PARKLAND STRUGGLE A LABOR OF LOVE; RECREATION AREA TO CELEBRATE 20TH ANNIVERSARY.Byline: Kevin F. Sherry Daily News Staff Writer Alice Allen remembers waking up each morning in 1978 and listening to her radio for news about the congressional bill that would eventually form the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area: see National Parks and Monuments (table). . ``I was already here, running around in a Smokey Bear Smokey Bear is a fictional character of the longest running public service campaign in United States history. The character's mission is to raise public awareness to protect America's forests. hat,'' she said. Allen was in charge of the National Park Service information center in downtown Los Angeles Downtown Los Angeles is the central business district of Los Angeles, California, located close to the geographic center of the metropolitan area. The sprawling, multi-centered megacity is such that its downtown core is often considered just another district like Hollywood or , and people kept pestering her for information about the bill. On Nov. 10, 1978, her prayers were answered, and the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area was created by an act of Congress. ``That occurred after a long history of study on the part of the state and local activists,'' said Scott Erickson Erickson began his professional career in 1989 when he was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 4th round of the amateur draft. , the area's deputy superintendent Deputy Superintendent, or Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), was a rank used by police forces of the British Empire. In some territories it was called Deputy District Superintendent of Police (DDSP). . Such a strong effort was made because conservationists wanted to beat developers to the land, Allen said. ``People realized they were about 10 years ahead of the bulldozers,'' she said. The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area now comprises 155,050 acres of land, including 22,000 acres owned by the federal government, 40,000 acres owned by the state and 10,000 owned by other park districts. It stretches 46 miles from the Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is a modern amphitheatre at 2301 North Highland Avenue in Hollywood, California, USA, that is used primarily for music performances. The "bowl" in this context is the natural cavity in the earth into which the amphitheater is built, rather than the shape of the to Point Mugu in Ventura County. On Tuesday it celebrates its 20th anniversary. A lot has changed in those two decades. Today Allen would simply log onto the Internet to find up-to-the-minute information about any bill before Congress from a variety of Washington Web sites. ``Twenty years TWENTY YEARS. The lapse of twenty years raises a presumption of certain facts, and after such a time, the party against whom the presumption has been raised, will be required to prove a negative to establish his rights. 2. ago we were kind of doing it on a wing and a prayer,'' said Allen, who now serves as the special park uses manager for the recreation area. ``It's kind of exciting being on the ground floor there from the beginning.'' When Bob Chandler Robert Donald Chandler (July 1, 1945 - January 28, 1995) was an American football wide receiver in the NFL. Professional career Chandler played in the National Football League between 1971 and 1982 for the Buffalo Bills (1971-1979) and the Oakland Raiders (1980-1982). , the first superintendent, arrived, Allen and her co-workers moved boxes to create room for him. ``We literally put them in our storage room,'' she said. Others were not so lucky. ``Originally when I started working for the Park Service, I was told to go home and work because they didn't have enough desks for people,'' said Phil Holmes Phil Holmes (April 16, 1972) is a British radio DJ and presenter on Palm 105.5. He lives with the "Present Mrs Holmes" and they have a daughter, who's 7 and a son due September 2007. , the National Park Service's cultural anthropologist Noun 1. cultural anthropologist - an anthropologist who studies such cultural phenomena as kinship systems social anthropologist anthropologist - a social scientist who specializes in anthropology , who has performed a variety of duties since 1980. Through the years, the Years, The the seven decades of Eleanor Pargiter’s life. [Br. Lit.: Benét, 1109] See : Time agency has set up shop in Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , Woodland Hills and Agoura Hills. As of May, the Park Service has called the old Thousand Oaks Thousand Oaks, residential city (1990 pop. 104,352), Ventura co., S Calif., in a farm area; inc. 1964. Avocados, citrus, vegetables, strawberries, and nursery products are grown. City Hall at 401 W. Hillcrest Drive home. Longtime workers recalled the high and low points in the park's history. In the early years of the Reagan administration, Interior Secretary James Watt placed the Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains are a low transverse range in southern California in the United States. Geography They run for approximately 40 mi (64 km) east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. at the top of his hit list. But the recreation area's popularity made it politically unwise to tamper with, Allen said. ``Let's put it this way: We're still here,'' Allen said. ``He's not.'' With budget cuts, the Reagan years proved critical for the recreation area to buy land before expected development caused prices to soar, she said. Holmes cited the opening of the Satwiwa Cultural Center and three major American Indian powwows as milestones in the park's history. He especially enjoyed the five multilingual, computerized kiosks the Park Service set up for the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. The low point came in 1996, when the budget stalemate shut down the federal government for 21 days, Holmes said. ``All of our services were shut down,'' he said. ``We were turning people away.'' Six years ago, the fast-paced world of television met the bureaucracy of the federal government when ``Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman'' set up shop at Paramount Ranch, until the show was canceled this year. ``It was not a natural partnership, but it worked,'' Allen said. ``It helped people become much more aware of Paramount Ranch, and it got us in the guide books.'' The experience made the Park Service better at dealing with film company requests, which continue to come in, she said. Since ``Dr. Quinn'' left, the mountains have seen Roman legions battling Celts The following pages provide lists of nations or people of Celtic origin, arranged by branch of Celtic ethnicity or language grouping: Goidelic Celts
The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is unusual among U.S. parks. Across the nation, the government dedicated parks like Yellowstone in untamed areas. Here, the Santa Monica Mountains divide Los Angeles. ``In the United States, this is not a very common concept,'' Allen said. In other national parks, like Yellowstone, the National Park Service manages all the land on its own. What it says goes. Not so in the Santa Monica Mountains. ``It's gotten far more complicated,'' Allen said. ``We do it with lots of cooperators. You never do anything unilaterally in the Santa Monica Mountains.'' The dozens of various agencies with interest in the mountains may not always agree, but they have come to understand one another's needs, she said. ``All the dynamics you have in a family, we have,'' Allen said. ``There is a sense of commitment. . . . We have gotten better at understanding other people's priorities.'' Those priorities have begun to work in sync, as the various agencies agree to share staffing and resources, and continue work on the general management plan for the mountains, Erickson said. More than 30 organizations provide public services to the parks, including nature walks, educational programs and trail maintenance. ``Sometimes progress is on a geologic time scale The geological time scale is used by geologists and other scientists to describe the timing and relationships between events that have occurred during the history of Earth. , but it does move,'' Allen said. For example, 20 years ago the Navy suggested placing identifying signs near Mugu Lagoon to highlight the importance of the lagoon in the ecology. The signs will soon go up, Allen said. ``That's going to happen,'' she said. ``We know it's going to happen. Twenty years ago it was a dream.'' Concerns and priorities evolve through time. Now the park is looking at how to minimize pollution from light and noise. ``Those are two major challenges, in addition to the challenges of providing habitat for animals and plants,'' Allen said. Other concerns include finding ways to maintain the biodiversity, to protect endangered species endangered species, any plant or animal species whose ability to survive and reproduce has been jeopardized by human activities. In 1999 the U.S. government, in accordance with the U.S. like steelhead trout in Malibu Creek and to expand the park's area to provide ample roaming habitat for large carnivores, Erickson said. There also is an increasing demand for services from the Park Service. The area hosts 60,000 children a year for environmental education programs, but Erickson wants that number expanded to 200,000. Other challenges for the next 20 years include preserving the park's resources. PARTY PLANS The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1979 and dedicated to the acquisition of land in the Santa Susana and Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, north and west of Los Angeles, for preservation as open will host a 20th-anniversary celebration for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area today from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. in San Vincente Mountain Park. For more information, visit www.ceres.ca.gov/smmc on the Internet or call (310) 589-3200. PARK FACTS At 150,050 acres, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is the world's largest urban park. The area runs 46 miles from the Hollywood Bowl to Point Mugu, and along the coastline west of the Santa Monica Pier The Santa Monica Pier is located at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California and is a prominent landmark. Attractions The pier contains Pacific Park, a family amusement park with a large ferris wheel. . One in every 17 Americans lives within an hour's drive of the park area. About 33 million people visited the parkland in 1997. The region includes five area codes and 26 ZIP codes, more than any other unit in the national park system. More than 70 governmental agencies share jurisdiction in the area, including the city of Malibu, which is entirely contained within the parkland. The average cost per acre of acquired land in the area is $6,300. The region is home to 450 vertebrate species, as well as 25 species listed as rare, endangered or threatened. More than 1,000 Chumash and Gabrielleno-Tongva archeological sites are found within the park area. CAPTION(S): 2 Photos, 2 Boxes PHOTO (1--Color in Conejo Edition only) (Ran in Conejo and Bulldog Editions only) A sign just off Topanga Canyon Boulevard in the Canyon Oaks area sets forth the rules for using the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy Parkland, part of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. (2) (Ran in Conejo Edition only) A field of wild oats oats, cereal plants of the genus Avena of the family Gramineae (grass family). Most species are annuals of moist temperate regions. The early history of oats is obscure, but domestication is considered to be recent compared to that of the other in the Santa Monica Mountains is awash with greenery from spring rains in 1986. Daily News BOX: (1) PARTY PLANS (See text) (2) PARK FACTS (See text) |
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