Whimsical sculptures add charm to Malibu's hard-working, and prize-winning, Legacy Park.

Legacy Park in Malibu has wildlife, sculptures, outdoor classrooms and five coastal habitats. But to understand why Los Angeles County’s most innovative new recreational area recently racked up its sixth award in 16 months of existence, you have to look deeper—underground, in fact.

Beneath its meandering walkways and drought-tolerant plantings, the 15-acre central park at Cross Creek Road and Pacific Coast Highway is actually a state-of-the-art system for capturing and cleaning urban runoff that would otherwise course to the ocean, carrying bacteria and trash. 

Hidden pipes and filters, working in tandem with the park’s landscaping and Malibu’s existing storm water treatment facility, have trapped and decontaminated tens of millions of gallons of toxic storm water since the park opened in October, 2010.

“It’s pretty unique,” says Malibu City Manager Jim Thorsen, noting that the park was just named the American Society of Civil Engineers’ 2011 Project of the Year for California—the latest in a long string of accolades.

This tiny Legacy Park fan is in his element.

“I don’t know of any other places that not only capture and treat their storm water, but then build a park around it and make it possible for visitors to come in and learn.”

The park grew out of longstanding concerns about bacterial contamination from runoff at Malibu Creek, Malibu Lagoon and Surfrider Beach.  When winter storms strike in Southern California, the rains carry chemicals and debris into the Santa Monica Bay from as far away as Thousand Oaks and the Santa Monica Mountains, poisoning the ocean and polluting the beach.

Under pressure to comply with clean water mandates, the city bought a vacant lot and—with $13 million in funding amassed from private and public donors, including $700,000 in Proposition A park funds—began turning the dusty tract into what Thorsen has dubbed “an environmental cleaning machine.”

Runoff from some 337 surrounding acres flows into the park via three major storm drains, then is filtered through a system of screens to catch plastic bags, paper cups and other litter.  Then the water runs through more filters to a 2.6 million gallon retention pond at the park’s center, where it sits while contaminants settle at the bottom of a natural sedimentation basin.

Finally, the water is piped to the other side of Civic Center Way, where the city’s storm water treatment facility can clean and disinfect it with ozone. Then the cleaned water is used to irrigate the park, or, on rare occasions, is discharged back into Malibu Creek.

“What has really surprised us is how well it has functioned,” says Thorsen. “We’ve seen water go in, the pond fill, the pumps and the system work to perfection, and the water recycle back into the park. It has worked out exactly as it was supposed to work.”

Kathy Haynes, who chaired the ASCE awards committee, calls the park “an innovative example of incorporating sustainability, showing environmental responsibility and using forward thinking.”

For Thorsen, however, the reward is in the number of calls he’s been getting from developers and communities interested in similar projects, and in the public response over the past year as Legacy Park has come to life.

“It looked like a barren desert, when we first planted it,” he says, “but everyone—the people, the birds, the animals—seems to love it. I’m amazed at how much things have grown in just one year.”

Legacy Park is proving that you don't have to be a movie star to win awards in Malibu.

Posted 2/6/12

Want to be part of the solution? Some expert tips on how you can avoid contributing to urban runoff are here.

The county's new "dark skies" law may not lead to this kind of view, but it's certainly a step forward.

“Light blight.”

That’s Kim Lamorie’s term for the spectacle that occurs every time an urbanite moves to one of the rural communities near her Calabasas home. The sun sets, the black night settles over the Santa Monica Mountains, and before long, “their houses and yards are massively lit up like crazy,” says Lamorie, president of the Las Virgenes Homeowners Federation.

“It’s how you can tell when somebody’s new to the rural area.”

Eventually, she says, the newcomers come to realize that they don’t need all that security lighting and that bright lights confuse and even threaten the nocturnal animals that share their wilderness. But in the meantime, she says, all that fear of the dark can ruin one of the best aspects of mountain living:

“I can step outside my door at night,” she says, “and see the stars.” 

On Tuesday, after more than a year of preparation, the Board of Supervisors restricted outdoor lights in rural Los Angeles County in an attempt to curb light pollution in such unincorporated areas as the Antelope and Santa Clarita valleys and the Santa Monica Mountains.

The new regulations create a Rural Outdoor Lighting District that encompasses those and other sparsely populated parts of the county and requires that lights on barns, corrals, ball fields and other such facilities be shielded so that they face downward, not outward and upward. It also requires outdoor lights, such as those on patios, be subdued enough so that they don’t “trespass” onto neighboring properties.

Although a handful of public safety facilities, such as those operated by the Sheriff and Probation departments, will be exempt from the restrictions, most rural landowners—including the county—must comply with the requirements. That mandate was stressed in a motion by Supervisors Zev Yaroslavsky and Michael D. Antonovich after the Department of Public Works issued rough, last-minute estimates indicating that the cost of replacing lights on the agency’s rural buildings would be so high that would be so high that they would have to dip into funds otherwise reserved for road projects.

“The Department of Public Works should find cost effective ways to comply with the ordinance like every other stakeholder, and they should do so out of their existing . . . budget,” Yaroslavsky and Antonovich said in their motion, calling the estimates “not credible.”

The new rules give county departments six months to report back on how they’ll comply. Homeowners will also get an initial grace period, after which enforcement will be based on complaints. For commercial and recreational facilities, such as ball fields and businesses, lights must be turned off either an hour after a game’s end, at the close of business or at 10 p.m., whichever is the latest.

Rural homeowners applauded the ordinance, championed by Antonovich and Yaroslavsky.

“Out here in the country, most people want to see the stars. And if your neighbor’s got tons of lights, and they don’t shut them off, it really does cause a problem,” said Wayne Argo, who lives in the Antelope Valley on three acres near the Angeles National Forestand who is director of the Association of Rural Town Councils.

“A couple of years ago, we had problems in Leona Valley with people using arena lights on their horse property and not turning them off at a reasonable time,” he said. “For the people in the area, it was like having a baseball field or a football field next door.”

As civilization has encroached on once-unspoiled horizons, city lights have eclipsed more and more of the night sky. Already, astronomers say, the Milky Way has become invisible in two-thirds of the country; after the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the Griffith Park Observatory reports, frightened Angelenos called when the power went out, wondering what the weird, silvery shimmer was in the night sky. 

“Some thought it was the end of the world,” according to the observatory’s website. “It was, in fact, the stars.”

Some of the first calls for a curb on light pollution came from stargazers in Arizona. The city of Flagstaff passed one of the first anti-light pollution ordinances in 1958 to stop searchlights from impairing the work of astronomers at Lowell Observatory, where Pluto had been discovered. Then, in 1972, the city of Tucson began requiring city lights to be pointed downward to protect the Kitt Peak National Observatory. 

By the mid-1980s, a state statute had been enacted in Arizona, and in 1988, astronomers in Tucsonfounded the International Dark-Sky Association (IDA) to advocate on the issue. The IDA now has 58 chapters in 16 countries, helping draft model light pollution ordinances for communities.

In California, the city of San Joseswitched to low-pressure sodium lights in the 1980s to protect the nearby Lick Observatory; San Diego used regulations to dim the skies for the Palomar and Mount Laguna observatories as well.

In recent years, however, the dark skies movement has moved beyond astronomy to touch on environmental, health and lifestyle questions. The loss of darkness has, for example, also affected the feeding, mating and migration habits of wildlife from bats to sea turtles. Meanwhile, medical researchers have uncovered links between the incidence of breast and prostate cancer and exposure to artificial light at night.

In 2002, the city of Calabasas, which abuts the unincorporated Santa Monica Mountains, passed its own local light pollution ordinance, largely to preserve the rural character and local ecology of the community. According to a recent issue of the Las Virgenes Homeowner’s Association newsletter, in the last four years, the city has fielded only about nine complaints of light trespass, all involving commercial night lighting.

Both Lamorie and Argo hope further public education also will be a big part of the county’s light enforcement. And for those who are still not convinced of the new law’s value, Argo has a suggestion.

“You wait ‘til a half-hour or so after sunset, then sit down in a lawn chair, and lay your head back, and look straight up,” Argo said. “You can see satellites. You can see all the constellations. On a clear night, you can almost reach up and touch the Milky Way.”

Vincent Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

Posted 1/24/12

Yes, fall is fertilizer season in Southern California. And as the autumn air grows pungent over the lawns of Los Angeles County, homeowners are being reminded to spread the wealth responsibly.

“The same nutrients that make your grass grow also will make algal blooms grow if they wash down the storm drains and into the waterways,” notes Susie Santilena, an environmental engineer in water quality at Heal the Bay.

The nitrogen and phosphorus that are so good for plants may contribute to toxic red tides in the ocean and can make algae run wild in freshwater areas like Malibu Creek, creating dead zones as the green scum blocks sunlight and inhibits the growth of other plants and animals, Santilena says.

The algae even wreaks havoc when it dies, because it sucks oxygen out of the water as it decomposes, a process known as eutrophication.

“When you don’t have oxygen in your waterway, your marine life suffocates and you get fish die-offs because there’s no dissolved oxygen in your water,” she says. “And there are aesthetic issues—algae growth can create pond scum, which is just kind of gross to look at in waterways.”

So what to do? It’s tricky, environmental advocates say, because while organic fertilizers such as steer manure and worm castings have advantages that chemical fertilizers don’t share, both can create destructive runoff if they aren’t applied carefully.

Manure tends to adhere to the soil better, so its runoff is less concentrated, but it also can introduce harmful bacteria into the water.

“I have a personal preference for worm castings for multiple other benefits, including environmental impact of production, but they can be overused like the other fertilizers,” says Santilena, noting that worm castings also can be hard to obtain in sufficient quantities for large-scale application.

“It’s how and when the fertilizer is applied that matters most.”

Environmental consultant and master gardener Curtis Thomsen, who conducts the Countywide Smart Gardening program, recommends a half-and-half mix of compost and fertilizer, sprinkled lightly over a lawn that has been aerated.

If you don’t have compost, he adds, there are sites in Los Angeles that offer free mulch that you can shred to make some and low-cost bins can be purchased at Smart Gardening workshops countywide.  “The worms smell the organics in it and pull them down, which allows water to penetrate deeper,” he says, adding that compost is especially good for getting nutrients to the roots of thick grasses that tend to thatch. Also, he says, if you add that mixture to your garden plot this fall, it will improve yields, reduce disease in the soil and produce healthier, stronger plants next year.

Meanwhile, Rudy Valenzuela, regional grounds maintenance supervisor for the county Department of Parks and Recreation, notes that the county aerates and fertilizes its park lawns with a commercial chemical blend of nitrogen, potassium and iron that is geared to its sturdy mixture of grasses. He notes, however, that the crews wait until after dark to water and then do it judiciously, turning off the sprinklers after about 15 minutes per station to avoid runoff.

Both approaches keep in mind the need to keep your fertilizer on your own grass. Here are some dos and don’ts from Heal the Bay:

– Do use fertilizer as sparingly as possible, no matter what type you use. Less is more.

– Don’t ever apply fertilizer right before a rainstorm, and never overwater after applying. Too much water will just lift your fertilizer and wash it off.

–Don’t apply to highly compacted or steeply sloped grasses, which also prevent fertilizers from fully soaking into the soil.

–Do consider creating a rain garden, using rain barrels and other containers that will keep rain in your hard and out of the street.

Posted 11/16/11

Earthquake geologist James Dolan, a USC earth sciences professor and consultant to the transit project, this week presented findings that pinpoint the location—and active seismic status—of a formation known as the West Beverly Hills Lineament.

Remember that name.

It turns out the WBHL, as it’s known, is a branch of the mighty Newport-Inglewood Fault, an active and powerful system stretching from Culver City to Newport Beach and continuing south through San Diego and into Mexico’s Baja peninsula.

Dolan led the research team that first came across the formation and named it in the early 1990s. But it was only in recent months that intensive research to determine the safest site for the subway’s Century City station helped the geologist “confirm our earlier inferences that the West Beverly Hills Lineament is the northernmost part of the Newport-Inglewood Fault System.”

In the world of seismology, that’s a big deal. The Newport-Inglewood system is a giant and has been active during the Holocene era (i.e., the last 11,000 years), most notably in 1933, when it caused an earthquake in Long Beach that killed some 120 people, making it the second deadliest in California history, after the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906.

The presence of the WBHL and the nearby Santa Monica fault, which is also active, make it too dangerous to build a Santa Monica Boulevardstation for the new subway in Century City, Dolan and other scientists told a Metro committee Wednesday. They said that another proposed location for the station—at Constellation Boulevard and Avenue of the Stars—was a better option because it showed no evidence of earthquake faults.

The state has recognized the WBHL and the Santa Monica Fault as active fault zones on its maps, Dolan said, but does not yet classify them as such under the Alquist-Priolo Earthquake Fault Zoning Act, which imposes building restrictions in such areas. Data like those acquired during the recent research are the kind of information needed to eventually place such active fault zones under Alquist-Priolo regulations, Dolan said.

“As a scientist, it’s very exciting,” said Lucy Jones of the U.S. Geologic Survey and Caltech, who reviewed the research as part of an independent review panel. “Knowing that the Newport-Inglewood Fault is active this far north is new,” she said, later adding that the finding is “of significant import for the city of Los Angeles.”

The WBHL extends north-northwest from Culver City through West L.A., bisecting west Beverly Hills and east Century City, traversing Constellation andSanta Monica boulevards between Moreno Drive and Century Park East before ending roughly at Sunset Boulevard.

A “major event” on the WBHL could mean an earthquake ranging in magnitude from 6.4 to 7.2, along with ground movement of three to six feet, according to an executive summary of the experts’ findings.

While it’s not possible to predict when a given fault might slip, it’s prudent to take the potential impact seriously, Dolan told the committee:

“Earthquakes don’t typically recur on our kind of human lifetime scales,” Dolan said. “That doesn’t mean that we can disregard the risk associated with these things. It very well may be it will be 3,000 years until we have an earthquake on the Santa Monica Fault. Then again, it could happen tomorrow. It depends on whether you’re a betting person, I guess.”

While acknowledging that such discoveries can spark concerns, Dolan said in an interview that he prefers to take an all-news-is-good-news approach.

“I think anything we learn about active faults in L.A.is always good news,” he said, “because it’s absolutely critical that we fully understand the seismic threat facing us as residents of earthquake country.”

Members of the Metro committee listened attentively during Dolan’s presentation (and one, Richard Katz, asked him to slow down at one point so he could take in the rush of information.)

Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, another committee member, said he was so engrossed with Dolan’s style of scientific explanation that it might once have set him on a different career path.

“If I’d first met him 40 years ago, I would have been a geology major,” Yaroslavsky said.

Dolan, an expert on urban faults and the seismic hazards underlying the metropolitan Los Angelesarea, said the latest round of extensive research gave him a chance to catch up with his unfinished business with the WBHL. “These data have been a wonderful validation of our earlier research,” he said. “They’ve greatly fleshed out the details of these faults. Those details are the critical information we need.”

At the committee meeting, he spoke enthusiastically about the exhaustive testing that helped unearth those details, including “cone pentetrometer” tests and “seismic reflection profiles” (“It’s like a CAT scan of the earth,” Dolan explained to the committee.)

After it was all over, the committee chair, Diane DuBois, paid Dolan and the other scientific experts the ultimate layperson’s compliment on their presentation:

“I even understood it,” she said.

Posted 10/20/11

It’s not much to look at now. But when Sun Valley’s Strathern Pit is reborn as the Strathern Wetlands Park, the new facility is expected to offer picnic spots, walking trails, basketball and tennis courts, an exercise station, wildlife habitat and landscaped ponds.

Those water features aren’t just ornamental—they are being designed to play an important role in diverting and treating storm water runoff.

The multifaceted approach promises to bring beauty and usefulness to the 46-acre site, which until 2009 was used as a construction debris landfill.

The park’s proposed recreational features were developed at a community workshop in April. Get a look at what’s being planned at a community meeting this Saturday, September 17, at the Richard E. Byrd Middle School Auditorium, 8501 Arleta Avenue in Sun Valley. The meeting runs from 10 a.m. until 1 p.m. Reservations aren’t required but if you’d like to RSVP, you can do so by contacting project manager Mark Lombos at (626) 458-7143 or by emailing mlombos@dpw.lacounty.gov.

Construction on the wetlands park is expected to begin in the fall of 2013. The $50 million project is being funded by the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, City of Los Angeles Proposition O and the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power.

Posted 9/13/11

Few living things are as integral to Los Angeles as its mighty oak woodlands. They fed wooly mammoths and sheltered Native American tribes.

They’ve supported thousands of species of birds, mammals, reptiles and insects. They were remarked upon in the 1769 diaries of the awestruck Franciscan missionary, Father Juan Crespi. Even now, scattered though they may seem, they inspire reverence, rising from the chaparral like ghosts of another California. Unfortunately, as much as 80% of Los Angeles County’s original oak woodlands have been destroyed.

For the last several decades, environmentalists have waged an uphill battle to preserve the county’s 145,000 remaining acres of oak woodlands. Their successes have included a 1982 county ordinance that has made it difficult to cut down mature oak trees.

Still, the existing law is oriented toward regulating the removal of individual oak trees rather than preserving an entire ecosystem. As a result, while single trees enjoy some protection, the woodlands themselves—which filter pollution, absorb carbon dioxide, anchor stream banks and hillsides and slow floodwaters—remain vulnerable to everything from development to falling water tables. So on Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors took a step toward not only conserving L.A.’s beloved native species, but also toward making it easier for individual property owners to voluntarily do the right thing.

“The purpose of this is partly to raise the profile of this important ecosystem,” says Rosi Dagit, a senior conservation biologist at the Santa Monica Mountains Resource Conservation District who for the past three years has coordinated a strategic alliance of environmentalists, foresters, arborists, building industry representatives, fire officials and other interested parties in developing an oak woodlands management plan.

The group’s report offers two sets of recommendations. The first set, adopted by the Board on Tuesday, includes maps and a conservation strategy that make the county eligible for state woodlands conservation money that, in turn, will help buy land for public trusts and conservation easements.

The report also suggests ways that private property owners—who still control a quarter of the county’s woodlands in large tracts such as Newhall Ranchand small communities such as Topanga Canyon and Monte Nido—can voluntarily help preserve them by, for instance, donating land and easements themselves, thus reaping income, property and estate tax breaks.

The second set of recommendations, which was sent to staff for a report in six months on its potential for implementation, includes ways to incorporate oak woodland conservation into the general plan and important guidelines for such things as assigning a dollar value to a tree’s importance in mitigating global warming or as a source of flood control. It also includes a number of revisions to the existing oak tree ordinance.

For instance, Dagit says, under existing rules, property owners dread oak trees almost as much as they love them because they are required to pay for a pricey permit to cut one down after it reaches more than 8 inches in diameter.

“It’s several hundred dollars just for the permit,” she says, “and then you have to pay an arborist to do an oak tree report, which is several hundred more, and then if it’s more than one tree, you have to pay for a hearing, which can cost thousands of dollars. So typically, if a little oak tree volunteers in their yard, a lot of people don’t want the hassle—before it can reach 8 inches, they take it out.”

This is problematic, she says, because oak trees bind Los Angeles in more ways than Angelenos realize, from securing the soil and creating drainage to mitigating the city’s carbon footprint. “Each mature oak tree takes out nine tons of carbon a year,” says Dagit, “so we want to plant them, even if they’re only going to be around for 10 or 15 years.”

Under the proposed recommendations, property owners who might love to have a stand of oak trees but fear the potential for bureaucratic problems can head off future costs by planting trees themselves and providing a map (even a hand-drawn one) to the county.

“Then, ten years later, if you wanted to take out one of those oaks to put in a tennis court or whatever, you could do what you needed to do without a penalty,” says Dagit. “And meanwhile, the public will have reaped the benefit.”

This, she says, would be especially helpful in places like landfills, where oaks would be the perfect ground cover were it not for the owners’ fear of future impediments should a need to, say, get to some piping, require them to tear out a tree.

Dagit stresses that the current report is intended to make conservation easier, not harder: “We want to provide incentives for people so oaks won’t be considered a liability.”

But, she says, the woodlands continue to dwindle, and so far, not one section of oak woodland has been fully restored or recovered. “Trees are the background assumption of our life,” she says.

“People look out the window and think that the trees will always be there. But will they be?”

Posted 8/25/11

But the spot where Calabasas Creek meets Bell Creek—be it ever so humble—is actually a landmark: the beginning of the Los Angeles River. And this week, it came a big step closer to getting the kind of makeover that would allow it to finally shine.

The Board of Supervisors accepted a $1.97 million state grant to help launch construction of the Los Angeles River Headwaters Project, which eventually will create more than a mile of recreational trails at the point where the storied urban river starts near Canoga Park High School in the San Fernando Valley.

Tentatively scheduled for completion in 2013, the Headwaters Project is part of a larger plan to reclaim and revitalize the river, which runs for some 50 miles through 13 cities, including Los Angeles, before it empties into the ocean at Long Beach. (Click here for an artist’s rendering of the project.)

The grant, authorized under the Proposition 84 state park program and awarded by the California Natural Resources Agency, will be a substantial down-payment on the headwaters improvement, which is expected to add some $9.3 million worth of pedestrian paths, landscaping, signage, water quality improvements and decorative fencing to an area now closed to the public and mostly used for flood control and maintenance.  

Officials from the county Department of Public Works say it is the first of several grants for which they’ve applied in the hope of mitigating the cost of the project. And, they note, the City of Los Angeles has applied for an additional Metropolitan Transportation Authority grant to add a bike path to the area.

“Right now, it doesn’t look like a place anyone would want to visit,” says Terri Grant, principal engineer for the county Department of Public Works.

“But when it’s done, it will enhance the community, and draw people to a new area of open space where they can enjoy themselves and relax.”

Posted 7/13/11

The male seahorse is so devoted that he carries as many as 1,000 offspring deposited by the mom in a brood pouch for 14 days, until they hatch. At that point, with the fry fully formed, the father is pretty much done with parenting chores. But for those two weeks, he’s as attentive as they come.

The seahorse, like the giant panda on land, is one of those iconic creatures that seem to naturally capture our affection and pique our curiosity. Maybe it’s the odd shape, maybe it’s that comic snout they use to suck in food, who knows?  It’s hard to even remember they’re fish.

For Randi Parent of the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, the attraction of seahorses is in the way they move.

“They kind of have that vertical thing going for them,” she said. “Their locomotion is just so different from other marine animals – it’s captivating.”

Also like the giant panda, these creatures, especially the native Pacific seahorse, can serve as a symbol for conservation efforts.

“Pacific seahorses live close to the shore in tall marine grasses,” said aquarium Director Vicki Wawerchak, “which makes them very susceptible to coastal development and subject to capture and overfishing. Never buy dried seahorses at novelty shops.”

Why buy a lousy dried one, anyway, when you can see a whole herd of them live at Santa Monica Pier Aquarium’s new exhibit? The Pacific seahorse featured in the exhibit grows up to 12 inches and is the only species found along California’s coast.

As part of a special aquarium promotion, seahorses are also available for “aquadoption” at a cost of $50 (it goes to $250 after July 1). Adoptive parents make an investment in the animal’s care and, in return, receive an adoption certificate photo, free aquarium passes and a year’s membership to Heal the Bay, along with the satisfaction of contributing to the preservation of marine life.

More than 100 other species are also on display at the Aquarium, which is Heal the Bay’s forum for educating the public about marine life. Heal the Bay is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to keep coastal waters and watersheds of SoCal clean and safe.

The exhibit opens this Saturday, May 28. Aquarium hours are 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 12:30 p.m. to 6 p.m. on the weekends. There is a suggested donation of $5 for admission (or a $3 minimum entry fee). Kids 12 and under get in free. The Aquarium is located at the beach level of the Santa Monica Pier, 1600 Ocean Front Walk.

Posted 5/25/11

Short of a visit from Ty Pennington, it’s the ultimate homeowner’s daydream: $10,000 or even $50,000 to bring the old place up to date.

In the case of six lucky Los Angeles County families, just such a windfall is headed their way. But don’t turn green with envy—because these environmentally-friendly home improvement projects are meant to benefit everybody.

Winners were announced today in the Home Energy Makeover Contest sponsored by Energy Upgrade California, an alliance among L.A. County, local cities, Southern California Edison and the Southern California Gas Company.

The $50,000 Grand Prize makeover went to the Gerardo family of San Fernando, whose 1953 one-story home will be transformed into a “near zero energy house.” (Which means that this prize will be a gift that keeps on giving as far as future energy bills are concerned.)

The upgrades to the Gerardo home will range from solving ventilation and insulation problems to replacing their antiquated swimming pool pump.

The other makeover prizes, worth $10,000 each, went to families in Encino, LaVerne, Pomona, Baldwin Hills and Whittier.

Meet the Gerardos and the other winners here.

More than 1,425 homeowners entered the contest, which is meant to inspire all of us to get with the energy-saving program. (You can start your own action plan here.)

Posted 5/12/11

This weekend, you may hear the rumble and hoot of a distant drum circle inviting you to Topanga Earth Day.

Heed the call and you’ll find yourself transported to Los Angeles County’s Earth Day epicenter as Topanga Canyon lives up to its nature-centric reputation and throws a planet-loving bash to remember.

Where else on the planet, after all, can you spend a weekend building a tipi, making a seed ball, dropping by a Healing Arts Tent, listening to the Grateful Dead’s drummer and sipping some locally-produced wine—all in a one-of-a-kind community that’s just miles from Hollywood and the Westside on the map but a galaxy away in spirit?

Topanga’s annual holiday celebration began in 2000, as locals celebrated after a volunteer cleanup of Topanga Creek. Now the full-fledged festival lasts all weekend and includes musical acts from across the globe. The creek is so pristine that it doesn’t need cleaning this year, so the volunteers have shifted their focus to local beaches instead.

Many Topangans view themselves as stewards of the land, dutifully repaying the earth for the magic and majesty it bestows upon them in the form of fabled creeks and craggy mountains. Darkened by the canyon and a dearth of streetlights, it’s one of the rare places close to the city where you can still clearly see the night stars.

“We are surrounded by 200 square miles of state park,” notes Stephanie Lallouz, organizer of Topanga Earth Day. “Because of that, most of us in the community are pretty in tune with nature. We drive slower to protect the coyotes and bobcats.”

A bohemian spirit and ‘60s ethos lingers on in a place where folks like Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Neil Young, and Marvin Gaye once lived, played or made music. And Earth Day 2011 seems a fine time to discover what they—and Topanga’s current eclectic crop of residents—have long known about this particular place in the sun.

The celebration begins Friday, April 22 from 7-10 p.m. with an eco-art show opening, wine tasting, and jazz.  The main event is Saturday and Sunday, and it lasts from 10 a.m. to sunset both days. There will be music, speakers, workshops, a children’s activity area, and plenty more.

Organizers take pride in the multicultural nature of the jubilee, so you can expect to find many parts of the planet represented. Musical acts hail from places like Africa, Florida, Japan, Jamaica, Israel, Jordan and India, to name a few. (Bill Kreutzman, original drummer for Grateful Dead, is also expected to make an appearance.)

Planned festivities are educational (learn to “plant native,” compost, and use earth-friendly technology), entertaining (a band that uses a 30-foot string setup, belly dancers, and wine tasting), service-oriented (beach clean-up, tree planting), creative (recycled art, flag painting), and esoteric (chanting, reiki).

You can make seed balls and learn ways to conserve water. You also can practice yoga in the morning, have an organic vegetarian lunch, and participate in a sacred Japanese tea ceremony. Along the way, learn to build a tipi and participate in a guided philosophical discussion inside of it.

For a full rundown of activities, visit the Topanga Earth Day website.

For entry, there’s a $12 suggested donation. Eco-friendly non-profit organizations will receive 60% of the proceeds, with the remaining 40% going towards next year’s event. This year’s beneficiaries include Doctors Without Borders, Sea Shepherd and the Topanga Community Club.

The event is sponsored by diverse community, government, and business groups, who will host booths with their own offerings. L.A. County Department of Public Works’ Waterworks program will be on hand with free giveaways as they educate the public on methods of water conservation.

If you go, keep the health of the planet in mind. Rideshare to designated parking locations along Topanga Canyon Boulevard, then bike, hike, or take the free BioDiesel Shuttle up to the festival at the Topanga Community Club Fair Grounds, 1440 N. Topanga Blvd., Topanga, CA 90290.

Posted 4/21/11