TUJUNGA : Car, Phones Found in Canyon Cleanup

A stolen car, 40 tires and a couple of pay telephones were among the items that a crew of workers discovered Tuesday in the third annual cleanup of La Tuna Canyon in Tujunga.

The upper canyon is the site of a two-week cleanup by minimum-wage Los Angeles Conservation Corps employees and volunteers from the California Environmental Project, said Scott Mathes, executive director of the project. The second phase of the cleanup, in the lower canyon, will be launched in mid-December, he said.

Before removing the junk, a dozen corps workers watched a video presentation illustrating the effects of litter and garbage on the canyon, Mathes said. In addition to tires and pay phones, workers recovered several hundreds pounds of glass.

La Tuna Canyon is under the jurisdiction of rangers from the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, but they are rarely able to patrol the area because of funding problems, Mathes said.

Mathes said the project is seeking funds to maintain the area throughout the year. In the last three years, workers have retrieved furniture, appliances, clothes, baby strollers and thousands of tires, he said.