[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 140 (Monday, November 17, 2014)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1598]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      A TRIBUTE TO LEWIS MacADAMS

                                 ______
                                 

                          HON. ADAM B. SCHIFF

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 17, 2014

  Mr. SCHIFF. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Lewis MacAdams, Jr. 
whose life's work and 70th birthday are being celebrated at the Friends 
of Los Angeles River's (FoLAR) Fandango on October 12th, 2014.
   The project that would most define Lewis's extraordinary life, and 
ultimately redefine the landscape of Los Angeles, began in 1985 when he 
co-founded the Friends of Los Angeles River. Lewis says that he asked 
the Los Angeles River if he could speak for it, and the river, in his 
words, ``didn't say no.''
   Lewis has described the revitalization of the Los Angeles River as 
his ``forty-year artwork.'' He began this work with a series of 
community clean-ups, performances and protests. His early efforts 
blossomed into a social movement that has given Los Angeles a renewed 
sense of its own possibility for ecological transformation. Using 
poetry as well as politics, Lewis fought back against projects that 
would have extinguished the last glimmer of life out of the river, 
organizing broad community coalitions and winning the support of 
officials at every level of government.
   Over the past three decades, Lewis's leadership of FoLAR has given 
Angelenos a vision of the river as a 51-mile greenway from the 
mountains to the sea. FoLAR's annual ``La Gran Limpieza'' has drawn 
thousands of volunteers to clean up the river, has trained dozens of 
educators, and has introduced thousands of students to the river's 
existence and ecology. He has led countless ecological studies, vastly 
enriching the region's understanding of the river's abundant and 
diverse habitats. In 2014, FoLAR's vast library of environmental work 
was acquired by the special collections of the University of 
California, Los Angeles (UCLA) archive.
   Most recently, Lewis MacAdams, Jr. helped win the Army Corps of 
Engineers' support for the habitat restoration and redevelopment of the 
Los Angeles River to return it to its pristine state generations ago. 
Without Lewis MacAdams' passion, commitment and drive, the cultural and 
ecological health of the Los Angeles River would be unimaginably 
diminished. In celebration of the FoLAR Fandango, I ask all Members of 
Congress to join me in commending Lewis MacAdams, Jr. for his great 
accomplishments and contributions.

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