Green Living

It opened in October, but it took a holiday vacation for me to make time to visit TreePeople’s long-awaited Center for Community Forestry . And while I missed the opening ceremony with actress Annette Bening and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, I got to poke around the grounds all the same.

Located in Coldwater Canyon Park and adjacent to TP’s offices (which are actually yurts, it consists of the brand-new nursery for baby trees who will find a home somewhere in L.A. when they’re toddlers, an environmental learning center, a sustainable parking grove, a coming soon wildflower meadow, native plants and trees, an urban watershed garden and, yes, the crown jewel-the center itself.

It will serve as a gathering place for environmental problem-solvers to swap ideas and is in its very structure an example of creative, green thinking that boasts denim scrap insulation, sunflower seed countertops, solar shades made of reclaimed wood, 50% fly ash concrete and energy efficiency. Coming in with a ranking of LEED Platinum, this stunning center is a wonder to behold.

My favorite part though is the LaKretz Urban Watershed Gardens (probably because I’m cuckoo for stormwater education). It’s a fabulous demonstration of what a watershed http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/whatis.html could and should be as opposed to our current one that’s covered in concrete and delivers water (and rain-carried contaminants) straight to the L.A. River and on to the Pacific through the storm drain system-see our L.A. River Clean Up post or L.A.’s Stormwater Program for more info on that.

The Watershed Gardens show practical ways home and business owners can do their part for a healthy watershed by catching rainwater and sending the rest into the ground instead of into the street where the earth can filter and use it (think rain barrels, permeable pavement, native plants, no more expansive lawns and the like.)

The center is a valuable resource to hikers strolling by, to school-aged fieldtrippers and to all of us. Plan your visit here.

And here’s a map of all the park’s trails for your hiking pleasure.

CONTACT INFO: TreePeople’s Center for Community Forestry is located in Coldwater Canyon Park at 12601 N. Mulholland Drive, Beverly Hills, 90210. Phone: (818) 769-4415. Web: www.treepeople.org.

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Tags: center for community forestry, denim insulation, eco-friendly building, fly ash concrete, green landscaping, LEED, rain water catchment, runoff los angeles, stormwater, TreePeople