Bill Pushed to Preserve More Wildlife Areas

Wedged between the Pacific Ocean and a swelling metropolis, Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is already the country’s largest urban preserve.

Now, in a move that could deliver millions of federal dollars for parkland in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, local members from both sides of the congressional aisle want to more than double the size of the 235-square-mile recreation area.

The added area would encircle the San Fernando Valley like a scarf, winding through the Verdugo Mountains up to Angeles National Forest and west to the Santa Susana Mountains and Simi Hills.

If approved--a process that could take up to five years--the federal designation could open the funding spigot for wild lands surrounding urban Los Angeles. Exact boundaries have not been drawn, but the plan may invite a backlash from landowners and developers.

“The question of whether these lands will remain in their pristine form looms large above us,” said Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Burbank), the lead sponsor of a bill to study the proposed expansion. “All of us have a strong desire to pass this on to our children and their children.”

The scope of the expansion reflects years of work by local agencies, particularly the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, to protect wildlife corridors stretching north from the Santa Monicas. The state Legislature granted the conservancy the power to buy land along the so-called Rim of the Valley Corridor in 1984.

In a display of solid bipartisanship, all the House members whose districts include pieces of the corridor have signed on to Schiff’s bill, HR 2715. They include Republicans Elton Gallegly of Simi Valley, Howard “Buck” McKeon of Santa Clarita, and David Dreier of San Dimas, as well as Democrats Howard Berman of Mission Hills, Brad Sherman of Sherman Oaks, and Hilda Solis of El Monte.

“I never thought I’d see all those names together on one bill,” said David Allgood of the California League of Conservation Voters, adding that the bipartisan support should help win passage.

Schiff announced the plan Thursday at a sunbaked news conference at Stough Nature Center in Burbank. More than a dozen politicians and parks officials, brows sweating, gathered to voice support for the bill.

Even if Congress approves the expansion, the key to acquiring more parkland is finding the money, not simply redrawing the map. In the Santa Monicas, more than half the recreation area remains privately owned 23 years after Congress deemed it worthy of protection.

The proposed legislation directs the Interior Department to evaluate the “national significance” of the Rim of the Valley Corridor. A committee, including representatives from 14 local cities, would recommend precise boundaries for the new area.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton has not yet reviewed the proposal, a spokesman said Thursday. But the Bush administration has emphasized maintaining roads and infrastructure in the nation’s parks rather than spending money to buy property.

Even so, Schiff said, by the time a study is completed, there could be a new president. Besides, the freshman lawmaker added, he’s taking the long view.

“It will provide a federal vehicle to bring federal money back,” he said. “It could mean a great deal over time.”

The National Park Service originally intended to buy 35,000 acres in the Santa Monica Mountains within five years, but uneven funding and soaring land prices hampered the effort. The park service now holds about 22,000 acres--14% of the overall recreation area--and the state owns about 26%.

Over the past two decades, the federal government has spent more than $145 million to acquire land in the Santa Monicas, said Arthur Eck, the National Park Service supervisor who oversees the area. State and local agencies have shelled out even more, for a total of $420 million.

The resulting patchwork park, while falling short of the massive expanses of open space in the nearby Angeles and Los Padres national forests, nonetheless offers a haven from the city.

It also provides limited wildlife corridors, the natural equivalent of a four-lane freeway for bobcats and other animals that prowl the mountains. Conservationists say that more acreage in nearby areas would ensure that animals breed in wider circles.

“The whole idea is to take these green spaces and link them together,” said Hayden Sohm, the assistant superintendent of the local state parks district. “In the past, we’ve kind of looked at little islands [of open space] to preserve habitat and wildlife. Now, we’re moving away from that, toward wildlife corridors that will provide large habitat links.”

The notion of roping off huge swatches of land for wildlife does not sit well with some developers.

Glendale developer John Gregg, whose company is behind the controversial Oakmont V project slated for the Verdugo Mountains, said such an approach only encourages urban sprawl.

“I don’t think it’s wise to take close-in areas and keep them from being human habitat and make them animal habitat,” Gregg said. “We believe people are more important than animals.”

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Pushing For Parkland

Hoping to leverage more federal dollars for parkland, a group of local Congress members wants to vastly expand the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The new area would link wildlife habitat in the Santa Monicas to Angeles National Forest.

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Source: The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy