Friends of the Los Angeles River to host 24th Annual La Gran Limpieza

The Great Los Angeles River CleanUp on Saturday, May 18, 2013, Angelenos will join Friends of the LA River (FoLAR) and other prominent community members to clean the Los Angeles River at 15 cleanup locations throughout the county from the San Fernando Valley to Long Beach. The event will run from 9a – 12p.
“Neighbors will enjoy a ‘work party’ atmosphere to make trash abatement fun including live music, gift giveaways, raffle prizes and refreshments” states Shelly Backlar, Education Director. “Clean-up activities provide an opportunity to explore current and future river park sites in the developing greenway as well as some locations normally off-limits to the general public. Volunteers will pull trash from the soft-bottom sections of the river which abound with fish and birds,” she added.
FoLAR expects more than 3000 volunteers to pull 25 tons of garbage from the River and three tributaries in three hours. A diverse group of enthusiasts will roll up their sleeves and work on the river sandbars side-by-side. Activists, elected officials, artists, celebrities, neighborhood councils, wildlife experts, bicyclists, equestrians, kayakers, dog walkers, fisherpeople, teachers, students, families, architects, and journalists all share a fascination with the past, present and future of the Los Angeles River, and the river community grows stronger each year.
Volunteers who pull plastic bags and other trash from the river vegetation see first-hand how trash from the streets reaches the river and ocean, inspiring stewardship all year long. Repeat volunteers uphold the tradition of comparing their “River Treasures”, the weird, wacky and unexpected items found. ttarePast River Treasures have included Christmas lights, a mini trampoline, and a collectible buffalo nickel in a case!
At five river sites, Sepulveda Basin, Bette Davis Picnic Area, Steelhead Park, Compton Creek, and Willow Street Estuary, citizen scientists will form a trash sort team to divert a percentage of trash for characterization. Data will be recorded about type of trash material, plus weight and volume, for a public report, which will express how river trash content may change over the years in response to mitigation efforts.
CleanUp event sponsors include Miss Me, Whole Foods, Toyota, Warner Bros, American Chemistry Council, KIND Healthy Snacks, Forest Lawn, Anheuser-Busch, Keep Los Angeles Beautiful, The Guacamole Fund, City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation, City of LA Office of Community Beautification, Disney VoluntEARS, Paramount Pictures, Earthwise Bags, Baxter BioScience, Elysian Valley Riverside Neighborhood Council, AECOM, NBCUniversal, Dart Foundation, Albertsons, Aveda, Los Angeles County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, Huntsman, Perkins + Will, Green Wish, City of Glendale Community Services & Parks, City of Long Beach Parks Recreation and Marine, BBPR, Inc, Nestle Pur, Nelson Miller, Los Angeles Conservation Corps, Long Beach Conservation Corps, Keep California Beautiful, Keep America Beautiful and LA Weekly.
For more information and announcements on the event, please visit www.folar.org.

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