit organizations, and others, for a hydrological and biological assessment of the wetland. The Council now envisions a wetland restoration project that also includes bicycle and pedestrian paths to link this park with others.
Before restoration can begin, a conservation easement must be secured or the gully must be purchased from the railroad. Joel McLafferty, a real estate developer and member of the Watershed Council, has begun negotiations and is optimistic.
Man, watching these developments, now worries that wetland preservation might somehow undermine other park values. "The integrity of the wetland depends on the integrity of the park," he emphasizes.
Much will depend on whether the community rallies for its park, says the Conservancy's Kroll. The hope is that with support from local agencies, larger conservation organizations, and L.A. Councilman Richard Alatorre, a restored wetland in East L.A. may soon become a reality, along with other park improvements. Hazard Park could even become a model of how to improve the quality of life in the inner city for both people and wildlife. 
Sean Woods is an environmental consultant working with the Coastal Conservancy on a wetland assessment of the Los Angeles River Watershed.
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