On a hot August afternoon, Elva Yañez sat behind a laptop inside her El Sereno home, which looks out to the hillside she and community-led organization Save Elephant Hill have spent the last 21 years protecting from luxury developments, unauthorized off-roading, and illegal dumping.
Her face grew serious as she reviewed dozens of photos and videos documenting the latest battle: A land owner named Lin Hin Hoo chopped down a protected Mexican elderberry tree and damaged a Southern California black walnut tree and a dozen coffeeberry shrubs to build a truck garden, a tax-incentivized small-scale urban farm traditionally used to grow produce for local markets and restaurants.