The Los Angeles Chapter had an exciting opportunity to collaborate on an Ocean Friendly Gardens project at Kuruvungna Village Springs, a historic Tongva village and gathering place with a preserved freshwater spring. The Tongva are indigenous to the area we now call the Los Angeles Basin and the southern Channel Islands off the coast of California.
The Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation educates the community about the history and heritage of the site through their cultural center and museum, and have done an amazing job transforming the surrounding landscape with native plants from across California. The springs are open for the community to explore during their monthly open house, and serves as a gathering place for cultural events.
Kuruvungna is a wonderful example of how landscapes throughout the city can meet multiple community needs while protecting clean water through nature-based solutions and sustainable stewardship practices.
A Natural Spring in the Heart of West LA
Kuruvungna Springs is currently under the ownership of LA Unified School District, and adjacent to University High School. Decades ago it was used as an outdoor horticultural classroom, but unfortunately fell into disrepair and neglect when the program was phased out. When the spring was slated to be cleared and paved over for a school parking structure, members of the Tongva community, University High alumni, and locals came forward together to advocate for this sacred place to be preserved for future generations.
Surfrider LA volunteers gather around the outlet of the bubbling spring to learn about the history from Tongva community member Bob Ramirez & Angie Behrns, Tongva elder
The spring was at one time a major water source for the indigenous people who lived in the area, and it still produces thousands of gallons of water every day. Most of that water, when not being used to irrigate plants onsite, is now directed into a storm drain that flows into Santa Monica Bay, part of the network of storm drains and flood channels that carry runoff toward the beach.
Even in areas that feel far from the beach or waterways, how we shape, plant, and tend to our landscapes all have an impact on water quality downstream.
Collaborating to Protect Clean Water
The Springs are adjacent to a large asphalt parking lot that slopes toward a grass lawn and palm trees. The flat grass lawn does little to soak up any runoff coming from the parking lot or the wide sidewalk, so it was the perfect place to create a bioswale full of native plants.
While one parking lot or roof may seem insignificant, all of these hard surfaces add up to a big impact: in the city of Los Angeles, over 48 billion gallons of runoff are created every year by parking lots, rooftops, downspouts, and pavement. This runoff floods streets, overwhelms sewers, and carries pollution from the city into the ocean.
Los Angeles historically has treated runoff as a problem that city engineers try to plumb, pump, and wrangle with concrete channels, but this water is also a valuable resource with untapped potential to green our cities, provide water for homes, and create resilience to extreme weather.
Bringing the Vision to Life
After the grass was cut with a sod cutter, volunteers began the process of removing all of the grass roots, invasive weeds, and other debri to prepare the soil. Removing the lawn is often the most labor intensive part of creating a new Ocean Friendly Garden, and often the most daunting hurdle for homeowners who want to take action in their own yard. Through this hands-on learning experience, volunteers leave with the skills and knowledge to thoroughly remove existing turf grass and replace it with new, rainwater harvesting plants.
Once the grass was removed, volunteers created a swale, a gently sloped low area for water to settle and soak into. This guides rainwater and runoff into the soil, which traps pollution and gets soaked up by plant roots.
By removing the soil from one area to create a low spot, it creates an opportunity to form a hill or berm somewhere else. This helps add surface area for rain to soak in to, slows down runoff by keeping it in the swale, and even creates a well-draining zone for planting different types of plants!
The Los Angeles Chapter returned the following month with a fresh batch of volunteers, ready to sheet mulch and plant.
Why Sheet Mulch?
Sheet mulching is an alternative to plastic landscape fabrics and weed cloth. Well-intending gardeners will often put down landscape fabric or weed cloth to try to suppress weeds around new plants, but these materials stifle the circulation of air and water to your plants. They also don't work to suppress weeds, and as the plastic fibers break down, weeds grow through the material and become even harder to remove. The plastic fabric breaks down into small pieces, polluting the soil with microplastics and creating a trashy mess.
Sheet mulching is a biodegradable alternative that uses recycled cardboard or recycled brown paper to cover empty spaces between plants while they grow. The sheet mulch is permeable to water, and breaks down in place under the natural wood mulch.
Volunteers rolled out brown paper, sprayed it with water to hold it down, and then covered it with a layer of mulch. The mulch will help restore the soil health while retaining moisture around the new plants. Using mulch from tree trimmings prevents unnecessary landfill waste and stores carbon in the soil.
After the sheet mulching was finished, plants were carefully laid out to be planted based on their size, shape, and whether they tolerate seasonal flooding at the bottom of the swale.
Native Plants for Climate, Biodiversity, and Cultural Significance
Volunteers planted a total of 189 native plants that will soak up rainwater and filter out nutrients and pollution from parking lot runoff. Native plants provide unique and critical habitat for local butterflies, bees, birds, and other wildlife that have co-evolved with them for generations. By using plants that are adapted to the local climate, soil, and pests, we can also avoid unnecessary pollution from overwatering, chemical fertilizers, and toxic pesticides.
Native plants also restore a sense of place, evoking the iconic natural ecosystems that used to exist across our now urban cities. By restoring the plants, it immerses visitors in the foothills, meadows, and scrublands without having to go hiking or camping.
Native plants also hold tremendous significance to indigenous people like the Tongva-Gabrielino. Many plants are valued for medicine, food, and materials, and treated with respect and reciprocity for what they provide. Humans are included as a part of nature, interconnected with the ecosystem.
It is an honor to help continue enriching this amazing place, and we are looking forward to returning to watch it grow, turning runoff into a beautiful, functional swale garden. Thank you to our partners at the Gabrielino-Tongva Springs Foundation for their collaboration, trust, and enthusiasm that made this project possible.
This Ocean Friendly Gardens project was made possible with the support of Accelerate Resilience L.A., a sponsored project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors.
You can support projects like this by becoming a Surfrider member, volunteering with your local Surfrider chapter, or creating your own Ocean Friendly Garden at home!