Santa Monica Mountains Task Force

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.

Happy Summer, Sierra Clubbers! And Santa Monica Mountains Task Force members and contributors.

My editors asked me for a more positive and upbeat report this time. Sometimes that’s hard, as we look at the dismal and accelerating effects of climate change, drought and heat, particularly in the Santa Monicas. It’s only June, and already we’ve had weather and heat events that didn’t used to be seen until August and September. The fire season is at our doorstep, and the first one (arson) already hit the Palisades Highlands — 1,200 acres burned in beautiful Santa Ynez and Trailer Canyons, in May.

But the good news is that the Club, which has been in lockdown mode for well over a year, is emerging from the cave. Vaccinations have changed everything. Now you don’t see anyone, or hardly anyone, wearing facemasks on the trails and fire roads.

Once the intense summer heat is past, our Trail Crew will resume its work, maintaining trails throughout the mountains. Kudos to crew leaders Rachel Glegg and Bill Vanderberg. Thanks to social media and other outreach efforts, we’ve attracted a huge influx of new blood, honoring our patriarch, founder and godfather Ron Webster, who passed away at the beginning of the year after an amazing life preserving the mountains.

Also resuming this month is our Outings program, under the auspices of Howard Strauss and David Finch. Everyone, from tiger hikers to first-timers, is welcome. I know we’re all itching to get out and hit the trails again. 

Meanwhile, our political and legal activism got no time off during the pandemic. We’re firing on all cylinders against the many threats by developers — and even government bureaucrats — to damage the mountains. We’ve got our hands full, even after winning an epic legal victory in the Court of Appeal against a noxious development in Malibu in 2019.

If any of this interests you, please join our next Zoom meeting on August 2nd. Welcome to the Task Force!

Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force

The more adventurous aspect of the Sierra Club is dusting itself off and stretching back into action. The Santa Monica Mountains Task Force itself sponsors two Sierra Club hikes every Tuesday: the Tuesday Moderate Hikers (TMH) and the Tuesday Conditioned Hikers (TCH). So if you’re free, join us!

New events are regularly added to our schedule. Bookmark our Activity Calendar to see all upcoming hikes sponsored by the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force.

We typically have 10-20 people on each hike, everyone there to enjoy the outdoors and be with like-minded people. The hikes range all over the Santa Monica Mountains, from Topanga State Park to Point Mugu State Park and everywhere in between. We also hike on adjacent parkland such as Ahmanson Ranch and Cheeseboro Canyon.

The moderate hikes are usually about 8 miles with close to 1,000 ft gain, and the conditioned hikes are usually about 12 miles with about 2,000 ft gain. Of course, that varies from week to week. The moderate hikes usually end in the early afternoon, the conditioned hikes somewhat later. Our hikes are all “O” rated. Most are on very well-established trails; some, not so much!

We’re always on the lookout for new leaders to help lead our Tuesday hikes. Becoming a leader is a great way to support the Sierra Club by showing members of the public the land our efforts have helped preserve. If you would like to know more about becoming a Sierra Club leader, contact our Outings Chairs. Information is also available on the Sierra Club Angeles Chapter Leadership Training Program web page.

Real estate mogul Mohammed Hadid is seeking to erect an enormous development in Franklin Canyon, specifically over the Hastain Trail in the park’s southeast section. Our Task Force Chair, Eric Edmunds, has been in correspondence with Nithya Raman, Los Angeles City Councilmember of the 4th District, over this incursion. Visit her official website to read the statement recently published by her office.

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.

In January, the Sierra Club West Los Angeles Group hosted a special presentation from the National Wildlife Federation’s regional executive director, Beth Pratt, titled Mountain Lions As Neighbors: Building the Wildlife Crossing at Liberty Canyon.

Following a brief introduction from the David Haake (West L.A. Group Chair), Beth takes the virtual stage to talk about the Liberty Canyon crossing and the general effort to save the big cats in our midst.

Watch it here (run time: 1:27:50).

This educational webinar, free to Sierra Club members and non-members alike, is part of a bi-monthly series of guest speaker events sponsored by the West Los Angeles Group, which has shifted to an online format during the past year of social distancing. Keep an eye on their Meetup page for more events coming up in the series.

The National Wildlife Federation’s campaign for a wildlife corridor over the 101 freeway has, with the $1.4 million boost from a private donor, hit the $18 million mark. While still short of the full estimated price tag, this hefty bag of change puts it that much closer to being realized.

It’s early spring. The weather suddenly has turned warm. It was 80 degrees today, and is expected to get warmer in the coming week. (Climate change? Hello?)

The climb in temps has brought a climb in discourtesy. People are emerging from their COVID bubbles intent on catching up on lost time. The day I wrote this, March 28th, 2021, the beaches were packed and Pacific Coast Highway a parking lot northbound. The hiking trails are covered with people, large groups, young and unmasked, no social distancing — even though the epidemic is surging among young unmasked people. Older folks who have received both our shots, like me, are luckier. The young’uns don’t seem to have gotten the memo.

Today, in the space of two minutes, three people cut me off in traffic, including one who blocked the intersection of Ocean and California, when I had the green light. He didn’t budge. If a cop had been around, he would be appearing on my Traffic Court calendar in Santa Monica Superior Court. People are street-racing on surface boulevards as never before, including car-rallies on Sunset and other thoroughfares. The L.A. Times has been reporting on this discourtesy, with its lethal results. Today and yesterday, motorcyclists were killed, one colliding with a tree, speeding, in Pacific Palisades.

This extends to the mountains and the trails. Which are now packed with people (not in itself bad). When people approach, you just raise your mask or bandana, look the other way and move as far to the other side as is convenient. 

---

Mountain bikes are another matter. When you’re on a wide fire road, it’s not a big deal. You just get out of their way, and have a little less time to raise your mask as they whiz by. Most bikers aren’t masked. 

But on a single-track trail, it’s a different story. Single-track trails are narrow, obviously. In my humble opinion, bikes don’t belong on single-track trails in the mountains. They belong on fire roads. We lost a skirmish in that battle about 10 years ago when State Parks opened up the Backbone Trail to bikes. 

Most mountain bikers are courteous and respectful of other trail users. The problem is the outlaw shredders. Not long ago, I was almost killed on the very steep Meteor Point trail connecting Sullivan Canyon up to the Westridge Fire Road. I was making my way up the twisty, steep trail, when a shredder burst over the top of a hill above me, clearly unable to brake or stop, headed straight at me. I froze, panicked, then leaped into the brush just in time to avoid getting run over. I screamed profanities but he didn’t slow down, just cussed at me for being in his way. 

Had he hit and killed me — which he almost did — there was no way he could have slowed down or stopped, or climbed back up the steep hill to where my body was. He didn’t give a shit, he was on a thrill ride. I would have become carrion for the coyotes and hawks before any humans came down this lightly-used trail and found me.

---

 Electric bicycles are another threat. And it’s growing. These machines require little to no physical effort to power on the part of the user. The bike just powers up the trail. Once upon a time, I ran up a hill at about the same speed as a mountain biker. No more. Now I may get run over. And I’m seeing more and more of them on the trails and fire roads, with their wide heavy treads.

That is the discourtesy problem I’m preaching about from this (such as it is) pulpit. And it’s only going to get worse, as temps warm and more people come out of their bubbles and hit the trail.

---

Speaking of the Backbone Trail, in this issue we have a memorial to the founder and patriarch of our trail crew, Ron Webster. I’ll miss him greatly.

Eric Edmunds, Chair
Santa Monica Mountains Task Force