Noon-ish and it feels 100-ish as I get out of the car. But it's cooler by the lake. There are star-burst-shaped shadows beneath the wide, old palm trees, and closer to the water, the temperature drops, especially on the island, where there's a mist breeze from the fountain. Not that I'm dying to be sprayed with the water from Echo Park Lake. You only have to look at it, not to mention know that storm water drains from the city system into this watershed in the middle of the city.

I have come here to see a bit of wire fencing that I've heard about from Martin Cox* (and also to give my dog, Rosie, a walk, which will have to be brief because of the heat). Martin says a city employee has taken it upon himself to plant a few lotus in the place where there were none. So Rosie and I say hello to the geese and ducks and a few year-round coots (most summer elsewhere), and then we get to the fencing. There it is in the northwest finger of the lake, where the lotus are supposed to be. Right now it's a water cage. There's no explanation about the fence, and nothing grows out of it.

So we go hunting an explanation. Dave Foster, who knows more about Echo Park Lake than anyone on Earth, is working with his crew on the island. He's here pretty much every day, and he loves to talk about the lake -- the water, the birds, the plants. Dave says that Steve Moe, of Rec and Parks is conducting a study of water quality in L.A. watersheds, and he saw the lotus were gone. So he went to an Asian market and bought some lotus bulbs that were intended for table. He planted about four of them in the lake and surrounded them with fencing, to keep out turtles and ducks who might nibble the plants.

Now, it's wait and watch grow. So maybe we'll have four starters in time for the Lotus Fest in July. Elsewhere in the park, prep is underway. Today palms are being trimmed, and the fronds fished out of the water. On the island, Dave points to two trees where there are four great heron nests. It takes a while and a fair amount of squinting, but finally I can see two long beaks, heron parents sitting in the nest. Their kids -- Dave calls all of the duckling, goslings, chicks etc. "kids" -- start commoting with lively cries of "chuck chuck chuck." Dave shows me two sets of teeny ducklings, with their mothers and one brood of coots, which is unusual. Coots rarely nest here, but there's a group of three babies and their parents by the edge of the lake.

Dave knows all of the families on the lake, which ducks and geese are the best parents in terms of raising their kids to adulthood. There is one mallard mother, whom he seems to admire. She succesfully raised ten out of twelve ducklings this year. She's a smart one, he says. She has a strategy for herding the ducklings against the hard edge of the lake when predatory seagulls get near. And she nests in a good spot and seems to keep clear of most duck society.

Dave has heard a credible theory about what happened to the lotus. Many now believe that heavy metals from storm water runoff have accumulated in a kind of sludge at the bottom of the lake, poisoning the plants. It's not the good icky slime that lotus love, but a kind of very fine silt that's full of metals.

But there's good news, Dave thinks. He's very enthusiastic about the cleanup project -- in which the lake will be drained and cleaned, and, hopefully, beneficial grasses and other plants installed, the hard edge of the lake replaced with a soft one, and most important, the lake removed from the sewer drain system of the city. So, instead of having a storm basin, we could have an actual thriving watershed. In this scenario, the water quality would be better. It could be a showcase for healthier, green lake management in a dense urban environment. Cool. Here's to it unfolding that way.

Click here for information on a nonprofit T-shirt effort by Martin Cox to raise money to benefit lotus study, replanting and awareness.

Photo by Martin Cox (c) 2008
Artist in Residence Annie Shaw asks, "What happened to the Lotus?"