A Thirty Year Event
At a teacher in-service on the lower Arroyo Seco River, Los Angeles County
Jim was pretty much quiet for the Friday night five to nine PM session. During the icebreaker he told everyone that he wasn’t teaching right now but he was doing this two weekend, two-unit workshop to keep his teaching credential valid. Besides that he thought what the workshop was trying to do (connect communities- Alta Dena, La Canada, Pasadena, South Pasadena and Northeast Los Angeles- though the concept of the Arroyo Seco, the mostly dry river bed that unites them) was awesome. That said-- the night was then filled with PowerPoint lectures.
Local experts told us about the history and issues of the region; how when the first Europeans came into the Los Angeles area they noted a dry riverbed connecting what we know as the San Gabriel Mountains to what we know as the Los Angeles River. They called it Dry River, Arroyo Seco in Spanish. The name stuck. Dry for most of the year like all of LA, the river was prone to flooding about every thirty years. The last flood in 1936 came on New Years Eve and took about fifty people at a Veterans of Foreign Wars party with it. Soon after, cement flood control channels were built throughout the Arroyo’s urban banks. The gray walls turned much of the river into what looked like a sewer and now the environmentalists wanted a river back.
The next morning Jim completely sapped my attention. He arrived at the Saturday morning nature walk at Hahamonga Watershed Park at eight AM with his short hair blown dry. He was wearing a fighter pilot’s leather jacket and sunglasses in the style of a 1970’s California High Patrol man. The rest of us were bland, charity-thrift-shop models or hyper cute middle aged female elementary school teachers in matching sweat suits decorated by cute graphics of kids or their pets.
Jim went first as we began the outdoor icebreaker the leader was modeling for us to use with our students. We were to say our name and then an animal that started with the same letter as our name, ideally an animal we might encounter on the river. Jim couldn’t think of animal that started with a ‘J’ and he was animatedly distressed. He waved a jacketed coffee cup as he explained.
Ron, a high school science teacher who spends free afternoons with his students visiting the Arroyo and helping his students build a website about the flora and fauna there, said Jim could be Jim Junco. The Junco is a bird often around the area and lots of people seemed to know that. Jim liked it. Junco, Junk-o. His half-smile seemed to point up to his glasses.
We all got our names (Tony Tarantula, Olive Owl) and then slowly walked about 200 yards to a small pond about thirty feet wide and three feet deep. Jim talked with several different people, peppering the walk with questions and revelations like that he was an actor and teaching helped pay the bills. When we got to the water, Jim asked, ’If it’s dry most of the year, is it really a river?’
’Scientists would say, ‘yes’ definitely. The river is dry on the surface most of the year but the ground always has water in it, but what do you think?’ the group leader said. Then we all heard what Jim thought.
After that we hunched over the water told to look at rocky areas that housed most of the bugs. There were few and the leader told us to move a few rocks and we would see more. To my right I saw Jim roll a small boulder that had been peaking out of the water over. Beneath the surface the water went mad, dirt and small creatures everywhere. I saw Jim’s half smile as he stood, dusted his hands and asked the slightly disturbed leader more questions. The teachers moved the heads in and around like birds looking for feed.
’If we don’t know the name of something I tell the kids to make it up,’ Ron said as looked with everyone else into the water. We all agreed that was a smart thing to tell students to get them curious, give them ownership.
Then we were done ready to move on the Southwest Museum for our next session. Our leader debriefed us asked what we thought. A young elementary school teacher told how she started a project where her students exchanged rocks and leaves with kids from across the country. Many of the other teachers looked appalled. ’You aren’t supposed to take anything out of nature,’ on teacher said. Others agreed and the young teacher listened jilting her head.
The leader told us that this brought up an excellent opportunity to talk about the ethics and responsibilities involved with studying the environment. Ron told us that one of his students came up with something great. For every leaf they take, they have to pull a hair out of their head. Chins nodded everywhere.
’But what I did, turning that rock over,’ Jim said, ’that’s like a thirty-year event.’ His glasses were too shiny to look into.
’That’s exactly right. A disturbance like that has a huge effect,’ the leader said. He told of that we needed to think about every change that we as humans make in our... He couldn’t find the word.
’Ecology?’ Ron offered. More chins nodding.
The group broke apart as we walked back to our cars. ’A thirty-year event,’ I heard Jim say to a middle aged blond woman whose denim bag smiled whole with a cartoon sun. ’That’s pretty crazy.’