Canoe Race Draws Attention to Dispute Over L.A. River

The Los Angeles River--or a very small stretch of it, at least--looked more like something out of “A River Runs Through It” on Monday as five environmental groups challenged one another to the “Great Los Angeles River Canoe Race” at Lake Balboa Park in Encino.

A city councilman, various board members, founders and presidents of the environmental groups, as well as one environmentalist actor, donned life vests and took up paddles to use their muscles in ways most have been unfamiliar with for years.

Although 45 miles of the 58-mile river are a concrete-lined flood control channel, a stretch running through the Sepulveda Dam Recreation Area still has a natural bottom and tree-lined, sandy banks. That was the setting for Monday’s race-turned-media event.

“Today really is only a tryout,” said Denis Schure, a board member of the Friends of the Los Angeles River and rear paddler in a birchbark canoe used in the movie “The Last of the Mohicans.”

“But we do want the public to see what is possible.”

Canoeing is usually not allowed there, but the city issued special permits for the race, he said.

The event was held in an attempt to influence the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors against directing the Army Corps of Engineers to add higher concrete walls to the lower river in the Long Beach area, which the environmentalists said would impede their campaign to return the river to a more natural state.

The board is expected to vote today on whether to reconsider the $300-million plan approved last year.

Beginning in the 1930s, the corps lined the river channel with concrete to control the flooding that regularly devastated parts of Los Angeles and the San Fernando Valley and to prevent the river--which flowed only seasonally--from changing course into inhabited areas after heavy rains.

However, the environmentalists argue that now a more natural solution is possible, such as using parks, trees and fields along the river that would help absorb and divert the flow of water.

“Fifty years ago, that was the cheapest way to do it,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, who paddled as the lead man on the Friends of the Los Angeles River canoeing team. “But there’s a better way. We don’t have to do it the way they did 50 years ago.”

Reporters and photographers covering the 100-yard race of five canoes had to balance on steppingstones in the water at Lake Balboa Park.

One photographer slipped into ankle-deep water, and spectators were sprayed by a dog shaking off river water from a quick dip among waterlogged weeds.

TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis led a small, modern two-man canoe to victory--twice--ahead of a field that included Heal the Bay founding President Dorothy Green and representatives of the Sierra Club. Lipkis’ initial win was contested.

“Cheaters,” said a laughing Mark Ryavec, a board member with the American Oceans Campaign, after Lipkis crossed the yellow rope finish line the first time. “You guys had a false start.”

In a halfhearted rematch, Lipkis won again and some of his competitors didn’t even bother crossing the finish line. But then the race turned into a news conference with questions answered from the birchbark canoe as a dragonfly hovered nearby.

“One day this river will go all the way downtown like this,” said Braude from the Friends of the Los Angeles River canoe, which came in second in the rematch.

“People will be able to sit on park benches and smell the flowers.”

The canoeists talked about their previous paddling experience--the Boy Scouts were heavily cited--in addition to serious environmental issues. Actor and environmentalist Ed Begley Jr. admitted that although he canoed as a scout, he had never earned the merit badge.

“I wasn’t a star in that, then or now,” Begley said.