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SOS PRESERVING the SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS Ecosystems UPDATE

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SOS PRESERVING the SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS Ecosystems UPDATE Winter 2012 –2013 www.saveopenspace.com Save Open Spac e g P. O. Box 1284 g Agoura, CA 91376 SOS PRESERVING the SANTA MONICA MOUNTAINS Ecosystems UPDATE implementation of this Malibu Land Use Plan for adequate setbacks and other protections as critical to the health of Stokes Creek, the Malibu Creek Watershed and Santa Monica Bay. We thank Heal the Bay for their testing of Stokes Creek. This testing showed levels of three kinds of bacteria exceeding normal below the horse facility development where adequate setbacks and a bridge were not required by the Coastal Commission. Thanks go to Jeremy Wolf, Cal State Channel Islands student, who put together this grant request. CHESEBRO MEADOW/ LIBERTY CANYON SOS and Old Agoura’s efforts to preserve the Chesebro Meadow, located behind the homes on Chesebro Road, were Malibu Creek Watershed recently helped by the City of Agoura Hills winning in court. Photo by Janna Orkney, editor www.conejopost.com Agoura Hills had bought this 70 acre property at an auction, and this court win concerned the legality of their purchase. MALIBU CREEK WATERSHED/ In response to SOS’s request for parkland funds to STOKES CREEK purchase the property, Senator Fran Pavley recently sent a Patagonia recently awarded a generous grant to the Malibu letter to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Creek Watershed project. Malibu Creek Watershed is a one of supporting applying for the 1990 mountain lion proposition Save Open Space’s (SOS) projects of Social and (Prop 117) funds. See page three. Environmental Entrepreneurs (SEE), a nonprofit which helps Many thanks go to Carrol McDonald and Carol Olson in environmental causes whose offices are now located in who were our area’s signature gathers for Prop 117. Now Calabasas. The Malibu Land Use Plan, approved by Los 22 years later the Liberty Canyon Wildlife Corridor, prime Angeles County and certified by the Coastal Commission in mountain lion habitat and corridor property, could become a 1986, has development requirements which protect recipient of these funds! Environmentally Sensitive Habitats (ESHAs) in the Coastal Zone. The Malibu Creek Watershed is the geographical basis go to www.saveopenspace.com to see of our national park, the Santa Monica Mountains National newsletter in color and follow links Recreational Area. (SMMNRA) The Patagonia grant will help fund the costs of our court case which speaks to the SAVE OPEN SPACE • WINTER 2012 – 2013 1 Wildlife UPDATE SAVE OUR MOUNTAIN LIONS: YOUR ACTION NEEDED! SOS has applied for a grant to help in the first printing of a booklet and production of a film to bring awareness of the SMMNRA mountain lion population. The booklet and film will help educate the public on one of the main threats to our mountain lions and bobcats. Rodenticide poisons for gophers and rats get into the food chain and have been responsible for the deaths of many bobcats and some of our mountain lions. These Santa Monica Mountain lions (Pumas): P-3, P-4, P-14, P-17, and P-25 died and were found to have rodenticide in their blood. Please use other means of eliminating pests from your properties, like the Mountain Lion P13 Rat Zapper or sound repellers. Battery sound pegs on the Courtesy, National Park Service hills work well as the sound causes the gophers to leave. See www.urbancarnivores.com for more information. Open Space UPDATES Malibu Lake/Unincorporated Agoura This unique Malibu Lake area was developed starting in the late 1920s. There are four acres of undeveloped open space that the mountain lions use as a passageway from the hills to Malibu Lake for water in the hot dry summer months. Thanks to Oak Park resident Vince Curtis ( [email protected] ) for researching the official recorded documents. The four acres are zoned recreational and recorded as Lot 19 of the original Tract 7374. These four acres were set aside for recreational use for all the substandard lots in this tract and the three other tracts. This area has served as a staging area for horses, trailers, and fire trucks when fires roared through this high fire area. This community presented organized comments and compelling testimony in opposition to the proposal to destroy this open space with two huge mansions and infrastructure to serve only their private recreational needs. SOS helped put From “Frankenstein….it all happened here.” See www.R7media.com/3MM.html information into the record why this recreational area should not be changed to residential. Testimony included comments on the health dangers of the proposed For more on Malibu Lake’s history check out shared septic field which could have grave environmental impacts. The Los Angeles Brian Rooney’s new book on County Planning Commission continued their decision on this matter until January 9. Malibu Lake: “Three Magical Miles.” Save the Scenic Malibu Coastline The California Coastal Commission denied Dave “The Edge” Evans, a guitarist in the band U2, the request for an incompatible ridgeline development proposal along the scenic Malibu coastline line. Then the Coastal Commission was sued by Evans and others for this denial. This development project will destroy “the most prominent landform along the coast between Topanga Canyon and the Ventura County line,” with five mansions at the top of the spectacular Malibu coastal ridgeline. Please click on www.facebook.com/pages/Over-the-Edge-help-save-major-Malibu-view - shed/222262204456114 . Please “like” the Facebook page. Spread the word to your friends to help. Our goal is to get hundreds of “likes.” SOS hopes that Evans will decide to stop this disastrous hilltop mansion development project which will destroy Dave "The Edge" Evans wants to destroy the scenic Malibu viewshed within our national park boundaries. There are many a major Malibu ridgeline within national already built Malibu mansions with ocean access and views sitting empty that Evans park boundaries. Photo by Vince Curtis could purchase. 2 SAVE OPEN SPACE • WINTER 2012 – 2013 News Briefs: SOS activities in 2011-2012 • Thousand Oaks and Las Virgenes city managers were presented a let - ter from SOS which advocated the return of the Amgen Tour of Cali - fornia to our area. It looks like 2014 may be the year that the Amgen bike tour returns to our Santa Monica Mountains! August 22, 2012 • In October, Oak Park’s new replacement water tank was ded - Joe Edmiston Executive Director icated at an alternative site. This Santa Monica Mountain Conservancy water tank had been proposed for 570 West Avenue Twenty-Six, Suite 100 the entrance to the Palo Comado Los Angeles, CA 90065 Park Unit of the SMMNRA. SOS helped Oak Park residents, Dear Mr. Edmiston, first led by Janna Orkney and Please accept my recommendation that the Mountain Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) apply to the then by Drew Fountaine, to save Wildlife Conservation Board for Proposition 117 funds on behalf of Save Open Space (SOS) Santa Monica Mountains for the view shed of this Palo acquisition of the Chesebro Meadow Liberty Canyon Wildlife Corridor property. The funds should include acquisition of Comado park entrance off Sun - property north of the 101, contiguous to the Chesebro Canyon and south of the 101 with the recent foreclosure of the nycrest and Doubletree roads. proposed office complex on the NW corner of Liberty Canyon and Agoura Road. The property is on the SOS list of acquisition priorities, but only government agencies are allowed to apply for these funds. • Rocketdyne/SSFL is an ongoing issue. SOS advocates preserving As you know, Proposition 117 funds are meant to provide for the preservation of wildlife through the acquisition of vital the Native American caves and habitat. The South Coast Wildlands Project has classified Liberty Canyon as one of the 15 critical biological linkage sites NASA historic test stands in place. for California mountain lions. The Liberty Canyon underpass is the only viable 101 freeway crossing for mountain lions SOS is working to see that this for miles in either direction. In 2009, a mountain lion designated P-12 crossed at Liberty Canyon Road. He has 2850 acre property (designated subsequently fathered cubs, including the two most recent mountain lion births this month in the Santa Monica Open Space in the Ventura County Mountains. However, there is DNA evidence of inbreeding, and more measures need to be taken in order to help these new cubs survive, and to introduce new genetic material into the species. General Plan) is saved as critical habitat for wildlife and passive Acquiring this property would go a long way towards preserving our precious mountain lion population. Therefore, this recreational use for the public. acquisition would meet the requirements of Proposition 117 for acquisition funding and would be in line with the priorities of partner agencies in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA). As Chair of the • In November, SOS hosted an event Natural Resources and Water Committee and as the Senator representing the Western Santa Monica Mountains, this is to honor Margot Feuer, who passed one of my highest priorities. away in June. Margot was a long time SOS Board member and a If you have any questions or would like to discuss this matter further, please contact me at (310)314-5214. Thank you for founder of the SMMNRA. Margot’s your consideration. tribute was coordinated with NPS’s Sincerely, Founders Day Celebration at Gillette Ranch. (See enclosed flyer in Mar - got’s honor.) There was a tree plant - Senator Fran Pavley, SD 23 ing in honor of all three founders: Sue Nelson, Jill Swift, and Margot. CC: Paul Edelman, MRCA S E MaryND Wiesbrock, In Th SOSe Enclosed Envelope! SOS’s Board members are all volunteers.
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