“How amazing is this! In the middle of L.A.,” exclaimed Melanie Winter, who sat admiring the view from a canoe. “You get a glimpse of what the river was, and what the river could be again.” This oasis, part of the Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area, is one of the few spots where the Los Angeles River isn’t straitjacketed in concrete, allowing it to flow unencumbered through a thriving riparian forest. For Winter, it’s a place that shows the potential to solve multiple problems and improve life in Los Angeles by reimagining the city’s heavily engineered channels to make space for nature along the river. For nearly three decades, Winter has been persistently spreading her alternative vision for the river and the watershed — a vision that includes “unbuilding” where feasible, removing concrete and reactivating stretches of natural floodplains where the river can spread out.