San Gabriel River

What had been for the last six months a vibrant stream teeming with migrating waterfowls and shorebirds early last week became a dry San Gabriel River channel where vultures gorged themselves on ducklings that died when the flows dried up.

A rehabilitated green sea turtle the size of a manhole cover was set free in the San Gabriel River on Thursday after two months of intensive veterinary care at the Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach. Aquarium veterinarian Lance Adams grabbed the two ends of the 44-pound reptile's mossy carapace and let it go in the murky water under the East Second Street bridge south of the 405 Freeway, silently urging it on.

ON a bright afternoon, about two dozen people gathered on a bend overlooking the San Gabriel River. The idyllic sounds of birds and flowing water mixed with the low growl of gas-powered suction dredges. Clusters of men (and one or two women) crouched in the water with vacuum hoses, circular pans and sluice boards. Their goal -- in some cases, their obsession -- was the same. "The gold looks so good underwater," gushed Coel Schumacher, a 19-year-old junior at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

A man was found dead Sunday in the bed of the San Gabriel River near the 60 Freeway, and the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department asked the public for information about the death. The man, who was not identified, suffered blunt force trauma to his upper body, authorities said. Homicide investigators can be reached at (323) 890-5500. -- David Zahniser

WORK, as the bumper sticker says, is for people who don't know how to fish. So why was I trying to have it both ways? Here I was, hiking along the West Fork of the San Gabriel River, dressed in my newly purchased chest-high waders and boots, fishing rod in hand, in pursuit of a fish and a story. "OHHHHHH, MAN!" That's Darrell Kunitomi. He's roaring at the broad vein of water shooting through the carved canyon. The river, he told me, hadn't flowed this fast in decades.

A man died Tuesday after floating down the fast-moving San Gabriel River in an inner tube, officials said. The 25-year-old man, who was not immediately identified, was found face-down in the river shortly before 1 p.m., said Brendon Peart, a Los Angeles County fire dispatch supervisor. The man died on his way to a hospital. The cause of death had not been determined. Another man who was found clinging to brush in the swift current was transported to a hospital. His condition was unknown.

A hundred or so barren acres alongside the San Gabriel River in Pico Rivera are often dry and dusty, but to the Sierra Club they are original L.A., remnants of a native California that deserve to be preserved. Pico Rivera city officials, however, envision the bright green of an 18-hole championship golf course where residents can play an affordable game.

The House of Representatives unanimously passed a bill Wednesday authorizing the study of how to preserve the natural banks of the San Gabriel River watershed for recreation. Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-El Monte) is seeking to turn the river's watershed (roughly the riverbank lands north of Santa Fe Springs through Pico Rivera, El Monte, Monrovia and up to the San Gabriel Mountains) into an urban park area. Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced a companion bill in the Senate earlier this week.

Re "Conservancy Would Be Good for Santa Ana River; Highway Won't Be," April 20: Fountain Valley City Councilman Gus Ayer has reasonable concerns about extending the Orange Freeway along the Santa Ana River. The costs and consequences must be carefully weighed, especially to those cities along the route. One thing is certain: The extension would provide enormous relief from traffic congestion in central Orange County. Using the existing river corridor, it would require no land acquisition or eminent domain.