Santa Monica Mountains could quadruple in size
WASHINGTON D.C. Federal officials plan to examine the feasibility of quadrupling the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area through a possible inclusion of the Rim of the Valley Corridor into the 153,000 acre national park. President Bush last week signed a law authored by Congressman Adam Schiff, D- Pasadena, that will permit the National Parks Service to begin studying the implications of expanding the Santa Monica Mountains to encompass the Rim of the Valley, a series of open spaces that line the San Fernando Valley and include the Angeles National Forest.
The estimated $100,000 study is expected to take about three years to complete, after which point a recommendation will be forwarded to Congress for consideration.
NPS officials say the Rim of the Valley is a critical corridor of open space that will link the Santa Monica Mountains to other northerly forested lands, allowing for the connection of habitat, facilitating wild life movement and as a result, preventing inbreeding.
“It is critical to maintaining the genetic health and maintaining the biological diversity,” Woody Smeck, the superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, said. “We fear that inbreeding will begin to occur among populations of wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains and that can result in diseases and genetic deficiencies.”
The Rim of the Valley is a state designated area established through the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Act in 1979, which allows the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy the ability to purchase property in the Rim of the Valley corridor. If federal officials in the future opt to officially include the Rim of the Valley into the Santa Monica Mountains, a federally-designated park, it would allow federal resources to be used toward the maintenance of the rim, according to Dash Stolarz, the spokeswoman for the conservancy, a supporter of the study.
“It’s about recognizing the importance of the area and allowing the resources to come in here to preserve it,” Stolarz said.
The 490,000 acre Rim of the Valley includes the Santa Susanna Mountains, San Gabriel Mountains, San Rafael Hills and the Verdugo Mountains. Part of the valley lies in Schiff’s district.
“When congress now 30 years ago established the Santa Monica National Recreation Area, it had the foresight to look ahead and to see an entire region grown enormously and to plan for preserving open space and park land,” Schiff said. “We want to make sure we can maintain the quality of life in the region as well as wildlife in the region.”
One area that would be threatened if the Santa Monica Mountains is not expanded is a small ribbon of open space that connects into Santa Susanna Mountains, passing over the 101 Freeway.
“That thin ribbon of space is under treat of development in multiple areas... that could be lost without conservation efforts and conservation coordination,” Smeck said. “Those could be potentially saved with federal involvement.”
The NPS, of which the Santa Monica Mountains is a part, will look at three factors in the study — whether there are areas of national significance in the Rim of the Valley; the feasibility of financially managing the expanded area; and whether there are other management models that are more appropriate than the NPS.
An expansion would also allow the creation of regional recreation trails, Smeck said.
“It will provide a connection for wildlife, connection for people who recreate outdoors,” Smeck said. “The network would allow trails from Santa Monica all the way into the Angeles National Forest, linking park trails and providing four outdoor recreation and enjoyment.”
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on May 14, 2008. Read the original PDF.