Author: Eric Edmunds

It has been two months since the trails reopened in the Santa Monica Mountains, in areas managed by State Parks and the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority. We can now begin to see how that is working out.

I’ve laced up my running shoes and hit the most popular trails, from Escondido Falls in Malibu to Elysian and Griffith Parks downtown. I’ve also run and walked on beaches and popular gathering-places like Palisades Park in Santa Monica.

There’s a LOT of people out on the trails. In part that may be because of folks going stir-crazy in their small apartments, perhaps surrounded by numerous family members. It’s also the onset of summer and warm weather, with the magnetic effect the beaches and outdoors have on Southern Californians at this time of year.

For those of us on foot in the mountains, what are we seeing? For one thing, not many face-masks and little social-distancing, although the more considerate folks cover their mouth and nose as they approach you. I’d say one-third to one-half of people on the trails carry a mask or bandana. With runners breathing hard (I myself carry a bandana), and especially with the younger cohort, unfortunately there is much less compliance. And with mountain bikers, almost no compliance. 

It’s certainly a buzz-kill for a hiker on a single-track trail, minding his/her own business, to be suddenly confronted with a shredder bombing straight at you at high speed, with barely time (if you’re lucky) to jump off the trail to save your life as the unmasked rider passes with zero separation distance.

The trails reopened on May 10th. Since then, times have changed at warp speed. Amazingly, face masks and social-distancing are suddenly political issues, red versus blue. Public health officials advocating for caution and conservatism are being harassed, intimidated (in L.A. County), and driven from office (Orange County). Pressure to “reopen” and revert to normalcy is irresistible. Bars and restaurants are tentatively open again.

Sadly, we are now starting to see the results. New cases, hospitalizations and new deaths are surging, especially in aggressive reopening places like Florida, Texas and Arizona. The virus never takes a holiday.

It is true that trails and the outdoors are safer than enclosed bars and restaurants. Fresh air, sunlight, and warm temps inhibit the spread, especially if you are hiking on a wide fire road where you can take evasive action, as opposed to single-track.

The months ahead will tell how all this works out. For me, despite the obstacles and disruptions, it’s a blessing and a privilege to get outdoors and hit the trails.

One final observation: If you see a black stick on the trail, don’t step on it. There’re a lot of rattlesnakes this season.

Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force 

In the past year, the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force of the Sierra Club has been instrumental in saving or fighting for wilderness open space and public access to trails in the Santa Monica Mountains. The threats variously come from proposed development by speculators, and millionaire or billionaire celebrities.

A June 2019 article by Los Angeles Times pundit Steve Lopez described our Task Force as a “David” in the fight against “Goliath.” Sometimes David wins.

That happened last year, when California’s Court of Appeal reversed a trial court ruling (and an earlier ruling by the California Coastal Commission) that allowed the band U2’s guitarist The Edge (David Evans) to grade a massive project in pristine open space in Sweetwater Mesa above Malibu (overlooking the pier) for construction of five mansions for himself and friends. By the end of this ten-year fight, the Task Force was the only player left in the ring, willing to litigate to protect the mountains.

In a surprise upset victory, the Court of Appeal reversed and sent the project back to the drawing board, where The Edge faces a difficult (and, we hope, futile) uphill battle to gain approvals from the County Board of Supervisors.

For now, that exquisite property will remain unscathed, and home to cougars, birds and wildlife — and, hopefully, a tax-incentivized donation to a public agency like the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC).

Elsewhere in the mountains, we are battling Swiss billionaire Nicolas Berggruen, who has launched a proposal to build The Berggruen Center, a massive Getty Center-like “think tank” in the Sepulveda Pass above the 405. This would invade wilderness open space south of Mountaingate, and, more important to us, threaten the Riordan Trail (a hiking trail connecting Mount Saint Mary’s College) down into Bundy Canyon (a beautiful riparian wooded canyon) and climbing up to the Kenter-Canyonback Fire Road in Brentwood. Over ten years ago, we fought the powerful real estate conglomerate Castle & Cooke to secure this easement and trail, later built by and dedicated to the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority (MRCA).

The neighboring Mountaingate Homeowners Association has already filed the first lawsuit to challenge this. The MRCA has signaled its willingness to litigate to protect its public open space conservation easement over nearly 90 percent of Berggruen’s property. The Task Force is watching these developments closely, and is ready to again swing into action if necessary.

The City of Malibu is a sprawling community extending for 28 miles from Santa Monica to Oxnard, where the Santa Monica Mountains meet the sea over hundreds of square miles of rugged open space. Unfortunately, the City, its elected representatives, and local property owners have fought for years to keep the common public out of its trails, campsites, and hiking staging areas. 

A hotly-contested fight is currently underway in the enclave of Sycamore Park, a popular trailhead leading to Escondido Falls — the only year-round waterfall in the Santa Monica Mountains. Certain homeowners have closed off Via Escondido Drive and hired a security guard company to turn away members of the public seeking access to the trailhead. The Malibu Times and its owner Arnold York have begun publishing articles in support of the ban, attacking the MRCA and Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (a state agency). The agencies are battling both the homeowners and the City of Malibu from illegally blocking the public. The Task Force is supporting this fight, now pending in Santa Monica Superior Court, and we’re following developments closely.

On a more encouraging and promising note regarding Malibu, the City just passed one of the strongest bans in the state against the use of highly toxic rodenticides aimed at rats and vermin. As these poisons work their way up the food-chain, through coyotes, bobcats and other carnivores, they reach apex predators like mountain lions — already endangered — who, as a result, are now dying of internal hemorrhaging.

The Task Force wrote to the Malibu City Council, which passed the first-ever ban on these poisons. It’s being challenged in court and in the legislature.

The threats to trails, wilderness open space, and its four-legged denizens are never-ending. In this business there are no “final” victories: new proposals for development or exclusion of the public are continuous. 

The Santa Monica Mountains need all the help they can get, and that is our mission, also unending. Come to one of our meetings to learn more.

Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force