Nature Notes is BACK: Dedicated to Bill Rosendahl

Nine years ago Bill Rosendahl came to my 50th birthday party.   I guess that means I’m 59 now, but I thought I’d just turned 58.  It’s not as easy to track the years as it once was, especially as, with aging wisdom, I’ve learned to focus more on the moments at hand than looking forward or backward.  

I really got to know Bill during the year before he got elected to the Los Angeles City Council, and he’s just finished serving two four year terms.   And 8+1=9.  So, 59 it is.

I’d met Bill before once – maybe 3 or 4 years prior to the birthday party.  That first meeting was on the occasion of an interview for his well-known public affairs cable television show where we discussed saving the Ballona Wetlands from the Playa Vista development.  Former California Assemblymember Richard Katz was also on the program, and I was happy to see him there, as he was working behind the scenes to help us – first with then-Assembly Speaker Antonio Villaraigosa and, at the time of the television appearance, with then-Governor Gray Davis in ultimately helping us acquire 640+ acres of land for the public benefit of wildlife protection.  Soon so much more of Ballona would be saved than the prevailing thinking in the mid-‘90s had allowed, and we would have an ecological reserve for the wildlife and an outdoor classroom for the many residents and visitors who had advocated for its preservation.

But this time, at the birthday party, Bill was focused on getting to know me – being brought by my friend and supporter, Loretta Ditlow.   She drove with him all the way up the steep mountain to my home at the time, high atop Piuma Ridge, overlooking Malibu Lagoon from the highest location possible ~ unless you are a cloud, a jet or a Condor.  

Loretta knew I was moving to Playa del Rey – a beach village on the Los Angeles coast - in a few weeks, and she urged Bill to come with her – so we both could benefit from the introduction.   Bill brought me eggs from his backyard chickens, a gesture that he soon became famous for at City Hall.

While I was interested in the politics of who might be my future city council representative, and more importantly who might have the Ballona Wetlands to reign over, I had no idea of the amazing, cherished friendship and bond we would ultimately form.

During these nine years, I was astonished to learn that a City Council representative from one of the largest cities in the country could learn to imitate one of my favorite birds, the White-tailed Kite.   The Kite requires plenty of prairie grassland to hunt small mammals in, and it is one of the pure pleasures of living near the Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve – seeing this gorgeous bird with the interesting gray and black markings on its mostly white-feathered body hover-hunting over the grassy fields.  

Bill first showed off this kiting display at his election victory celebration in 2005 – demonstrating his joyous love for nature to hundreds of guests and supporters – including the future Mayor, Eric Garcetti, who I remember having a discussion with that evening about how he could help us protect the Ballona Wetlands now that Bill was on the City Council.  Eric was happy another nature lover would be joining him on the council.

At least two other public occasions invited the spirit of the White-tailed Kite to enter Bill’s body for such displays.  One of these memorable times was in the City Council chambers when we were present to celebrate the 5th anniversary of the State acquisition of the 640+ acres of the Ballona Wetlands.   The City Council helped celebrate because more than 100 acres of Ballona was already in city hands, and we had begun working with Bill’s office and then Mayor Villaraigosa’s office on a community-engaged restoration of some of those lands in Venice on the Marina peninsula – at what is known as Ballona Wetlands Grand Canal Lagoon.   Playa Vista was mostly behind us, and we were gathering to express our appreciation for the public treasure we all now were appreciating on our L.A. coast.   Bill’s flapping wings must have startled some of his colleagues, but by then these others at City Hall realized that Bill had brought an out-of-the-box method for communicating his concerns, and such expressions had started to loosen up the previously staid atmosphere in the chambers.

Another gift to the community that Bill’s friendship has brought has been our collaboration at Ballona Institute with a couple of LAUSD schools where we grow native plants for restoration of community natural areas.   Bill has inspired us to dream big and to not be afraid of forging community relationships that help nurture our human connections with nature.  Part of that program is teaching community members about growing native plants, which in turn help to save water, save energy and save money!  (more about this in future columns.)

When Bill was first running for office he was generous with his time and spirit, eagerly wanting to know about every community issue we cared about.  A nature lover to the core, he focused on every word and story during Roy van de Hoek’s nature walks, and he would show up on these walks “just to get his own soul nourished,” he told us.

So – this Nature Notes column – re-started after a too-long hiatus – is dedicated to Bill Rosendahl, and to YOU, the reader, for whom Bill Rosendahl’s example of nourishing his soul by connecting with nature can be a guide.  

Get out from behind your computer.  Check in with nature – whether it’s in your backyard, at a local park or wildlife area, on a trail in the Santa Monica Mountains, or surrounded by the sandy beach and our nearby Pacific Ocean, places all too often taken for granted by the majority of those millions of us living in such close proximity.    You might see a White-tailed Kite or some other local species of bird, plant, crab or spider ~ and that species can inform and teach you something today.   At least it will help get your “own soul nourished.”  

Thank you, Bill Rosendahl, for your example, your teaching, your leadership, your service, your friendship.

© 2013, Marcia Hanscom & Ballona Institute