Community Climate Resilience with Urban Greening at Kenneth Hahn Recreation Area

Green space, park access, and trees

South LA

Applying a proven solution to a new issue or sector (using an existing model, tool, resource, strategy, etc. for a new purpose)

Since conversion of the Reservoir Park to an important local open space, a comprehensive greening and recreation plan has not been implemented. Its man-made, recessed grade has created significant watershed issues in local stormwater, allowing invasive species and insect pests to proliferate, and causing loss of native wildlife communities. The urgency of restoration becomes more critical each year, as climate change amplifies habitat loss across a damaged ecosystem. Midcentury landscaping has introduced non-natives, as well as improper irrigation, trail structures and grading. Without restoration, these require labor-intensive, costly seasonal abatement until sustainable native habitats are returned. Moreover, removal of nonnative plants as part of a managed fire regime is also recommended by authorities in the State master plan. Commercial businesses, homes, and schools surround the immediate urban interface, creating extensive risks in the event of fire due to invasive flash fuels.

The Baldwin Hills Reservoir site is critical to building recreational and green space equity in Los Angeles – with historical significance as home to some of the first neighborhoods to be integrated in the 1950s, after a Supreme Court decision striking down longstanding racially restrictive covenants and redlining. This project seeks to uplift a site of emerging environmental justice, as a gathering area at which all Angelenos can reconnect with healthy activity, culture and nature together, in one of the last large open spaces available in the urban core.
As a result, TreePeople will conduct the following restoration improvements: Installation of native plants and trees, invasive plant removal, grading, and interpretive signage installation. These improvements will produce quantifiable multi-benefit impacts to meet climate challenges, including shade canopy expansion and extreme heat offset, groundwater filtration and recharge, habitat restoration, air pollution reduction, and improved recreational space for public health. TreePeople will include community youth support through educational greening elements. In addition, removal of invasive species and introduction of a managed fire regime have been recommended as an important part of the California Department of Parks and Recreation master plan for Baldwin Hills. TreePeople will continue the development of the regional plan for the site by coordinating closely with public agencies through established agency partnerships.

Climate resilience is a multi-stage process in Baldwin Hills, and this project represents the first phase to transform The Bowl through access to safer, cooler green space, in a historically disadvantaged community. Shade tree planting, stormwater grading, and invasives removal for native plant habitats will provide immediate benefits in heat reduction, fire prevention, and runoff filtration to the community. Longterm, TreePeople trail improvements and interpretive signage will build public health and cultural benefits for the community as well. This project also builds on TreePeople partnerships with local public schools, creating youth engagement and action in restoration – elevated by our STEM education on climate science, supporting green career discovery. In addition, our partnerships with Baldwin Hills Conservancy and County Parks and Recreation as landowners, as well as their leverage share in this project, will support the investments necessary to bring this project to success.