Los Angeles, let’s hang on to our native plants and organisms. Here's how

L.A. is rich with biodiversity. It’s also rich with concrete, noise pollution and artificial light.

How these realities coexist is the subject of a new study from a team of researchers led by Joseph Curti, a doctoral student in ecology at UCLA. According to the results, Los Angeles still has a long way to go in promoting and preserving the growth of native species, working towards its major green goals.

“We were really interested in understanding species relationships with differing levels of urban intensity across the city,” said Curti.

L.A. adopted a series of ambitious sustainability goals in 2022 under the administration of former mayor Eric Garcetti. One of them was for the city to achieve a no-net loss of native biodiversity by 2050.

Curti and his team at UCLA were tapped by Michelle Barton, former manager of Los Angeles city's biodiversity program, who worked with the students to give them real-world experience in their class.

L.A. has scored 37 out of 110 possible points in the first assessment of its biodiversity.

“There's a long way to go if we want to be really making a difference in showing the world that we as a city are doing all we can to protect and nurture our native biodiversity here in Los Angeles,” Barton said.

The UCLA researchers relied on crowdsourced data from apps like iNaturalist, where people can document organisms they see around the city.

In particular, the researchers zeroed-in on “wild areas,” Curti said, places like Griffith Park or the Santa Monica Mountains with large stretches of habitat of native plants that attract “indicator species” like the mule deer to gauge the vibrancy of an environment.

“We're looking at areas where native species tend to be more in wild areas versus urban areas,” Curti said.

But Curti said the team found delightful surprises in places miles away from pristine nature, like the twenty-spotted lady beetle in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium.

“This emphasizes that there is diversity all around us in the city, we just have to look closely,” Curti said.

Curti's work is recently published in the journal, PLOS One, and it's the first of a series of assessments to track progress by the city of L.A. to meet its biodiversity goals.

Curti said the reason why we have pockets of these wildland-associated native species across the city might be due in part to the fact that many Angelenos are invested in creating good habitats in their backyards.

“One really easy way [to draw in native species] would be to plant a native garden,” Curti said.

As a new homeowner, Curti said he and his partner got on the "Kill Your Lawn" train.

“We were really surprised how quickly our yard started to get colonized by all sorts of really interesting wildlife species; birds, for example, or different invertebrates that we see visiting our different plants in our yard,” Curti said.

Ways you can help

The city has published L.A. Biodiversity Guidelines you can follow to make your home, your yard, and your spaces more wildlife friendly.

Other ways to protect wildlife species, Curti recommends, would be reducing outdoor lighting, securing your trash and keeping your cat indoors so it’s not out hunting our native songbird species.

“Earth is experiencing an extinction crisis, that in large part is due to habitat loss. We as Angelenos have a responsibility to help create new habitat in our urban spaces,” Barton said.

Barton also suggests using fencing materials that won’t harm wildlife and avoiding chemical inputs in your yard that can hinder soil health.

“We as a species cannot survive without biodiversity,” Barton said. “So, reversing biodiversity loss is really crucial for all aspects of our lives as we know it — food security, climate stability, public health, and well being. There are many reasons why we should really be protecting and enhancing our biodiversity, especially in cities.”