Rock Climbers See Red When Film Crew Paints Boulders : Outdoors: Movie company covers over graffiti--and tiny ledges and wrinkles--at two spots in a Chatsworth park. Climbers blame city for allowing it.

The historic sandstone boulders at Chatsworth’s Stoney Point Park are “one of the cradles of American rock-climbing,” according to the sport’s enthusiasts.

But to a Warner Bros. crew filming Steven Seagal’s latest action opus--”Under Siege 2: Dark Territory”--they’re mainly an outdoor set.

A national rock-climbing organization is fuming that the city of Los Angeles, eager to accommodate filmmakers, let the crew paint over graffiti on two of the most popular rocks, covering the tiny ledges and wrinkles that make Stoney Point such a desirable climbing spot.

Climbers complain that because of the paint they will be unable to grip the sides of the boulders, where numerous famed enthusiasts, including Patagonia clothing company founder Yvon Chouinard, started scaling rocks.

For climbers, “This is a very much akin to somebody going in and desecrating the Washington Monument,” said Randy Vogel, an Irvine attorney and a member of the Access Fund, a rock climber advocacy group.

City parks officials, who issued the permit to film in the park last week, admit that they overlooked the impact on climbers, but say there is no irreparable damage.

“We basically have a policy in the department to work with the film crews to keep the business in Los Angeles,” said maintenance supervisor James Ward, who authorized the filming. “That doesn’t mean we will sacrifice public property for the sake of a movie.”

Ward also said that climbers from his department have overseen the painting, and do not believe any permanent damage was done. He said his department will clean away the paint once the shooting concludes tonight.

Climbers say it will take toothbrushes and alcohol to clean the paint from the nooks and crannies in the rock, and Ward said he is willing to do that if that’s what it takes.

The trouble started last week, when the location manager applied for a filming permit to shoot in the park. Most of “Dark Territory” was shot in Colorado, but the crew wanted to film some shots of actors dangling from ropes off rock faces. The two boulders they wanted to use were covered with graffiti. So on Tuesday the crew got some sandstone-colored paint and covered up the scrawls, Ward said.

But Michael McPherrin, a Woodland Hills man who climbs Stoney Point twice a week, said crew members told him they were painting the rocks so they would match the color of the ones in Colorado. The crew also inserted bolts into the base of the rocks to steady their cameras, climbers said. Production officials did not return phone calls from The Times.

Climbers place the blame for the situation on the city, saying the production crew was unaware it was possibly damaging a treasured site.

“Would anyone besides Hollywood, coming to the Department of Recreation and Parks, asking to be able to paint rocks in a public work area, be allowed to do so?” Sam Davidson, a spokesman for the Access Fund, asked rhetorically. “I’d like to know why the city felt it was justified in authorizing what could amount to a permanent impact on a city park.”

Cody Cluff, an assistant deputy mayor and Mayor Richard Riordan’s point man on making Los Angeles motion picture-friendly, said the public must be flexible.

“Seventy-six thousand people in Los Angeles make their living from filmmaking, and we have to learn to live with it,” he said. “Filming can be an inconvenience, and we have to minimize the inconvenience whenever we can, but we can’t make it disappear.”

“This is certainly the kind of thing we worry about,” Cluff said in reference to the Stoney Point controversy.

“We don’t like it for companies to have these problems.”