Trashed Treasure : Urban Ills of Graffiti, Litter Intrude on Valley’s Once-Pristine Wilderness Area

Barbara Kauffman sets a brisk pace in the early morning heat, as she leads the usual Sunday nature hike in Chatsworth’s 670-acre Santa Susana Mountain Park.

She points out rare red and orange monkey flowers and tells of encounters with coyotes and rattlesnakes in her several years of combing the picturesque rocky hills that separate the northwest San Fernando Valley from Simi Valley.

“It’s kind of a last frontier,” she says.

Sadly, this vast parcel of wilderness is being threatened by environmental pollution, an overabundance of broken glass and graffiti--usually left behind by teen groups and gangs, Kauffman said.

Today’s graffiti is a jarring contrast to the relatively quaint and modest markings, such as “Bobby loves Suzie,” that could be found in these same hills 20 or more years ago.

The graffiti and the garbage are left by the people Kauffman calls “the partyers” and can be found just about everywhere here.

Italian-born Alessandro Mastrogiacomo, a beginning rappeller from Brentwood who practices on the steep cliffs of Stony Point, repeatedly encountered broken glass on a recent outing, even finding bits of glass tucked into the crevices between the rocks.

“It’s a shame,” he said.

Small children, forced to rely on their hands more when climbing, are constantly exposed to the risk of cuts and scrapes.

Kauffman, who sits on the board of the Santa Susana Mountain Park Assn., says overseeing the area is difficult because it has many landowners. It is mostly--but not exclusively--owned by the state.

“It gets pretty vague,” she said of jurisdiction over the area. “This is not a [state] dedicated park, so we’re kind of a no-man’s land.”

There is no official graffiti-removal program for the area “and we just can’t go in and paint,” she says. “It’s not allowed without permission. And anyway, it’s just too big a job.”