2,000 Volunteers Flock to Annual L.A. River Cleanup

Long a victim of abuse and neglect, the Los Angeles River enjoyed a spring cleaning Saturday morning when an estimated 2,000 volunteers descended on the riverbed at various spots to pick up trash.

From Encino to Los Feliz to Long Beach, volunteers carrying trash bags donned work gloves and picked through the wild grass and other plant life on the riverbed--which is mostly dry at this time of year--to collect debris. Organized by Friends of the Los Angeles River, the annual event united far-flung residents in a common cause: protecting the local environment and, in the process, fostering the river’s revitalization.

In Rancho Dominguez, about 350 people turned out to clean up Compton Creek, which feeds directly into the river about seven miles north of Long Beach Harbor.

“A lot of this [trash] floats from upstream,” said Tom Ader, assistant coordinator at the Compton Creek site. “It comes from way up Sepulveda Basin, all the way down. There’s nothing stopping it. So a little piece of paper thrown into the river up in the San Fernando Valley could end up in Long Beach, no problem.”

Student and church groups provided much of the elbow grease at Compton Creek. But more than simply doing a good deed, organizers hope younger volunteers will leave with a deepened sense of social responsibility.

“What we try to emphasize to kids is: What you pick up here could end up on your beaches,” Ader said. “So they say, ‘Oh, yeah, it does matter if I throw my wrapper in the gutter.’ ”

The message seemed to get across to 12-year-old Vanessa Ortiz from Gage Middle School in Huntington Park. Asked if she learned anything Saturday, she didn’t hesitate to reply: “To clean up after ourselves.”

Friends of the Los Angeles River has been putting on the annual cleanup--dubbed La Gran Limpieza--every spring since 1989, when about a dozen people showed up. Last year, volunteers bagged an estimated 25 tons of garbage. This year’s event took place at 10 sites stretching from Sunland in the north to Long Beach in the south.

Founded in 1986, the group seeks to restore the natural state of the 52-mile river, long considered little more than a flood control channel, a storm drain or an open sewer.

“It’s our natural river, but it’s also become, unfortunately, a ditch,” Ader said. “These areas can be open space. You can ride your bikes up here. This is a nice, huge park, up and down.”

Many of the volunteers Saturday were amazed at the volume of trash in the riverbed, which yielded all kinds of rubbish, from dead crabs to supermarket shopping carts.

“It was unbelievable how much stuff was out there,” said Heather Carmona, 15, who counted a telephone and a sweater among her finds.