Background

The Los Angeles River Watershed Monitoring Program (LARWMP) was developed in 2007 by a group of stakeholders representing major permittees, regulatory and management agencies, and conservation groups. At the time, the majority of monitoring efforts were focused on compliance monitoring, presenting an opportunity to better coordinate ongoing monitoring efforts and promote collaboration between stakeholders of the Los Angeles River.

Prior to the establishment of the LARWMP, little was known about the baseline condition of streams throughout the Los Angeles River watershed. The LARWMP was conceived as a watershed-scale effort to improve the cost-effectiveness, standardization, and coordination of various monitoring efforts in the Los Angeles region. This collaborative approach provides a framework for comprehensive, periodic assessments of watershed health, and creates opportunities to align monitoring efforts with management and public priorities.

Program

The Los Angeles River watershed is a complex system that fulfills the Los Angeles region's need for flood management, recreation, and natural habitat. We envision the Los Angeles River watershed as a more sustainable system that better ties ecological health to community

well-being. To provide a better understanding of the health of Los Angeles River watershed as an integrated system and how it is changing, the LARWMP generates annual monitoring data. Yearly monitoring efforts culminate in an annual report.