of the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter
SAVE THE DATE – Saturday 3/15, the Sierra Club crew will be joining with CA State Parks and Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council crew leaders to begin post-fire trail restoration work on the north side of Topanga State Park.
More information will follow next week. Subscribe to our mailing list for timely announcements.
The trail damage assessments at Topanga SP and Will Rogers SHP following the Palisades Fire are nearly complete.
In a brief update last week, Jason Finlay, trails coordinator for State Parks, told us they had found “no major problems” such as slope failures or damage to structures on many of the impacted trails — including Leacock, Bienveneda, and the upper Temescal area. If the rain this week doesn’t exacerbate their condition, some trails, he postulated, could be reopened “relatively quickly” — as it should simply be a matter of clearing rockfall, removing slough, and re-exposing the trail tread, then building dips and drains to control water.
He also noted that once the assessments are finished, one of his team’s next priorities will be to start clearing some of the most popular State Park trails that are currently closed to the public, beginning with Los Liones Trail, and lower Will Rogers including Betty Rogers Trail and all the little trails within the historic zone.
There are a few spots, however, which Jason says “unfortunately aren’t going to reopen any time soon”. Temescal Canyon, in particular, was much worse than they had hoped to find it. He talked of major slope failures, and giant piles of landslide material. Active landslides were happening around them while they were logging damages in the canyon last Wednesday in the rain.
We recommend following the Angeles District of California State Parks on Instagram (@angelesstateparks), as well as the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (@mrcaparks), for timely announcements regarding trail re-opening dates and extended closures.
Next week, park staff will meet with the volunteer crew leaders to go over their findings, and I expect to begin scheduling volunteer activities very soon after. Not only on the burned and bulldozered State Park trails, but also those administered by MRCA and other agencies, as well as the trails unaffected by the fire — which still need to be maintained! We will have a lot to do. Stay tuned!
• • •
In the meantime, here are some other key dates for your calendar:
Next meeting of the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force
Tuesday, March 4th, 7:00 pm
All are welcome! Call in to learn about the past, present, and possible future environmental threats faced by the Santa Monica Mountains, and discover ways to support our ongoing mission to preserve and protect them. Meetings are bi-monthly. Those who cannot join us in person will be able to participate via Zoom.
Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days
Fri-Sun, April 4th-6th
Trail Days is a beloved, free-to-attend, annual celebration of our local trails and parkland, held in Point Mugu State Park every April, and now in its 42nd year. Come out for just the day (Sat/Sun) to help maintain the trails — all within Pt Mugu, so no recent fire damage — or bring your camping gear and stay through the weekend. Volunteers can look forward to a complimentary BBQ dinner on Saturday night, a jumbo prize raffle generously sponsored by community members, and much more.
California State Parks Week / crew lunch party
Saturday, June 14th, 8:30 am
“Intro to Trail Maintenance” special event in celebration of California State Parks Week, followed by our crew’s traditional end-of-season lunch party.
Upcoming Outings with the Tuesday Moderate Hikers
2/25: Tapia Spur Trail to Malibu Creek State Park
3/4: Stunt Rd to Red Rock Canyon
3/11: Solstice Canyon/Deer Valley Loop
3/18: Stunt High Trail to Saddle Peak
3/25: Malibu Creek State Park to King Gillette Ranch
New hikes are regularly added to our Schedule of Activities. We typically have 10-20 people on each hike, everyone there to enjoy the outdoors and be with like-minded people.
Weekly outings with the Tuesday Moderate Hikers (TMH) are usually about 8 miles in length with close to 1,000 ft gain, and tend to end in the early afternoon.
Upcoming Outings with the Tuesday Conditioned Hikers
2/18: Piuma to Saddle Peak
2/25: Zuma Canyon Loop
The conditioned (TCH) hikes, also taking place every Tuesday, are typically longer and more strenuous, usually about 12 miles with about 2,000 ft gain.
-Rachel G.
On Thursday night, I attended a meeting with several other stewards of the Santa Monica Mountains lands and trails including Jason Finlay, the trails coordinator for California State Parks Angeles District. Subsequently I want to provide our volunteers and supporters with an update, which includes a great deal of information from Jason.
I also want to take this opportunity to welcome the many new people who signed up to our trail crew mailing list in these last few weeks, as well as those who reached out by phone or email to ask how they can help. We’re very grateful to have you.
Last week, as the fire agencies were still actively fighting the Palisades Fire, California State Parks brought in approximately 35 Resource Advisors (READS) from across the state. The READS work with incident command during the firefight to identify avoidance areas — for example, cultural sites, riparian zones, and areas with protected plants — and then, as containment grows, they shift to suppression repair.
State Parks has a developed fire suppression repair plan with CAL FIRE, which has already been used in the Santa Monica Mountains after earlier fires. Jason’s role during the incident has been to communicate the specific needs of the Santa Monica Mountains’ trails and roads between the various groups involved, and to get us set up as best as he can in the long-term for restoration of the State Parks trail network and surrounding habitat.
As the Palisades burned, the fire agencies were doing all they could to prevent the fire from progressing to Mandeville Canyon or the Valley — at one point, there were 60+ bulldozers on the incident, urgently pushing aside vegetation so the wall of advancing flames would meet only bare dirt.
The suppression repair agencies that come in behind the firefighters don’t do any trail re-building — or more accurately, there is no obligation of CAL FIRE to repair trail — mainly, they work with gigantic excavators and bulldozers to repair the many dozer lines that were cut during suppression, and put in water bars and other topographic structures to break up flow of rainwater. The heavy machinery operators had extra challenges to navigate where dozer lines intersected trails, ie. where our crews will eventually rebuild the trail with hand-tools.
Still, they were able to get a good amount of trail alignment “roughed back in”. Friday was the last day of suppression repair using heavy equipment; those teams have now demobilized and the equipment has left the park. Hand crews were still out working today, and as of this evening suppression repair has been completed.
Jason confirmed that “pretty much all of Topanga ” and Will Rogers SHP trails burned, as well as some small sections of Malibu Creek SP, along the Backbone Trail on Fossil Ridge and above Monte Nido. Many MRCA and other agencies’ trails were also damaged.
Almost all of the trails in Friday’s L.A. Times article, These 28 hiking trails burned in the Palisades fire, were built by Ron Webster and his Sierra Club volunteer crew.
Topanga SP trails NOT in the burn area include Dead Horse, most of Musch, Hondo, half of Garapito, a stretch of the BBT adjacent to the elementary school, and Musch Meadows.
On Musch Trail, we learned there is a bad dozer line through sections of the trail just outside of Musch Camp on the approach from Eagle Rock, and through a couple of creek crossings. On Saddle Peak Trail, the dozers went through about 20 switchbacks, right down the middle. These will be particularly difficult, and take a great deal of work, to restore.
We lost the Chicken Ridge Bridge on the Backbone Trail above Will Rogers. This is an important link on the BBT, and will be the biggest single reconstruction effort for State Parks.
All the Rustic Canyon bridges burned through.
The bridge on Temescal Canyon Trail by the waterfall is also gone. In an uplifting email exchange I had with long-time Sierra Club crew member Noel Bell, he recalled the previous time the bridge here burned (and being part of the volunteer crew who installed the replacement).
Three former roads that had been trails prior to the fire were bulldozed, either for access or as fire breaks. Jason told us that Chaney Fire Rd, Henry Ridge Mtwy, and Farmers Ridge Fire Rd are now “three lane highways”. Since then, they have all had equipment working to restore their pre-fire footprints.
The access roads in Topanga SP were “highly impacted”. Jason said the crews did an excellent job of putting them back together, and the repair has left those roads in fairly good shape after a lot of work; however, with the newly denuded slopes, and potential added erosion from intersecting dozer lines, he expects critical failures at a lot of points, and even the loss of some roads if we get significant rainfall this winter. They will be racing to shore up what they can. His greatest concern for the roads is the saddle between Bent Arrow Trail and Garapito Trail.
We will have to reroute the entrance of Garapito Trail — something we were already looking into before the fire — as there has been significant change to the whole contour of that area.
During a pause in his cataloguing of the additional damages, Jason said:
“I’m really thankful for Ron Webster right now, and the “lightly on the land” ethos, because we don’t have a lot of [man-made] structures in these areas. That’s one of the big positives I’ve been taking away. These trails are laid out with minimal structure, and it’s really going to be a lot easier to repair because of that.”
To our surprise and relief, Ron and Mary Ann’s memorial bench on the Rivas connector between Topanga and Will Rogers survived the fire. MRCA ranger Fernando Gomez sent us a few pictures.
The next step for State Parks is to complete detailed assessments: logging the trails, getting a better idea of hazards, identifying the specific repairs that will be needed to start reopening trails, as well as estimating the costs — this is a FEMA event for the parks as well. They are starting with the most popular trails including Temescal Ridge and Los Liones. Jason noted that it’s still physically very difficult to hike into these areas to do the assessments, because there is 12-18″ of slough covering every trail, and he will send out staff crews to start clearing some of the debris ahead of the folks doing the assessments.
For the most part, the subsequent work is going to be a lot of clearing up rocks and slough. Most of the vegetation is completely burned out. There are not a lot of downed trees or things like that. More time will be needed to scope repairs to structures like bridges and retaining walls, which our volunteer crew will also assist with when the time comes.
One concern we have for the crews is working in all the ash, and the possibility of dangerous particulates. Hopefully we will get a little bit of rain (but not too much) to help everything settle down and then, with appropriate precautions, we can start tackling the work.
Sierra Club, Trails Council and CORBA trail crew leaders will be meeting with State Parks again next week, to go over their early findings and begin scheduling some volunteer work days. I’m told we might be able to start restoration work in early February.
I will share more information as it becomes available.
-Rachel G.
Whether you’re a hiker, biker, picnicker or sightseer, we all value the beautiful shared spaces of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Through trail maintenance and vigilant activism, the Sierra Club’s Santa Monica Mountains Task Force is intimately involved in the preservation of these spaces, and on this Giving Tuesday, we’re seeking donations.
The money will help us with resources involved in trail maintenance, building awareness, and various other initiatives to preserve the mountains.
Every donation helps. Thank you!
We are in urgent need of more helpers for our outreach efforts at CicLAvia—The Valley on Sunday, December 8th, where we will be co-hosting an info booth with the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council volunteer trail crew. No experience is required.
We have a great opportunity here to connect with the people who use the Santa Monica Mountains trails for recreation, and to let them know of the significance of the Sierra Club and Trails Council volunteer trail crews.
However, in order for our organizations to participate, we need enough volunteers confirmed by Tuesday, November 26th.
Two kinds of volunteering opportunities are available: assisting with traffic control, or staffing our booth to talk about volunteering on the trails.
Shifts:
8:30am – 11:30am (3 hrs)
11:00am – 2:00pm (3 hrs)
1:30pm – 3:30pm (2 hrs)
All volunteers will be provided lunch.
Using provided shirts and signs, volunteers will be supporting traffic control at vehicle crossing points by slowing / stopping participants, so that vehicles may cross at appropriate times. Don’t worry about the vehicles — traffic officers will handle all motorists, and any related issues. There will also be barriers and signs on the route to slow vehicle traffic.
In addition, volunteers will be providing directions to the participants, and answering route-related questions. A brief training orientation will be provided.
This particular job is very important, as our booth presence depends on us being able to provide volunteer traffic controllers.
The second opportunity will be staffing our pop-up booth, offering information to folks who might be curious about the Sierra Club and Trails Council volunteer trail crews.
This is for everyone of all experience levels, from those who’ve been working trails for years to those who just recently joined us.
Please contact either of us to sign up for a shift, or if you have questions:
Rachel Glegg – Sierra Club
(310) 985-2826
rachel.dorman@gmail.com
Robert Bittner – Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council
(310) 941-9459
rsdinc86@gmail.com
Thank you!
In cooperation with the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council, we’re proud to announce our presence at CicLAvia along Ventura Blvd on Sunday, December 8th, 2024.
CicLAvia is a festive cycling event that occurs nine times every year, across the Los Angeles basin. Five or so miles of contiguous roadway are blocked off to vehicle traffic, allowing the public to enjoy unimpeded movement along the route.
Along the way, riders will find pop-up booths featuring everything from food venues to shops to information on local government and various non-profits — including one for your local volunteer trail crews!
We’ll be working two jobs, and need volunteers for three 2- or 3-hour shifts for each. Robert Bittner is coordinating the joint outreach program, and will be on site all day.
All volunteers will be provided with lunch.
The first job will be to support law enforcement traffic control at one of six vehicle crossing points. Wearing brightly colored shirts, the goal of our volunteers is to ensure participants’ safety at intersections by supporting California Conservation Corps: encouraging people to slow down and stop, providing directions, and answering route-related questions.
The second job will be to staff our pop-up booth, where folks can learn about the Sierra Club and Trails Council volunteer trail crews.
The hours:
Vehicle crossing:
5 people: 8:30am – 11:30am
5 people: 11:00am – 2:00pm
5 people: 1:30pm – 3:30pm
Information pop-up:
5 people: 8:30am – 11:30am
5 people: 11:00am – 2:00pm
5 people: 1:30pm – 3:30pm
The first and third shifts will assist in set up and tear down. All vehicle crossing volunteers will be provided with event t-shirts. Parking and directions will be provided once we are assigned a location.
Please contact Robert to sign up for a shift or ask further questions. Call (310) 941-9459, or email rsdinc86@gmail.com.
You can also visit ciclavia.org for more information.
National Public Lands Day (NPLD) is the nation’s largest single-day volunteer effort for public lands.
Held on the fourth Saturday in September each year, NPLD fosters a strong connection between people and the environment, educating and cultivating environmental stewards.
From trail maintenance to tree planting, beach clean-ups to forest bathing, and more, volunteers of all ages and abilities will roll up their sleeves and join forces for a common goal: stewarding America’s natural resources for future generations to enjoy.
Thanks to the members of community-driven environmental groups like Sierra Club, and with support from federal and state agencies, this event ensures resilient natural spaces for generations to come, encouraging volunteering and environmental engagement.
The Santa Monica Mountains Task Force is hosting an “Intro to Trail Maintenance” event in Topanga State Park on Saturday (9/28) in celebration of NPLD 2024.
https://act.sierraclub.org/events/details?formcampaignid=7013q0000029bZlAAI&mapLinkHref=
The Dead Horse Trail was designed and constructed by Sierra Club volunteers — ie. our very own Ron Webster and his Trailies — in 1980. You are invited to join the crew for a “taste” of our regular Saturday events, as we carry out routine maintenance and minor repairs. We will have complimentary coffee and donuts at the trailhead, starting from 8:00 am (the volunteer activity begins at 8:30 am). For more information contact the Volunteer Coordinator, Rachel Glegg, at smmtaskforce@gmail.com.
Additionally, there will be a Sierra Club information booth at the Dead Horse parking lot throughout the morning, where folks can drop by to learn about the many fantastic recreational and stewardship opportunities taking place in the Santa Monica Mountains with Sierra Club Angeles Chapter.
Hope to see you there!
Discover how you can get involved in efforts to protect and steward California’s State Parks as a volunteer with the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force of the Sierra Club!
Join us on Sunday, June 16th for a special “Intro to Trail Maintenance” event in Topanga State Park, taking place during the third annual CA State Parks Week, arranged in partnership with the California State Parks Foundation.
We’ll be cleaning up trails at Trippet Ranch from 8:30 am until about 12:30 pm, and then head down to the oak-shaded picnic area outside the skeet lodge (near the Trippet parking lot) for lunch. The work will include vegetation clearance, removal of invasive plants, and minor trail tread repairs. Participants will receive a complimentary lunch and a free t-shirt.
We are grateful for the Foundation’s generous financial support, providing us with funding for new tools and equipment, volunteer appreciation gifts, and refreshments for our event on Sunday.
Registration is required.
Between June 12th and 16th, there will be a range of engaging activities, educational programs, and memorable events across the state. Below we’ve highlighted some of the other activities that will be taking place in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area during CA State Parks Week (please note that, with the exception of Sun 6/16, these are not Sierra Club events).
From epic beach days to the magic of ancient redwood forests, there is so much to see, do, and experience in California’s incredible 280 state parks. We encourage everyone to visit a state park and try something new. Interested in camping? Many parks and beaches offer beautiful campgrounds with amenities for first time campers. How about an interpretive hike to learn about your local history or adventures like surfing, boating, or offroading? California State Parks Week is your invitation to explore an activity that you just might fall in love with.
Wednesday, June 12th
5:30 pm to 7:30 pm
The Secrets of the Oak Woodlands – Guided Hike at Malibu Creek State Park
More information
There’s a reason why playing outside, having a barbecue or picnic, or taking a walk in the open air feels so good. Studies have shown that time in nature can boost people’s physical, mental, and emotional well-being. Everyone should have access to these benefits. California’s state parks give us all places where we can find refuge, inspiration, and joy. When we connect with nature, we are connecting with ourselves and boosting our overall health.
Thursday, June 13th
6:30 pm to 8:00 pm
Sunset Yoga at the Adamson House
More information
Did you know that forests, oceans, grasslands, and other ecosystems throughout California’s public lands store huge amounts of carbon, making them some of the world’s most powerful tools in adapting to climate change? That’s one of the reasons why it’s critical that all of us protect lands and waters. On this day, we encourage you to learn about and support state parks and their partners’ efforts to ensure climate resilience across California’s State Park System—from expanding protected lands in state parks and restoring forests to engaging in educational dialogue about climate threats and solutions.
Friday, June 14th
9:00 am to 12:30 pm
Leo Carrillo Beach Cleanup
More information
California’s state parks are for all people. We reaffirm this truth by elevating the perspectives and experiences of communities that have been historically underrepresented in public lands. On this day and every day, we honor Black, Indigenous, and communities of color and the many ways these communities care for, relate with, and enjoy our shared parks. Join us for celebrations and cultural events at state parks statewide.
Saturday, June 15th
7:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Campfire Program at Malibu Creek State Park Campground Amphitheater
More information
John McKinney of the L.A. Times writes: “Over the past 20 years I’ve asked several thousand Californians to name five state parks. Fewer than 5% can do so. And most of these baffled respondents are outdoorsy folks — the kind of people I meet on the trail or at my talks about hiking.
This lack of awareness is more than surprising right now. It’s dangerous.
If Californians can’t name a handful of state parks, they won’t recognize the threat when Sacramento defers investment in the system or — as is inevitably happening again — attempts to cut funding.”
Santa Monica Mountains Trail Days is a time for individuals, families, and groups to give back to the parks by working together to maintain the trails. There’s an important task for everyone, from seasoned trail builders to first-time volunteers, as well as age-appropriate activities for children.
This year’s event will be held over the weekend of April 19th-21st (Friday-Sunday) at Danielson Group Campground in Point Mugu State Park. Registration is required.
Come out just for the day (Saturday or Sunday) to help clean up trails with the Sierra Club work party — or perhaps stay for the weekend, and enjoy a night or two of free camping, waking up both mornings to hot beverages and bagels. Volunteers can also look forward to a complimentary BBQ dinner on Saturday night, and a jumbo thank-you gift drawing on both days, generously sponsored by our organizers and community members.
(Event registration is handled by another of the organizing parties, the Santa Monica Mountains Trails Council, who will contact registrants directly).
