On Wednesday, June 26, workers contracted by the City of Los Angeles destroyed the Children's Garden in Elysian Park by killing and injuring 100's of native plants.

This is ecocide.

Learn more on my Instagram page here & here.
And check out the before and after pics below.

This was done under the cover of “fire mitigation/brush clearance”, but the lush, green native plants were all fire resistant. Many of them may have been legally protected under city law, but it is difficult to tell know that there are only stumps left. Protected trees and shrubs known to be in the area including mexican elderberry, toyon, coast live oak, and southern California black walnut. 

What was once a beautiful garden with educational signs marking the native plants, has been bulldozed, leaving only a few damaged trees and removing what was once a critical habitat in a city that has very little natural habitat left.

Known as the “Children's Garden” this area has been home to numerous nature schools (like Everlasting Education and NELA Forest School) as a classroom, inspiring the next generation to appreciate, celebrate, protect nature. This classroom has been destroyed.

We are asking the City of Los Angeles to take responsibility for this travesty in 2 ways:

1. set up and enforce protocols that require a city arborist or ecology to review any site before brush clearance to mark protected trees and other shrubs that do not pose a fire risk.
2. work with community members to replant the garden, including concerned individuals, nature advocacy groups, and the forest schools that once used this space as a classroom.

Please sign the petition and share this with your friends. I will post periodic updates on this page as we receive more news or there is further action we can take to rebuild this garden and prevent such destruction from ever happening again. 

 

For the planet,

Jason Wise (aka @jasonjourneyman)

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Before:

 

 

 

 

After: