Dear Angeles Central Group Member,
In this newsletter, we focus on our local wildlife. We highlight an impassioned group of volunteers at an important migratory refuge that would be protected if our efforts to expand the San Gabriel National Monument continues successfully. Then, let's listen to a local artist using his voice to inspire change. Next, we'll learn how to help CLAW (a group of grassroots wildlife advocates) hold local bureaucrats accountable to an ordinance agreed to years ago. Also, we can join local communities keep Griffith Park from being over developed. Please consider taking part in the petitions below.
2 MINUTE ACTIVISM
We appreciate that you have limited time, so here is what you can do to help save the planet, even while working, raising kiddos, etc.:
Sign a petition in support of expanding the San Gabriel National Monument to include Bear Divide and other wildlife habitat, go HERE
If you would like to sign a petition in support of stopping a proposed development in the Verdugo Hills that will displace an entire wildlife corridor and wildlife, go HERE.
Thank you for your activism.
For more information on getting involved with the Sierra Club Central Group committees, please email barbarajhensleigh@gmail.com.
Bear Divide is for the Birds
By Barbara Hensleigh
At 5 am one day in April, I head out with my friend Jen to a place I have never been before, though I have lived and hiked in and around L.A. for over 30 years: Bear Divide in the San Gabriel Mountains. After spending the night in L.A., migratory birds – thousands of them, coming from two different flight paths – converge here heading north. They fly low to the ground and up over a crest in the mountains and are identified and counted as they fly. Some are caught in stationary nets, banded, and then released by researchers. The birds are bright blue, red, and yellow; some are multi- colored––among them are Lazuli Buntings, Wilson Warbers, Swainson’s Thrush and Western Tanagers. I saw the birds and the amazing team identifying, banding, researching them.
Have you ever considered the commonalty between marginalized communities in Los Angeles and the wildlife here? Warren Dickson has. Warren is the Co-Owner of 3rd Rock Hip-Hop. He is from Watts, CA. Warren uses his voice, the arts, and his life experiences, to inspire change through acknowledging intersectionality between his community and world change initiatives. Warren highlights the connections between different social causes, wildlife conservation, and environmental protection, to emphasize the need for all of us to join together to create change. He was interviewed by the New York Times most recently about the passing of P-22. Watch Warren’s video here.
Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife (CLAW) Fights to Protect Local Wildlife and Wildlands
By Tony Tucci
Ten years ago, Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife, or CLAW, was born from a group of grassroots Laurel Canyonites, who organized to remind Los Angeles City Planning that the wild ones that walk among us should not be cut off and displaced by development. After successfully filing a lawsuit to protect a wildlife corridor and overhearing a City Zoning Administrator say, “put up a sign and tell the animals where to go,” CLAW was formed and fired-up to change the discretion and opinions of bureaucrats and policymakers in order to protect the wildlife, wildlife habitat, and wildlife corridors of greater Los Angeles.
L.A. Zoo Vision Plan Expansion Threatens Wildlife in Griffith Park
By Aida Ashouri
A hundred years ago, a sign was erected in Hollywood to advertise a new housing development. “Hollywoodland” lay before then-empty hills that had just begun to be graded for housing development in what we now know as the Hollywood Hills. Since then, over 95% of the wildlands in Los Angeles have been destroyed – any remaining wildlands can now be considered as valuable as gold.
Griffith Park, one of the last remaining bastions of open space where native wildlife can thrive, is one of these remaining spaces.
The Central Group is the heart of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, representing the areas from West Hollywood through East LA, and Griffith Park through South LA, and several Gateway Cities.
