Santa Monica Mountains Task Force
of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter
Governor Newsom’s 2022-2023 budget bears some heartening news for local wildlife and its supporters: namely, $10 million allocated for the Liberty Canyon wildlife crossing in Agoura Hills, a vision now quickly marching toward a much-needed reality.
Newly christened in September 2021 as the 101 Freeway Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, the bridge is projected to run 210 feet long and span the entire ten-lane freeway, and construction is set to begin this month.
Sierra Club’s fight for common-sense wildfire safety continues. The California Board of Forestry and Fire Protection is considering drastically weakening State minimum fire safe regulations that have been in place for 30 years. If adopted, these regulations would make it more difficult for communities to evacuate during wildfires and more dangerous for firefighters to access existing, substandard roads.
Sierra Club has been a steadfast advocate for fire-safe communities at the Capitol, and in state agencies. We have called for more funding for defensible space and home hardening. We have supported legislation that would require wildfire safety planning to be incorporated into cities’ general plans. The Sierra Club also adopted a policy of opposing new development in very high fire hazard severity zones.
This month, Sierra Club California joined environmental and community organizations representing millions of members and supporters across California to urge the Board of Forestry not to adopt these harmful regulations. In addition to making it more dangerous to evacuate during emergencies, these harmful regulations could also make it easier to build new residential and commercial development in fire-prone wildland areas — putting more people and firefighters in harm’s way, and increasing economic risk from future fire.
To make matters worse, the board is unlikely to examine any major environmental impacts from these regulations, in violation of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). Without a CEQA analysis, it is much more difficult for the state of California to plan for and avoid environmental consequences.
California wildfires have destroyed countless homes and taken far too many lives, and the climate crisis will only make wildfires more severe in coming years. The state must take steps that make fire-prone communities safer. The proposed regulations would do the opposite.
Join us to fight against these dangerous regulations. Send a message to the Board of Forestry at PublicComments@BOF.ca.gov and tell members to reject the proposed 2021 State minimum fire safe regulations and to complete a CEQA analysis. Click here for a sample email.
Thank you for taking action!
The SMMTF trail crew is back!
National Public Lands Day on September 25th marked our official return, with a special project at Peter Strauss Ranch, which was severely damaged in the 2018 Woolsey Fire and is temporarily closed to the public.
Following a brief project orientation and work safety presentation, we distributed and demonstrated tools before heading out onto the trail in small groups. Volunteers helped to restore the trail tread (surface) with digging tools, and cut back heavily overgrown vegetation and fallen tree limbs with saws, loppers and shears to open up the trail corridor.
Our work to repair this scenic half-mile hiking trail is part of a larger effort by the National Park Service to address the impacts of the fire and restore this historic site to a safe condition, with tentative plans for the park to be reopened to visitors in the coming months.
Among our NPLD volunteers was the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Director, Morgan Goodwin, who blogged about his experience as a trail crew volunteer on the Chapter website.
Special projects aside, our trail crew works on routine upkeep of the trails most Saturday mornings from October through June, and folks are free to come and go from the crew as their availability allows.
Click here to learn more about volunteering with the “Trailies” of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force!
The Twenty-First Century Dams Act is a recently-introduced bill that would invest $21.1 billion to enhance the safety, grid resilience benefits, and power generating capacity of America’s dams, and provide historic funding to remove dams that are no longer necessary.
The Santa Monica Mountains Task Force, along with California Trout and the Surfrider Foundation Los Angeles Chapter, is in favor of passing this bill, and we plan to work to get it passed in congress to secure funds to help remove the Rindge Dam in Malibu Creek State Park.
The Rindge Dam was built in 1926 by the Rindge family, to have access to the Malibu Creek water to irrigate the crops on their ranch. However, the dam was decommissioned in 1960.
Southern California steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) were abundant in the Malibu Creek before the dam was built; consequently, the Rindge Dam prevented the anadromous fish from migrating to the ocean. As a result, the Southern steelhead is now on the endangered species list.
The removal of the Rindge Dam would restore the Malibu Creek ecosystem and possibly bring back the Southern steelhead in the Malibu Creek. However, the construction cost of the dam removal is more than $100 million. Funding has been a big issue holding the project up.
In addition, the removal of the dam will bring back sand to the Malibu Lagoon beach. The dam prevents rock sediment from flowing down to the beaches, resulting in beach erosion, according to Michael Monak, Chair of the Coastal Preservation initiative at the Surfrider Foundation Los Angeles Chapter.
Please write your representative and senator to urge them to vote YES on the Twenty-First Century Dams Act and bring back the ecosystem to Malibu Creek, restoring not just the habitat for the Southern California steelhead trout but also for the western pond turtle, two-striped garter snake, and the Pacific lamprey.
Visit house.gov to find your representative.
The Coastal Commission has been given a new legislative weapon to fight those who would damage coastal environments.
Senate Bill 433 would ensure the Commission’s authority to levy fines for practices destructive to native flora and fauna, such as that of the Great Blue Heron, discussed in this L.A. Times article.
Previously, they could only fine private property owners who restricted access to public coastal areas. Now, those who bulldoze, or tree-trim, better think twice.
The following was sent out by Jonathan Howard, Communications Coordinator for the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter, on October 6th, 2021:
On March 30th, 2021, city planning director Vince Bertoni released a memo removing a large number of land parcels from being included in the Mulholland Design Review Board public process, which has been the single most effective tool for preserving wildlife corridors on speculative development sites for the past thirty years. By taking this action, the Director of Planning has given an immediate free pass to hillside developments which could completely disrupt or block wildlife connectivity for threatened populations such as mountain lion, deer, bobcats and more.
If we reduce protections in this area, we will allow even further irreversible damage to occur. It would only take one ill-planned project to disrupt or block wildlife connectivity completely.
Help us keep up the ongoing momentum for this campaign.
A statewide election to recall Governor Newsom is scheduled for September 14, 2021.
The Sierra Club strongly opposes this recall, and the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force urges you to vote NO on question 1 of your ballot.
You should all be aware that if the recall effort is successful, it could have a devastating impact on the environment here in California and in the Santa Monica Mountains in particular. The Governor has control over appointments and regulations, and a successful recall could significantly impair California’s efforts to address the climate crisis and protect the communities that are feeling its worst of impacts. Not only that, but the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) may well be in jeopardy if the recall is successful. Even the selection of a United Senator would be in the hands of a Governor who is not at all sympathetic to the environmental issues facing California today.
Don’t take the chance of these results befalling our local communities.
This recall election is purely political, with candidates vying for the governorship in what is essentially a power grab. Recalls should be reserved for instances where a public official demonstrates an incapacity to serve or, as with an impeachment subject, commits bribery, treason or other high crimes or misdemeanors.
Ballots have been mailed to every registered voter in the state, so please vote as soon as possible to have your ballot counted by September 14.
Again, the Sierra Club urges you to vote NO on the recall.
Many people in Los Angeles today do not know about Leo Carrillo, though some may remember him as Poncho in the 1950s hit TV show The Cisco Kid.
However, I know Leo Carrillo as an environmentalist who made huge contributions to the Santa Monica Mountains and California during his 18-year tenure as a Commissioner on the California State Beach and Parks Commission.
Leopoldo Antonio Carrillo, known as Leo Carrillo, was a native Californian, born on August 6th,1880. His family moved to Los Angeles when he was a child, and the Santa Monica Mountains became his playground.
In the 1930s, he moved to a 14-acre-ranch with his wife and daughter. Living nearby in the Santa Monica Mountains, with his own family, was Will Rogers. They were close friends.
Will Rogers and Leo Carrillo enjoyed a long friendship that began when they performed in the same Vaudeville show on the New York stage, Rogers as a rope twirler and Carrillo as a monologist at the beginning of their acting careers. According to a memoir by Leo Carrillo, at one time the two shared an apartment in New York they called “The California I Love”. Carrillo and Rogers both branched out into film; as a result, they moved their families from New York to Los Angeles.
“It was remarkable… Will Rogers was building a vast estate where he could rope calves and ride his horses in the hills of Santa Monica close to my own home,” Carrillo wrote in his memoir.
Beginning in 1942, Carrillo served on California’s State Beach and Parks Commission until just before his death in 1961. He was appointed to the position by California State Governor Earl Warren.
Will Rogers died in 1935 in a private airplane accident in Alaska. Roger’s widow Betty inherited the land in the Santa Monica Mountains, which at one time stretched over 300 acres. However, during the Great Depression, it was difficult for her maintain the property without Rogers.
In the 1940s, Betty tried to donate the land to the State of California; however, it was during World War II, and a poor economy. As a result, the state declined her offer.
However, Carrillo’s close ties to Will Roger’s family, and his work on the State Parks Commission, influenced the state of California to accept the land.
In June 1944 just before her death, Betty Rogers deeded 186.5 acres of land to the State of California. The deed was for the establishment and maintenance of a public land, to be known as Will Rogers State Historic Park. It would serve as a place of enjoyment for the public, and a fitting historic monument to Will Rogers.
The next time you visit 1501 Will Rogers State Park Road in Pacific Palisades to go hiking, watch a polo match, or tour the home where Will and Betty Rogers raised their children and entertained celebrities and socialites, remember that Leo Carrillo helped make it possible for all of us to enjoy.
In addition, Carrillo was instrumental in the successful preservation efforts for the Hearst Castle at San Simeon, the Los Angeles Arboretum, as well as the Mexican-style Olvera Street in Los Angeles, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, and several other State Parks in California.
Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy’s highest acquisition priority, Triangle Ranch, is now closer than ever to becoming public parkland. With California budgeting $8 million toward the purchase, the area will, according to a recent social media post by the MRCA, “provide habitat connection between the Liberty Canyon wildlife corridor (including the proposed 101 Freeway wildlife bridge) and the Ladyface Mountain core habitat areas. The property contains a number of rare, threatened and endangered species.”
Here’s the official press release.
In addition, Cal Matters published an edifying article this month that breaks down not only the efforts toward the crossing, but the hard statistics — involving financial loss to drivers and taxpayers, animal death, and other numbers — that highlight the urgent necessity of this project. For perspective, in 2018 alone the cost of vehicle-wildlife collisions to society was $232 million. Over the last four years, it’s estimated at over $1 billion.
As part of Sierra Club National’s sweeping 30×30 Campaign (which arose from A Global Deal For Nature), the Sierra Club of California recently called on every task force to submit their top conservation priorities. We’ve partnered with the Mountains Recreation & Conservation Authority in highlighting the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Crossing. Wendy-Sue Rosen, our representative to the Angeles Chapter Conservation Committee, responded with this detailed report.
The Wall Street Journal published an informative piece on watching for and preventing heatstroke, vital knowledge as we enter an incredibly hot summer, and as the planetary oven dial will continue ratcheting up higher temperatures:
Noteworthy in this article is the focus on humidity, which has been growing in our normally dry Southern Californian midst and which so many of us are not accustomed to. According to the article, even with “unlimited drinking water, full shade and perfect health … when the wet-bulb temperature exceeds 95 degrees Fahrenheit, the body loses its ability to sufficiently cool itself with sweat.”
The article goes on to offer in-the-moment advice on combating heatstroke:
“Someone feeling the effects of heat exhaustion should seek shade or air conditioning, drink cool water, undress and, if needed, take a cool shower. If someone is confused, agitated or having seizures, they should be sprayed or sponged with cool water and fanned until medical help arrives. Over-the-counter drugs meant to control fever, such as aspirin, acetaminophen or ibuprofen, won’t help.”
Please stay safe and cool on the trails.
