The new General Plan for the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area emphasizes resource protection, with only 5 percent of the land designated for high-intensity use.
By P.G. O’Malley /Special to The Malibu Times
Forced to deal with a growing number of visitors and population growth in both coastal communities and nearby inland valleys, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area has just released a new 20-year General Management Plan.
The document, which replaces a plan developed immediately after the recreation area was established in 1978, walks a tight line between preservation and recreation, but emphasizes low-intensity use, good news for Malibu, which otherwise would have been earmarked for more visitors.
SMMNRA Superintendent Woody Smeck expressed satisfaction with what he called the Preservation Alternative, chosen from among five put forward to the public at a series of meetings that began in 1997.
Under the new plan, 80 percent of the park will be reserved for natural and cultural resource protection, where visitors can discover “a sense of being immersed in natural and wild landscape.” Hiking, biking and horseback riding will be allowed only on designated trails. Fifteen percent of the land will be designated at moderate intensity use, which allows low-impact camping, self-guided nature trails and guided interpretative walks, while 5 percent will see high intensity use including campground camping, educational activities, day camps and community activities similar to what now occurs at sites such as Malibu Creek State Park and Paramount Ranch.
If the Recreation Alternative had been selected, high intensity use would have increased to 65 percent and high intensity use areas doubled to include Malibu’s Charmlee park, much expanded activities at Malibu Creek State Park, Circle X Ranch near Boney Mountain, Zuma Canyon, Rocky Oaks Park and the Backbone Trail trailhead on Kanan Dume Road.
According to Smeck, the plan is a framework document, and plans for specific new programs and facilities will be developed separately, triggering their own series of public hearings and environment impact reviews.
Facility development that involves Malibu includes a visitor education center and staging area at state-owned Bluffs Park, development of a primitive campground at Circle X Ranch, refurbishment of the campground at Leo Carrillo State Park and an Environmental Education Center in Solstice Canyon. With the exception of the Solstice Canyon center, which is currently under construction, no timetable for construction has been set, and development will depend on future allocations of funds. Smeck said traffic in the recreation area is already congested at peaks times and park managers would support not expanding Pacific Coast Highway or any of the other state routes through the mountains.
New programs under the new General Management Plan include an interpretative tour shuttle that will take visitors on a scenic loop of Mulholland Highway, PCH and Malibu Canyon Road and a scenic coastal boat tour that will utilize Malibu Pier as one of its embarkation points. The steelhead trout will be re-introduced into Malibu Creek as well as Solstice Creek, and various natural areas such as degraded areas around Trancas and Zuma creeks will be targeted for restoration.
“When the recreation area was established we didn’t know what kind of resources we had,” Smeck said. “This is one of only five areas in the world where the Mediterranean ecosystem exists. We’re down to only 10 percent of the original left worldwide and we need to protect it.”
Four hundred animal species occupy the mountains, including more than 20 species listed as threatened or endangered on federal or state lists and another 46 animal and 11 plant species that are federal or state species of concern.
The Santa Monica Mountains are also home to two of the largest Native American groups in California, the Chumash and Gabrielino/Tongva, and 1,000 arecheological sites have been identified in the mountains. Seventy-three archeological/historic sites are eligible for nomination to the National Register of Historic Places, and three structures are already listed on the Register, including Malibu’s Adamson House.
“The mission of the recreation areas includes offering education and recreation accessible to a diverse public,” Smeck said. “Lots of our current users come from more affluent local communities, but the use of the reaction area by people in more urbanized areas is a critical piece of the puzzle we have to put together for the future. In the area that the recreation serves, there is less than half an acre of parkland for every 1,000 people.”
This is the first of three articles on the SMMNRA General Plan. Next time we take a look at reactions to how the new General Plan balances recreation and preservation.