Friends of Cottonwood Canyon

As AFC raised money to acquire Cottonwood, we formed a Friends of Cottonwood Canyon group to steward the property and help create educational programs.  Students from Pasadena schools such as Flintridge Sacred Heart, Polytechnic and Westridge did restoration work on the property. Esteban Torres High School students from East LA visited as part of a partnership with Outward Bound Adventures.  Girl Scout Troop 2041 created a short film to spread awareness of the canyon and showed it at local schools. In the summer of 2017 girls from Flintridge Sacred Heart’s AP environmental science class organized a fundraiser fair for canyon restoration on their campus on the ridge above Cottonwood Canyon. The fair featured arts and crafts for sale, educational booths and yoga classes.

The Friends of Cottonwood Canyon remain concerned that erosion from the Yocum Spring outlet on the hiking and running trail where the canyon ends at Brookside Golf Course on the Arroyo Seco floor has led to at least 100 yards of substantial trail deterioration. A committee met to explore solutions, with possibilities including a terracotta pipe to run the water through, or a wooden bridge over the small stream to allow its walls to remain intact. It’s been several years since the “No Bicycles” sign at the trailhead was removed — not by the city — and mountain bikes are taking down the dirt berm whenever it is rebuilt. A restoration on the Arroyo floor could be part of another possible project: Daylighting the Yocum Spring stream farther east toward Linda Vista Avenue in the main flat canyon area just west of that street.

The Friends also will work toward propping up the old pre-chain link wire fence along the street. In keeping with our laissez-faire philosophy, though: Not too much.

Larry Wilson
Friends of Cottonwood