Echo Park Lake

I rushed home to see a TV show about Echo Park Lake. I don’t have Tivo or a VCR.

It turns out that the very ducks that we go feed, are also causing lake pollution. In addition, since the lake is in an urban area, it picks up urban runoff. So, the watershed folks say the lake is “compromised”. Cattails are brought in from the Sepulveda Basin, and transplanted into manmade islands in Echo Park Lake. The cattails naturally clean the water, apparently.

I could tell that show was filmed several months ago, because the lotus plants were visible. Each July, the park hosts the Lotus Festival, and at that time the lotus are in full bloom and take over a full wing of the lake. It is the largest lotus bed in the United States. But in winter, you would never know it. The plants stay beneath the water and you can’t see them at all. According to the engineers on the program, the lotus plants were brought to LA in the 1930s by the church across the street.

Here is a photo of me in front of the lotus plants at last year’s festival. That’s downtown LA in the background.