2008 Woodie Awards
Local prize needs community help
Nature: Unknown preserve offers peace from city life; requires assistance to flourish.
By: Sylvia Masuda
Issue date: 3/31/05 Section: City News
- Page 1 of 3 next >
In a field of flowers, scattered crows, hummingbirds and bushtits flit from tree to tree. At night, raccoons haunt the premises, leaving behind prints the size of a ballpoint pen. Above it all, dense scores of Goddings willows blanket the sky.
All 13 acres of it is just three miles from campus, in Gardena.
Hard to believe? That's because the Willow Wetlands Preserve is hidden behind the bustle of a shopping center and a long stretch of highway leading to the 91 and the 110 freeways.
"Most people here don't know an area like this exists," Gardena Parks superintendent Dave Negrete said.
Due to its obscurity, the Wetlands needs a little assistance, both financially and physically.
It is not open formally and tours are scheduled by phone, headed by Negrete. The area has never been allocated manpower to maintain the willows.
For four hours on some Saturdays, Negrete and a number of volunteers unlock the gates and clear the preserve of non-native plants (otherwise known as weeds) and debris that wash up from storm drains.
"This here is urban gold," Mark Lawrence, 43, firefighter and also a volunteer at the Madrona Marsh in Torrance, said. "How many more places like this are around here? That's why I'm here protecting what we have left."
The wetlands serves as a drainage system for parts of Gardena, including Vermont and Western avenues and Artesia and Redondo Beach boulervards, before it ends up in the Dominguez Channel and eventually in the Pacific Ocean.
Because of the filtering process, the streams and drifts are filled with styrofoam cups, empty water bottles, potato chip bags, candy wrappers and even stray tennis balls.
"This is what we're trying to educate kids on. We emphasize that we've got a natural area that needs to be protected by not dumping things in the storm drains and the gutters," Negrete said. "The trash doesn't go away. It ends up in places like this."
"At some point, we want to be open to the public, but it's gonna come from a community effort," Negrete added.
All 13 acres of it is just three miles from campus, in Gardena.
Hard to believe? That's because the Willow Wetlands Preserve is hidden behind the bustle of a shopping center and a long stretch of highway leading to the 91 and the 110 freeways.
"Most people here don't know an area like this exists," Gardena Parks superintendent Dave Negrete said.
Due to its obscurity, the Wetlands needs a little assistance, both financially and physically.
It is not open formally and tours are scheduled by phone, headed by Negrete. The area has never been allocated manpower to maintain the willows.
For four hours on some Saturdays, Negrete and a number of volunteers unlock the gates and clear the preserve of non-native plants (otherwise known as weeds) and debris that wash up from storm drains.
"This here is urban gold," Mark Lawrence, 43, firefighter and also a volunteer at the Madrona Marsh in Torrance, said. "How many more places like this are around here? That's why I'm here protecting what we have left."
The wetlands serves as a drainage system for parts of Gardena, including Vermont and Western avenues and Artesia and Redondo Beach boulervards, before it ends up in the Dominguez Channel and eventually in the Pacific Ocean.
Because of the filtering process, the streams and drifts are filled with styrofoam cups, empty water bottles, potato chip bags, candy wrappers and even stray tennis balls.
"This is what we're trying to educate kids on. We emphasize that we've got a natural area that needs to be protected by not dumping things in the storm drains and the gutters," Negrete said. "The trash doesn't go away. It ends up in places like this."
"At some point, we want to be open to the public, but it's gonna come from a community effort," Negrete added.