Rim of The Valley
by Claire Pelote, Eryn Wells and Seth Feldman
Trends are born in Los Angeles and sometimes, more importantly, they die here as well. Movie stars are being born to live in the hills of Los Angeles, just as aged movie stars live out their days here. Creatives flock here to make their big break. Some consider this a beautiful cycle of the birth and rebirth of American creativity. What Los Angeles means becomes bigger than the way we experience it. Los Angeles means glamor, it means a super-metropolis and an unmatched urban sprawl. It means pavement, palm trees, and browning grass.
On the flip side of creativity is sustainability, and many people within the city are focusing on protecting what was here before all this development. Los Angeles is known for its aggressive lack of open space, it’s a place where hiking and utilizing nature is not on the radar of most of its population. For this reason, many are dedicated to improving Los Angeles with more protected open space.
In 2008, Congress passed the Rim of the Valley Corridor Study Act that was introduced by Congressman Adam Schiff. This bill directed the National Park Service (NPS) to conduct a special resource study of the Rim of the Valley Corridor, which generally includes the mountains encircling the San Fernando, Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi, and Conejo Valleys. The study sought to determine the suitability and feasibility of designating all or a portion of the Rim of the Valley Corridor as a unit of the existing Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA), and, also, study how these areas could be protected and utilized by the local communities. The lands included within the expansion will be known as the “Rim of the Valley Unit.”
The “Rim of the Valley Unit” encompasses the stretch of land along the Los Angeles River and its tributary, the Arroyo Seco in west Pasadena, the Verdugo Mountains above Glendale, the San Rafael Hills, part of the Chantry Flat hiking area above Sierra Madre, Millard Canyon, Simi Hills, and Santa Susana/Conejo Mountains in Ventura County. The bill will enable the NPS and the local communities to better protect natural resources and habitats and provide members of the community with improved access to nature for recreational and educational purposes. Southern California News Group reporter Steve Scauzillo describes the Rim of the Valley as a bridge between urban city centers, the Los Angeles Basin, and the wilderness beyond.
The Rim of the Valley also includes untouched wildlands, city parks that surround San Fernando Valley and areas of the San Gabriel Valley, Griffith Park, Hansen Park Recreation Area, Sepulveda Basin, Ernest Debs Regional Park, El Pueblo De Los Angeles National Historical Monument, Eaton Canyon in east Pasadena, the Rose Bowl, Hahamongna Watershed Park and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
The bill creates the expansion area for the Santa Monica Mountains. It is the open space surrounding the San Fernando Valley.
“We want the National Parks to tell the whole story, and the Rim of the Valley brings those things together. We need to be better at connecting to other regions.”
As of October 19, 2017 the Rim of the Valley Corridor Preservation Act bill was in the first stage of the legislative process. There are over 20 million people in the Los Angeles area. One of the project’s main objectives is to make parks, open space and wilderness accessible to all individuals. Congressman Adam Schiff has been a steadfast supporter of preserving open space. Before Schiff, Congressman Beilineson authored the bill that created the Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area. The Rim of the Valley project expands on this project. It’s been introduced in the house and congress. It’s currently before the House Committee on Natural Resources in Congress.
There are many species that would benefit from this proposal. There is very limited genetic diversity for animals that live in these areas and scientists are concerned about inbreeding and species going extinct. The Rim of the Valley Unit would include habitat for iconic wildlife such as the mountain lion, bobcat, fox, badger, coyote and deer, as well as endangered species such as the California red-legged frog. The Los Angeles sector of the National Parks Conservation Association has consistently voiced its support for this project. In a recent interview with the Daily News, the association’s Los Angeles Program Manager, Dennis Arguelles, said “We want the National Parks to tell the whole story, and the Rim of the Valley brings those things together. We need to be better at connecting to other regions.”
Without this bill, what the National Parks and Forest Service can do is very limited as they primarily oversee large recreation areas. The lands that would be set aside in the Rim of the Valley proposal are 80-percent undeveloped and offer many diverse resources, such as biological, geological, historical, and cultural sites. Adam Schiff was the original sponsor for the bill, and if the bill were to be passed, the park’s land would increase.
The proposal has been met with opposition from “budget hawks” as well as landowners who say the project is too costly and would create unfair regulations that threaten property rights. According to Barry Wetherby, a board member with Public Lands for the People and the California Trail Users Coalition, who was quoted in an article by the Los Angeles Times, “We want people to be able to enjoy their land, their trails, their roads, fishing, hunting, prospecting…”. Wetherby and many other property rights activists call the bill a land grab that can regulate the lands when it comes to resource extraction and usage.
One of the primary “selling points” of the project from the proponents of the bill is the importance and relevance of it to people from all facets of life. Much of Los Angeles County is considered to be park-poor, with 51 percent of residents living more than a half mile from the nearest park, many of which are difficult to access or in disrepair. In 2015, SMMNRA served over 13,200 students from schools throughout Los Angeles and Ventura County through its “Parks as Classrooms” programs. Proponents of the Rim of the Valley project and SMMNRA say an expanded recreation area could reach a larger population of students and citizens.
There is evidence that the younger generations in Los Angeles tend to use nature at higher rates. Another national preserve in Los Angeles, the Puente Hills, has even reported a recent increase by a 850 percent from 100,000 in 2005 to 900,000 in 2016. Proponents of the Rim of the Valley hope that this type of legislation would lead to a beneficial increase in usage for residents throughout Los Angeles county.
One of the potential reasons that younger generations love and appreciate Los Angeles County is because of the environmental diversity it offers. Residents go hiking one weekend and lay in the sun on the beach the next. Projects like these can bring together and preserve the areas people love to go to and appreciate. The debate swirling around The Rim of the Valley proposal is whether the project is worth the cost commitment and if it matches with the best interests of all residents who are starved for baseball and soccer fields as well as natural preserves.
