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In August 2012, Governor Brown signed a bill that “fundamentally establishes that in the eyes of the State of California, the Los Angeles River is a river, not just a flood control channel; and must be treated that way by Los Angeles County.” That’s after years of effort by Louis McAdams, his Friends of the Los Angeles River and others, including George Wolfe who kayaked all 51 miles of the flood control channel in 2008 to help establish the river as "navigable"; and his wife, Thea Mercouffer, who spent the next four years documenting negotiations with the Army Corps of Engineers and later the EPA. That resulted in a documentary film called, “Rock the Boat: Saving America’s Wildest River.”