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Local Hiking Trails Converted into Bike Roads
I’ll bet you didn’t know:
The State Parks are swimming in money!
Looking and listening to nature is a complete waste of time!
This must be true. If it weren’t, why would our parks convert beautiful foot trails into bicycle freeways?
[NOTE] At the end of this message, you will be asked to write a letter or send an email. I implore you to do so.
The Yearling Trail runs through the Reagan Ranch section of Malibu Creek State Park from the ranch house area to the top of Cage Creek Trail (where apes penned up humans in the first Planet of the Apes movie). The Lookout Trail continues from that intersection on into Malibu Creek State Park (MCSP), meeting Crags Rd. near Century Lake. These are beautiful trails, leading through fields of wildflowers and grass and downhill through oak woodlands and chaparral. Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society has led a “wildflowers, butterflies and birds” walk along these trails for several years. (Our next is on Saturday, April 9, starting at Paramount Ranch. Join us!)
Yearling & Lookout Trails from Reagan Ranch to Century Lake
We take about 4 hours to cover the 4 mile distance to the MCSP parking lot. There’s so much to see, smell, hear; moving quickly defeats the purpose. Here’s a link to our last trip, where we saw, sniffed or heard at least 70 species of flowering plants and 60 species of birds.
These are “single-track” trails, one person wide.
The Yearling "Single Track" Trail
When people meet, someone steps aside. People who study flowers or birds tend to stand around a lot looking at stuff, preferably on the trail so as not to stand on the plants you’re studying.
Why would anyone want to spend our vanishing dollars converting such beautiful trails – perfect, as is, for hiking and nature study – into much wider bicycle trails, with graded hillside descents so bikers won’t bounce too much while they careen down the slopes? Why indeed.
I’ve hiked Santa Monica Mountain trails for decades, both before and after the bicycles began to appear. Certain trails, like the main trail through Pt. Mugu State Park (aka Sycamore Canyon), have been ruined for hiking by the bikers. Our Audubon chapter used to bird there twice a year, in addition to our individual hikes up the canyon. Because of the bicycles, we stopped going there several years ago. It is no fun standing and watching a Flicker popping his head out of a tree-hole or a Kestrel working over some hapless vole, when suddenly a bicycle comes ripping down the trail and shoots past or even through the middle of your group.
Biker on Hidden Pond non-bike Trail in Point Mugu State Park
No warning bell, no horn, no shout, no “pardon me”, no nothing except the all-too-frequent rude comment. Many bikers we see now wear earphones and iPods while they tear down the trail. This is understandable: who wants to hear birds sing in the bush or hikers shout after you’ve just whacked them with your handlebars?
In 2007, over 600 bikers converged on MCSP for a “Fat-Tire Festival.” There were “Poker Runs” and “wheelie contests.” This is not use, this is abuse. MCSP should not become a bicycle playground to the exclusion of all other activities. The Yearling/Lookout trail loop is one of the few places remaining where we could avoid bicycle abuse.
Must every mountain trail be degraded into a bicycle freeway, filled with zooming oblivioids barely aware they’re riding through fields and forests rather than brickyards? I don’t think so. When is enough, enough? Hikers and birders should not need to risk life and limb to enable bikers to reach every conceivable destination from every possible starting point in the shortest possible time. Apparently CORBA (Concerned Off-Road Bicyclists Association) won’t be happy until they get exactly that: every trail a bike trail. According to them, converting the Yearling and Lookout Trails will set a “precedent that would open even more trails to bicyclists, much of it single track, in the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area.” That’s right, they really, really want to use the trails where hikers will have to leap out of their way. Their website also – fallaciously – states: “More trails open to bicycles means reduced congestion on other trials and an improved trail experience for all users.” If “all users” includes anyone not on a bike, forget about it.
In a March 23 Malibu Times article Superintendent Craig Sap is quoted as saying: “the creation of step-off areas or “passing” lanes could accommodate both [horses & cyclists] since the trails are naturally very narrow, where blind spots are common.” I suppose that the cyclists will conveniently come speeding at you only when you happen to be next to such a “step-off” zone. The entire Sycamore Canyon trail is wide enough to accommodate park rangers’ vehicles, yet hiking is still unsafe.
A blog reader pointed out to me (private correspondence) that the CORBA website has “Rules of the Trail” which include: Ride on open trails only; Leave no trace; Control Your Bicycle!; Always Yield the Trail to Other Trail Users; Never Scare Animals. This is very commendable. And I’m sure that in our society where no one ever breaks the law or speeds on the freeway or tosses litter out the car window, every cyclist need read this only once on the CORBA website for them to instantly and forever adhere to these excellent precepts. (If you believe this, there are some money managers in Nigeria who need your assistance in a financial matter.)
If you value your trails and want to be able to bird, hike, study the flowers, admire the butterflies, ride your horse or merely stand and admire the scenery, you need to act now. [Chuck Almdale]
Please send an email (or even better, a letter) to:
Superintendent Craig Sap
“Craig Sap” <CSAP@parks.ca.gov>
Mailing Address:
California Department of Parks and Recreation, Los Angeles District
1925 Las Virgenes Road,
Calabasas, CA 91302
And send a copy to:
“Director Ruth Coleman, DPR” <RUTH@parks.ca.gov>
Bad news from Midway
An update on the tsunami effect on Pacific seabirds in breeding season can be found at http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/03/18/tsunami.birds.deaths/index.html?eref=igoogledmn_topstories
Bird Articles from the Science Press
An item from Adrian:
The Dodos of the island of Mauritius were flightless birds related to the pigeon and the dove. They had no natural predators on the island prior to its discovery by explorers in 1505. It built its nest on the ground, and after the arrival of Portuguese explorers and the introduction of animals such as pigs, dogs and rats, the eggs were vulnerable to being preyed upon.
It was thought that the diet of the Dodo consisted mainly of fruit although observers did note they saw the Dodos eating iron and stones. It is now believed that the rocks eased the dodo’s digestion.
Although this unusual bird suffered extinction in 1681, the story does not stop there. The potential widespread effects of an extinction of a species are just beginning to be understood. It was recently appreciated that a certain type of tree on Mauritius was becoming quite rare and that all of the 13 trees of the species that remain were approximately 300 years old. It has been determined this type of tree lives to be about 300 years old and this means the species will become extinct. It seems awfully coincidental that this tree had stopped reproducing about 300 years ago just about the time that the Dodo became extinct.
It turns out that the Dodo’s diet consisted of the fruit that this tree produced. The seeds of this tree could only become active and grow after they passed through the Dodo’s digestive system. Therefore the Dodo’s extinction has a direct bearing on this tree’s extinction.
And while we’re on the subject of Dodos:
The slimmer, trimmer Dodo; New Caledonian Crows use tools to poke spiders; plus more.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/69650/title/News_in_Brief_Life
From Science News Online 2/09/11.
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American Goldfinchs’ testosterone surges at sight of thistle blooms
Seeing the right flowers in summer temperatures triggers male goldfinches’ reproductive readiness.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/68646/title/Songbirds_testosterone_surges_at_sight_of_thistle_blooms
From Science News Online 1/12/11.
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On Midway Island, 60-year-old Laysan Albatross, “Wisdom,” and her chick survived the Japan Tsunami
http://www.suite101.com/content/oldest-albatross-survives-tsunami-damage-to-midway-atoll-a358474
From Suzan Phillips. Suite101, 3/13/11
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If that piqued your interest in albatrosses, here’s a beautiful essay on these beautiful birds, from Carl Safina
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/12/albatross/safina-text/1
On the presumption that you simply can’t know too much about the albatross.
From National Geographic December 2007
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[Chuck Almdale]
A sparkling day at Ventura’s Water Reclamation Facility near the beach.
The temperature was in the mid-to-upper 60’s and the ponds all were well-populated with an assortment of ducks and a major presence of Black-crowned Night-Herons.
A small portion of the Black-crowned Night-Herons present (A.Kotin 3/12/11)
We were allowed into the enclosure through a small gate near the road where the first of many Song Sparrows was singing. As we wound our way along the edges of the ponds we caught quick looks at Common Yellowthroats and Bushtits in the mostly-non-native vegetation. By the time we left the first pond we had seen Cinnamon and Blue-winged Teals, American Wigeon, Mallard, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Ducks, and two Mute Swans who flew in and glided to a stop in front of us.
Swans in morning mist (A.Kotin 3/12/11)
Bufflehead and Green-winged Teal were at the last pond. Songbirds such as Bewick’s and Marsh Wren were actively singing. Only two warbler species, Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned showed up in our binoculars. We had a good time tracking the numerous swallows catching insects above and on the water and ended up with four species, including good comparisons between the numerous Tree Swallows, and the few Violet-Greens.
We left the area at 11AM and continued along the marina road to look for shorebirds near the harbor mouth and were immediately rewarded by good looks at Surfbirds and Black Turnstones.
Black Turnstone between Tsunami surges (A.Kotin 3/12/11)
We scoped across to the breakwater and with some effort found a couple of Black Oystercatchers, as well as some Pelagic Cormorants. But we needn’t have gone to so much effort, because near the NPS headquarters we found two Oystercatchers quite close to us. A local boat owner informed us that the effects of the tsunami were still evident in the surf surges at 20-minute intervals. We completed our trip with a look at the marina’s mooring facilities but with little success except for a fleet of Double-crested Cormorants, including one large group flying high overhead in V formation. [Lucien Plauzoles]
| Bird Trip List | |
| Whooper Swan | 3 |
| Gadwall | 70 |
| American Wigeon | 25 |
| Mallard | 30 |
| Blue-winged Teal | 4 |
| Cinnamon Teal | 40 |
| Northern Shoveler | 15 |
| Green-winged Teal | 3 |
| Lesser Scaup | 12 |
| Bufflehead | 12 |
| Ruddy Duck | 150 |
| Pied-billed Grebe | 3 |
| Eared Grebe | 1 |
| Western Grebe | 20 |
| Brown Pelican | 20 |
| Double-crested Cormorant | 60 |
| Pelagic Cormorant | 4 |
| Great Blue Heron | 4 |
| Great Egret | 3 |
| Snowy Egret | 1 |
| Black-crowned Night-Heron | 40 |
| Turkey Vulture | 1 |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 |
| American Coot | 80 |
| Black Oystercatcher | 4 |
| Willet | 2 |
| Ruddy Turnstone | 3 |
| Black Turnstone | 8 |
| Surfbird | 15 |
| Sanderling | 20 |
| Ring-billed Gull | 25 |
| Western Gull | 40 |
| California Gull | 10 |
| Glaucous-winged Gull | 1 |
| Rock Pigeon | 4 |
| Eurasian Collared-Dove | 15 |
| Anna’s Hummingbird | 5 |
| Black Phoebe | 4 |
| American Crow | 12 |
| Common Raven | 1 |
| Northern Rough-winged Swallow | 3 |
| Tree Swallow | 40 |
| Violet-green Swallow | 3 |
| Barn Swallow | 5 |
| Bushtit | 30 |
| Bewick’s Wren | 1 |
| Marsh Wren | 3 |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 |
| Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 1 |
| Northern Mockingbird | 2 |
| European Starling | 2 |
| Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 30 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 6 |
| Spotted Towhee | 1 |
| Song Sparrow | 15 |
| White-crowned Sparrow | 3 |
| Great-tailed Grackle | 1 |
| House Finch | 30 |
| Lesser Goldfinch | 1 |
| American Goldfinch | 1 |
| Total Species | 61 |
Snowy Plover Monitor Training
The following message is from Stacey Vigallon at the LA County Snowy Plover Central Command Facility. You’ve read about them in our blogs. Now you too can help with this important project.
Interested in helping monitor threatened birds at the beach?
Long-term Malibu Lagoon resident, Snowy Plover NO:WW (C.Almdale)
Los Angeles Audubon will host the next volunteer training for Snowy Plover Monitoring on Saturday, March 5th, 8-10 am at Santa Monica Beach. We will meet in the parking lot at the Annenberg Community Beach House (just off Pacific Coast Highway). Feel free to contact the volunteer coordinator (tern@laaudubon.org) if you have any questions. If you’d like to participate in the monitoring program, but can’t make the March 5th date, alternative training can be arranged. Los Angeles Audubon, Santa Monica Bay Audubon Society, South Bay/Palos Verdes Audubon, and Ryan Ecological Consulting have been working together since 2007 to help monitoring Snowy Plovers in Los Angeles County. [Chuck Almdale]
SANTA MONICA BAY AUDUBON SOCIETY BLOG 