Just south of the Santa Monica Mountain range lie Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook and the Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, city gems long hidden in plain sight. Beginning in 1998, our trail crew built the first of what became eight miles of hiking trails snaking across this urban park, casually considered a kind of a hiker’s “warm up” to the Santa Monicas. One of Kenneth Hahn’s especially popular trails, “Ron’s Trail,” was dedicated by County Supervisors to honor the trail crew founder, Ron Webster. Today, the crew continues its trail maintenance at the park, and participates there every January in the Martin Luther King Day of Service.
Several of our trails connect with the Park to Playa Trail, a 13-mile route newly-completed now with the bridge over La Cienega Boulevard that links Kenneth Hahn to the Stoneview Nature Center, Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook and the Ballona Creek bike path. One can now strap on their hiking shoes at the corner of South La Brea Avenue and Don Lorenzo Drive and walk in peace all the way to the ocean.
Thus, we’re happy to report that the Baldwin Hills Conservancy recently granted North East Trees — a program dedicated to “greening up” urbanized areas — over a million dollars to implement what’s known as the Five Points Habitat Restoration Project. In a letter of support to the Baldwin Hills Conservancy, our vice-chair Bill Vanderberg cites, the project will “aim to restore native habitat along the Park to Playa Trail, bolster the ecosystem of the Ballona Creek watershed, improve water quality and storage, provide conservation benefits for people and wildlife, increase climate resiliency, and provide jobs skills training for local at-promise youth through the restoration of native ecosystems.”