Joe Linton is probably the first Los Angeles River guide since the Los Angeles basin was dotted with indigenous villages, and he’s clearly a pioneer in the brand new field of restoration tourism. He takes curious Angelenos to places along the river where restoration work is happening, in the planning stages, or still just a gleam in a creek freak’s eye.

Since June ’98, on Sundays almost every month, he has led walks along the river or one of its major tributaries: Arroyo Seco, Tujunga Wash, and Compton Creek. The walkers move at a leisurely pace and usually cover no more than a couple of miles. Linton figures that some 1,500 people, “mostly adults, and quite a few seniors,” have taken part. A lot of folks return month after month.”

“We’re doing Walk Number 48 in May,” said Linton, 38, an Orange County native who now lives in Koreatown, west of downtown Los Angeles. A former computer analyst who now works as a professional artist, illustrator, and activist, he is a longtime board member of Friends of the Los Angeles River, and also a cofounder of the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition.

The walks take people to places along the river or one of its major tributaries where restoration projects are in the works or have been completed: Arroyo Seco, Tujunga Wash, and Compton Creek.

Through these tours, Linton and FoLAR hope to help build the constituency for the river’s revival. “If ‘Taylor Yard’ or ‘Tujunga Wash’ is only an abstract lot on a map to you, walking there will make it real,” he explained. The imagination is stirred, possibilities present themselves.

“Pretty much every other walk” has been focused on the Glendale Narrows, the soft-bottomed stretch just north of downtown L.A., to visit a string of riverfront miniparks built by the Trust For Public Land, NorthEast Trees, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Other walks have introduced Angelenos to planned and potential restoration sites, including Taylor Yard and the old Headworks spreading grounds between Griffith Park and the river.

The most popular walk so far went through the 40-acre “Cornfields,” a former Southern Pacific freight yard between Chinatown and the river, which only last year appeared destined to be paved for industrial warehouses but will now be a state park. One blustery Sunday last winter, at the height of the battle about the site’s future, some 110 people showed up to explore stacks of rotting railroad ties and take in the spectacular views of downtown. The land has since been acquired by California State Parks. An advisory committee is to be formed this spring to assist in the planning process.

Among those who have come out for the river walks, said Linton, are the mayor of South Gate and the city manager of Cudahy, people from agencies with responsibilities along the river, and “plenty of neighborhood activists—homeowner resident association types,” including members of the Village Gardeners of Sherman Oaks, Atwater Residents Association, and the Wrigley Association of Long Beach.

On a recent tour of the nearly inaccessible downtown Los Angeles River front, where the walkers had to cross several still-active railroad tracks, Linton discussed the fine set of concrete arch bridges that link downtown L.A. with the East Side. Then Merrill Butler III, grandson of the city engineer responsible for most of the bridges’ design and construction, discussed his grandfather’s life and work.

“I often worry that walking folks around a vacant lot will be boring for them,” Linton said. “Same for concrete areas—like the Maywood, Cudahy, Studio City, Arroyo Seco, and Downtown bridge walks. But folks check it all out—they seem to like the rough urban exploration—and the river delivers.” On the Long Beach greenbelt stroll, Linton spotted a raptor hovering above a riverside overflow pond that serves as an outlet for a major city storm drain. A rapid consultation with a birding manual showed it to be a white-tailed kite, the first any of the participants had ever seen. “Even when it’s all concrete and vacant lots, it’s an interesting, albeit sad, empty urban beauty,” Linton muses, “and nature creeps in wherever she finds a tiny bit of space.”

—Lewis MacAdams

CLICK HERE for a list of upcoming WILDLIFE FESTIVALS and TOURS & HIKES

To join Linton’s next tour, check out the Friends of the Los Angeles River’s website at www.folar.org for time and location, or call FoLAR at: (323) 223-0585 or (800) LA RIVER.