The Los Angeles River is one of the city’s more dubious landmarks. In the late 1930s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers poured cement there to limit the risk of flooding. In doing so, they also erased any clues to the river’s previous life.
Efforts are now underway to restore a portion of the river and create a recreational area around it; a key goal is to reintroduce a freshwater marsh habitat. The marsh will support increased populations of wildlife and connect the region to nearby ecological zones, such as the Santa Monica Mountains. The question now is: What should that habitat include in order to thrive?
Enter Bruin Jessie George Ph.D. ’22. For years, George, who received her doctorate in geography last December, has been studying the plant fossils at La Brea Tar Pits. Just 8 miles west of the L.A. River, the tar pits are famous for their Ice Age fossil megafauna. Remains of mammals there have been thoroughly researched since 1906, but George is among the first to study the site’s ancient vegetation. To her, the fossils are a window into what thrived in the region’s past — and might flourish again. “I was always inspired by questions about how we got here,” she says, “how we were shaped by our environment, and how we shaped our environment in return.”
Now George has joined with The Nature Conservancy and a group of other researchers and scientists to see how the paleo vegetation data she’s gathered can be applied to inform new plantings in the river’s habitat. What survived earlier in climate conditions similar to those of today? What will attract the desired wildlife? “We can see what was here, [and] when,” George says, “and possibly what they were responding to if they disappeared.”
To her mentor and doctoral adviser, Glen MacDonald, George’s quest is what scientific discovery is all about. “Jessie has given new insight into the environment the famous fossils — the mammals — lived in, what vegetation they utilized,” says MacDonald, the UCLA John Muir Memorial Professor of Geography. “Her records show how sensitive some of the plant species are to climate change. And that information can be invaluable going forward.”
Read more from UCLA Magazine’s Summer 2023 issue.
