Volunteers Pitch In to Spruce Up Venice Canals

The Grand Canal in Los Angeles’ Venice area underwent a a sprucing up Saturday, with volunteers braving high winds to remove assorted junk and litter from the historic waterway’s east bank.

Volunteers for the Los Angeles Oceanic Society, which sponsored the cleanup, said their haul included an iron railing, six market baskets, old tires and a bag with rocks and a dead cat inside.

While the canal water is cleansed twice a day by the ocean tides, Iylene Weiss of the society said, “It is the visual pollution that is a problem.

“The canal is a natural wetland full of wildlife. It is so unique because it is an urban wetland, probably the only one in the City of Los Angeles. We want the public to know about this gorgeous land,” Weiss said.

The Oceanic Society will continue to monitor the canal, its quality of water and the salt marsh vegetation, collecting data on the natural resources of the waterway hoping to prevent what they say is a plan by the city to fill in the canals.

“If the city decides to fill in the canal or if there is too much human stress on the canal the wildlife will disappear,” Weiss said, adding that there is “a strong possibility” that a land-swap proposal is being considered by the city and would result in bulkheading or cementing parts of the canal.

“There is a proposal to swap privately-owned lots along the canal for city land. The city is talking about filling in the lots and shoring-up the banks of the canal, possibly for parking lots since the lots are contiguous,” Weiss explained.

“We want to show that there is a great deal of wildlife here and we want to see it preserved. I’ve seen sharks in the canals--granted they were juvenile sharks, but they were sharks all the same. I’ve seen squid and small fish. The Audubon Society comes down here to bird watch. People dig for clams and have a great time on the mud flats,” said Weiss.