LA nonprofit repairs depleted park lands, one ‘test plot' at a time

At the base of a narrow, windy road off Avenue 45 in Mount Washington is a hidden pocket of nature called Rainbow Canyon. It's home to a hearty grove of California black walnut trees, a stream that comes and goes with the rain, chopped-up tree trunks deliberately placed for seating — and since last year, several "test plots" aiming to repair these quiet, damaged acres to vibrancy while taking account of our changing climate and urban environments.

Growing inside these plots are varieties of plants, including hummingbird sage and big saltbush — grouped together for a given experiment and separated by low wood fences.

"Walnuts drop chemicals through their leaf litter into the ground below them to control competition," says Alex Robinson, with L.A. nonprofit Test Plot.

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On a recent afternoon, he's showing me the different plots the nonprofit has put in the ground around the California walnuts.

One of the test plots at Rainbow Canyon.

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Fiona Ng

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Behind the wood fence are test plots that experiment with different native species.

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Fiona Ng

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"So only certain plants are adapted to deal with that — presumably the native plants that grew with the walnut," Robinson says, adding that the answer could be highly site specific. "So we're trying to see which ones grew with the walnut."

Not far away is another plot that tests for fire resilience. The idea is to see which plants can be planted around homes and buildings.

" So we have plants that are very adapted to fire that aren't likely to catch fire," Robinson says.

An evolving experiment

Rainbow Canyon is one of 14 sites — the vast majority of which are in L.A. — that Test Plot has launched in the state. The idea came to co-founders Jenny Jones, a landscape architect, and native plant specialist Max Kanter several years ago.

"They just saw a lot of typical challenges in our urban parks, where the landscape wasn't being cared for and there's a lot of trash and broken infrastructure," says Jennifer Toy, who currently leads Test Plot. " They were just curious — are there ways that we as neighbors can help take care of this land?"

Alex Robinson with Test Plot at Rainbow Canyon.

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Jennifer Toy with Test Plot at Rainbow Canyon.

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Jones and Kanter started the first test plot in Elysian Park in winter 2019. They brought in volunteers and colleagues and experimented with plantings and watched their grasses get destroyed by gophers (lesson learned). Overall, it was a success — people continue to volunteer, and the plants continue to grow.

Soon after, they pulled in Toy, who later brought in Robinson, whom she knew from teaching at USC.

"We just started to brainstorm and to think, 'What would it look like in another neighborhood in L.A.?’" Toy, who now lives in Northern California, says. "Can we do this in a different community in a different site? How would we adapt the process?"

Since Elysian Park, the recently minted nonprofit has launched test plots in many parks in L.A. and beyond — Debs Park in Montecito Hills, La Esquinita near the L.A. River, and in the Bay Area — with plants chosen with the specific ecosystem of each plot in mind.

Volunteers maintain test plots at Debs Park.

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Rio Asch Phoenix

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Courtesy Test Plot

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Aerial view of test plots at Rio de Los Angeles park.

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For example, Robinson cites the work done on Catalina Island, which required added infrastructural considerations.

 "This plot was located on a stream that was feeding into a protected marine sanctuary," he says, which was pumping pollution into the preserve. "We built a series of check dams that would hold back the water and settle out some of those heavy metals."

And at Rainbow Canyon, the discovery of the makeshift stream spurred the planting of riparian natives to take advantage of the natural water source.

In the early days, the organization worked in parks where they already have established connections through partnership organizations, such as at Rio de Los Angeles and Baldwin Hills.

Then slowly, Toy says, people started to hear about Test Plot and its work, like folks from El Sereno working to preserve the more than 100 acres of open space of Elephant Hill.

"[They] were like, 'Can you do this? Can we do this together?’" Toy says, all the while pulling nascent weeds out of the ground.

Test plot at La Esquinita park by the L.A. River.

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Courtesy Test Plot

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Volunteers working on test plots on Catalina Island.

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Nicolas Neumann/USC Wrigley Institute

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Courtesy Test Plot

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'Permission to fail'

Rainbow Canyon in Mount Washington was once ground zero between housing developers, who were eyeing these 30 acres of untouched land, and a neighborhood that rallied to stop them.

In 1991, the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority acquired the land, blocking development. It sat largely unchanged — and untended to — since.

In December last year, Test Plot and its partners worked with a group of students from USC to clean up the weedy and overgrown lots and start planting.

Some 70 volunteers showed up to lend a hand, says Robinson, who helped oversee the project.

"It's a really amazing place to plant. It's all these native soils. It's in this canyon. It's shaded," Robinson says. "[We] timed it  right before the rains."

Test Plot has put out a zine available for purchase on its website about its various plots.

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Inside of the new Test Plot zine.

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Fiona Ng

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Upkeep is constant

Periodically, the group brought volunteers back to tend to the plots. " We hate the term low maintenance," Toy says, because restoration requires constant labor, care, and attention.

"The 'test' in test plot initially was just, ‘Can we plant and keep the plants alive?  Can we start to do restoration work with communities in our public lands? And can we get people to come out and do this on a regular basis?'" Robinson adds. "In some ways the test was, 'Can we inspire a kind of new paradigm of labor on our land?'"

To help expand this work, the group has received a couple of grants recently, including one from the Water Foundation. The next project for Test Plot is to work at the site of the future Puente Hills Regional Park — the former landfill undergoing a multi-million dollar conversion that's slated to open in 2027.

And just like any experiments — Test Plot remains open to new ideas, findings and explorations.

" We have permission to fail. When you talk about urban restoration projects, there's a lot of pressure. There's not a perfect solution," Toy says. "For me, the test is really about just trying to be agile and be fluid ... really just be on the ground constantly, having fun out here."