To shelter recreation spots and help preserve the vast mesh of wilderness that is located in the middle of millions of Americans, the National Park Service is suggesting increasing the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area by 270 square miles of land around Los Angeles.
The recommendation is from a five-year research project that inspected a complicated mess of public and private lands in and near the extensive Los Angeles metropolitan zone, one of the nation's most thickly populated areas.
The Rim of the Valley Corridor research area shelters more than a thousand square miles of urban areas, mountains, rivers, deserts and coastal scrub in Ventura and Los Angeles counties, including vacant land surrounded by the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area and land in the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument and Angeles National Forest.
The study noted that around 5 million citizens reside within the vicinity and additional millions inhabit the area nearby.
The report said the region contains a treasure trove of archaeological and geological resources, national historic landmarks, and a rich ecosystem. But the diverse landscapes are presently isolated from each other and crisscrossed by housing tracts and roads.
The study looked at various options and concluded that it would not be practical to construct another national park, something that critics had called just land grabbing and charged was the real function behind the research. The study evaluated four alternatives for protecting mountain lands in the roughly 650,000-acre study area.
Rather, the report suggests an alternative that would append 270 square miles of land east and north of Los Angeles to the current Santa Monica Mountains protected zone, saying it would generate wilderness passages for wildlife to safeguard biodiversity and add more recreation prospects near dense city areas.
The current recreational region has effectively dealt with its property for a considerable length of time in association with the state, conservation factions and others and that form "respects the complex mix of existing land use, ownership and regulatory authorities," the report said.
"It's my hope that after the public comment period, the Park Service will expeditiously conclude its study so we may move forward with the final phase of this lengthy process - enacting legislation to expand the park and preserve these beautiful resources for decades to come," Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Burbank, who co-authored the legislation giving permission to the study, said.
Schiff favors one of the recommendations not chosen, an option that would add 313,000 acres of the corridor into the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.
The draft report will undergo public review and comment for at least 60 days, and eventually a proposal will be presented to Congress. An NPS newsletter summary of the report is available for download here.
Photo: Chris M Morris | Flickr
