"But when Doug Rosenberg came upon a shopping cart tipped over in the river's shallow waters back in 2020, he saw the potential to meet nature halfway. "It had begun to bloom some greenery around it, and there was a great blue heron perched on the cart, hunting in this little spot," Rosenberg recalled. "That was when it clicked for me that any 3D geometry at all in that river channel will trap sediment, will begin a micro-bloom of ecosystem.""
"In a desolate part of downtown, he pushed large rocks from the riverbanks into the water and arranged them in loose, concentric circles. The structure would trap sediment, allowing life to take root. In other words, Rosenberg produced a patch of watery land like a marsh or swamp to support plants and animals. Over the course of 10 weeks, the simple assemblage of rocks spawned a totally new 10-by-20-foot green island in the middle of the 100-foot-wide channel."
"The wetland installation isn't quite what he'd call "impactful ecology," but rather a work of art to show environmental good can be low-tech and small-scale. "The impetus behind this project is to show that the barrier to entry doesn't exist. To basically provide a simple format for action," he said."
The Los Angeles River functions largely as a concrete storm drain that channels floodwaters and accumulates refuse beneath freeways and bridges. Doug Rosenberg observed a shopping cart hosting greenery and a great blue heron, which led to the insight that any three-dimensional structure in the channel can trap sediment and enable a micro-ecosystem. Rosenberg arranged large rocks into loose concentric circles in a downtown stretch, which over ten weeks formed a roughly 10-by-20-foot green island in the 100-foot-wide channel. The project is presented as performance art to demonstrate that low-tech, small-scale environmental action is feasible.
Read at www.npr.org
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