"Environmentalists often say that we are the one species the earth could very well do without. That's so well-accepted among the people of my tribe that it seems to go without saying.
"But what if it's not true?
"What if we have been designed, crafted, fed, modified, and adapted by the ecosystem (aka Mother Earth), so that both the human species, and all other life, can carry on? What if we are intended to discover and actually engage capacities that deep down we know we have, but rarely utilize?
"What if we've been given that special role all along?
"Imagine how important and how joyful the taking up of that responsibility could be, as well as daunting." Andy Lipkis. Catalyzing Rapid Response Climate Change
Ten days after TreePeople founder Andy Lipkis writes this on his blog, he appears at Bioneers 2010 with a message about the existence of another instinct, one which is more powerful, more innate or perhaps more evolved than fight and flight. Woven throughout his passionate and complex talk on biomimicry and functioning community forests, on tree acupuncture and a vision of sustainability as "a practical way to solve more than one problem at once," are references to evolutionary psychology and transformational consciousness as an enlightened response to "adrenaline drift."
Wow!
When energy is not used, Lipkis says, it becomes pollution. And when we are ill at ease, it is because we are not using what energizes us: our adrenaline.
"Everybody has a scanner on board and it's the heart. It's asking 'Where can I help?' and it gives us the adrenaline so when we see what needs to be done, we can respond. We are hard wired for this, but we have lost the language for it. This is nature's gift to us!"
It's time, says Lipkis "to ramp it up ... to put some skin in the game."
TreePeople
A 2007 TreePeople Planting in the Los Angeles Wholesale District. In 1990, TreePeople created the largest living monument to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, when 3,000 volunteers in ONE DAY planted over 300 trees along 7 miles of L.A.’s Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. "The trees are living, and the dream is living, because people went beyond simply planting. Month after month, year after year, neighbors cared for these trees. That's the profound impact of one committed individual to heal a community and the earth." Lipkis, 2008
Lipkis started TreePeople back in the 70s as an experiment to inspire and engage the people and municipalities of Los Angeles in collaborating in creating a safe, healthy and sustainable urban environment which could serve as a model for the world. From the beginning, the focus was on helping nature heal the cities. The original model -- trees + people -- subsequently expanded to trees + people +technology to address the severe environmental conditions in urban landscapes by using permeable paving, French drains, swales, rain barrels, cisterns and 'forest mimicing" to create functioning community forests throughout Los Angeles.
"The trees are living, and the dream is living, because people went beyond simply planting. Month after month, year after year, neighbors cared for these trees. That's the profound impact of one committed individual to heal a community and the earth." Link
In the 1990s, TreePeople initiated a unique, 12 year 2,700 acre multi-stakeholder Sun Valley Watershed Management Plan to sustainably address severe flooding and stormwater pollution. TreePeople convinced the L.A. County Department of Public Works to abandon plans for a $42-million storm drain and utilize funds to retrofit the watershed using biomimicry. The focus was on solving local flooding problems, reducing water pollution, and conserving stormwater runoff, while also increasing water conservation, recreational opportunities, and wildlife habitats. Ultimately, between 20-40% of the 8,000 homes in the valley would be retrofitted to efficiently redirect and reuse rainfall.
To date, the plan has successfully completed the Sun Valley Park Multiuse Project, where two large infiltration basins treat stormwater; the Tuxford Green Multiuse Project, which redirects heavy rainwater under a previously heavily flooded intersection; and the watershed's first Green Street, Elmer Avenue.
Elmer Avenue: LA's First Environmental Justice Zone
Elmer Avenue: Before and After
A residential Sun Valley street constructed without any storm drains, Elmer Avenue was a flood hazard zone, whose residents routinely waded through water merely to cross the street.
An NRDC video showcases Elmer Avenue.
Homes on the street were retrofitted to filter water back into the ground using a variety of rainwater harvesting techniques. In turn, climate appropriate landscaping and trees were designed to work together to conserve water. The remodeled Elmer Avenue currently "catches, cleans, and reuses rain and stormwater from a 40-acre area upstream, provides 16 acre feet of groundwater recharge annually (about the same amount of water used by 90 people in a year), increases wildlife habitat and residents’ access to greenspace, and new sidewalks and solar powered street lights make the neighborhood safer and more walkable." Link
"The residents of Elmer Avenue are now watershed managers," says Rebecca Drayse, Director of TreePeople’s Natural Urban Systems Group. "Their properties and the street are literally interconnected - mimicking the natural hydrology of the Los Angeles River Watershed that’s been so greatly impacted by development for the past century."
The new Elmer Avenue has become the embodiment of a Functioning Community Forest, TreePeople’s vision for a sustainable L.A. It’s a neighborhood that brings value to its environment and community by capturing the water, cleaning the air, healing the soil, and reducing its impact on surrounding land and the ocean. It’s a neighborhood that can better adapt to climate change, be resilient to droughts and flooding, and offer a healthier and more beautiful place to live.
After just three months, says Lipkis, there are birds and bugs and thriving ecosystems on Elmer Avenue, where just two blocks away you can’t even hear a bird sing.
Never take NO for an answer
In its initial work, the Sun Valley Watershed Management team discovered most of the toxic water flowing from the region came from illegal auto disassembly yards. The DA arrested over 200 people.
Subsequently, when meetings were moved into the neighborhoods to encourage community participation, residents became infuriated when they were told the entire project would take 12 years. They needed help now, they said. Their kids couldn’t get to school.
Fortunately, recalls Lipkis, a committee member also served on the board of the Unified School District and discovered that six schools located in the watershed had enormous drop out rates during rainstorms. The school district ran the risk of being accused of environmental racism.
"They were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars because they weren’t getting paid for all the students who were missing school because of flooding," says Lipkis.
It didn't take long for the school district, the county, the residents and the other stakeholders to come up with money saving solutions like a rainy season shuttle service for elementary school students and a new driveway at the middle school.
Following the Lipkis mantra to any potential setback is to say "I haven't asked the right person in the right way or on the right day." And his model for successful community action involves going door-to-door to meet your neighbors to initiate a community meeting.
"People are just petrified at the idea of doing this," he says, "but if you don't, it's like leaving a tree in a pot. It has no roots. Building this invisible framework of environmental juice gives the community confidence and from the problem they begin to build the dream of the solution."
Photocredits:
The Goddess Athena By shaman.(jason lincoln jeffers)
Elmer Avenue photos: Treepeople
Treepeople LA by bitboy
rooted wail; or treepeople, blue by gracie shoots
The EcoJustice series discusses environmental justice: the disproportionate impacts on human health and all living things as a result of climate change, extreme weather, and pollution. A key focus of our writing is the environmental impacts on minority communities in countries around the world. A key tenet of Environmental Justice is that all living things have a right to clean, healthy and sustainable communities.
Today, the concept of Environmental Justice extends to include such related issues as climate, food and ecosystem justice.
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