Take a Hike - Poppies are in Bloom at the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve

Virtually everything in this picture, from the poppies to the ridge-line, is pubic parkland of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, California State Parks, or the National Park Service. The Upper Las Virgenes Open Space Preserve, formerly the Ahmanson Ranch, once slated for development, is now one of the most beautiful and popular parks in our area of Southern California.

Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve Trail is a 9.9 mile heavily trafficked loop trail located near Calabasas, California that offers the chance to see wildlife and is rated as moderate. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail but must be kept on leash.

The first part of the hike takes you through gently rolling hills dotted with huge, spectacular oak trees. After a loop around Lasky Mesa, the hike heads northwest to Las Virgenes Canyon where a small creek nurtures a more densely covered area along the banks of the stream. This is a popular area for bikers so keep a head up for them.

Access to the park is at the Victory Trailhead at the western terminus of Victory Boulevard in West Hills, at the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Trailhead at the northern end of Las Virgenes Canyon Road in Calabasas, and through trails headed east on the National Park Service land at Cheesebro Canyon. The trails are open to hikers, mountain bikers, and equestrians during daylight hours. No unauthorized motorized vehicles are allowed. There is a $3 parking fee at the Victory trailhead parking lot.

Los Angeles Rams Join California Natural Resources Agency to Support Access to the Outdoors and Recreational Opportunities

It's official, the Rams are supporting access to the outdoors for all Californians. You can join them by  getting a Rams Team branded license plate. Click on the image below to share this information with friends, fans or any lovers of the outdoors in your contacts.

Free Weekly Testing: City To Offer Tests Starting Thursday

AGOURA HILLS, CA — The city of Agoura Hills teamed up with four neighboring city's to offer free COVID-19 testing three times a week at the Calabasas/Agoura Hills Community Center starting Thursday. The testing will happen every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the community center, located at 27040 Malibu Hills Road in Agoura Hills. The clinics will offer PCR tests with results sent to an email or phone number within 24 hours. You must pre-register for a test using this link. Upon arrival, you will be asked to show government issued identification and insurance card if you are insured.

Las Virgenes Water District to Mandate Water Conservation

Escrow Closes on Final Phase of the Triangle Ranch

Tuesday, November 30: Today the MRCA successfully closed escrow on the 150+/- acre Phase 4 of Triangle Ranch.  Located on the southern border of Agoura Hills, the 320 acre Triangle Ranch property was the largest remaining privately owned holding in the Santa Monica Mountains and has long been an acquisition target of the MRCA and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy.

The property contains a section of Medea Creek, a tributary of Malibu Creek, which supports western pond turtles alongside many other riparian species. It also hosts broad swaths of coast live oak woodland, chaparral, purple sage scrub, native and annual grassland, and valley oak savannah. This newest protected parkland supports mountain lion, mule deer, American badger, bobcat, gray fox, ring-tailed cat, long-tailed weasel, California quail, and dozens of reptile species.

 This concludes a multi-phased acquisition project which began in 2018.  Funding for Phase 4, totaling $11.5 million, was allocated by the State legislature to the Conservancy and through a grant from Los Angeles County and the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts (via Calabasas Landfill Economic Recovery Fund).  Phases 1-3 were funded by a coalition of state, local, and private sources, including the Conservancy, the California Wildlife Conservation Board, Los Angeles County Regional Parks and Open Space District, City of Agoura Hills, and the Hilton Foundation.

 The  first image below shows the Triangle Ranch with Phase 4 highlighted and the second image shows the west/east wildlife corridor leading to the Liberty Canyon wildlife crossing.

 

 

 

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Conservancy Grants Funds for Purchase of Phase 4, the Last Parcel of the Triangle Ranch

At its October 18 meeting, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) awarded a grant of nearly $10 million to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, (MRCA), for the purchase of the last phase of the Triangle Ranch.The Triangle Ranch is located directly south of the City of Agoura Hills in unincorporated Los Angeles County and straddles Kanan Road. It has long been identified as a crucial linkage for habitat preservation, watershed protection, and wildlife movement in the area. Acquisition of the property has been a long-term objective of the Conservancy and MRCA. 

In 2018, the MRCA, with funding from the Conservancy and other public entities, successfully acquired roughly 170 acres of the privately held land. At that time, the MRCA was unable to secure funding for the fourth and final phase of the property as contemplated in the purchase agreement. Over the last several months, as the prospects of an improved State budget became likely, Conservancy and MRCA staff continued to work with the owner's on a revised, lower, purchase price for Phase 4 if funds became available. The MRCA has recently entered into a purchase agreement for this final 155+/- acre phase with the property owners. 

The County of Los Angeles will soon be considering the MRCA's request for $1,428,149 from a mitigation fund established by fees from the Calabasas Landfill. The balance of the purchase price of over $11 million is being provided to the MRCA from the Conservancy's state budget allocation and an $8,000,000 set aside in the state budget requested by State Senator Henry Stern specifically for the acquisition of this final phase of the Triangle Ranch.  Special thanks are owed to Senator Stern for doggedly keeping this issue alive in Sacramento during prior periods of budget uncertainty..

It is difficult to overstate the importance of this acquisition to Agoura Hills and, really, to all of this part of Southern California. Putting the entire Triangle Ranch into permanent protected status preserves over 320 acres of habitat, keeps open a vital east/west wildlife corridor and pathway to the soon to be built Liberty Canyon wildlife crossing, protects the Malibu Creek watershed from further degradation, prevents further sprawl into a very high fire hazard severity zone, maintains the carbon sequestration provided by the undisturbed oak and chaparral woodlands and preserves the mountain views that constitute the gateway to the Santa Monica Mountains.

We are sharing this reposted message with Agoura Hills Tomorrow Readers.

(posted Sept. 2, 2021)

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California WCB Grants $20 Million for the Wildlife Crossing at Liberty Canyon!

Funding Matches $25 Million Conservation Challenge Grant from Annenberg Foundation, Leaving Campaign with $6.5 Million to Raise to Start Construction on Schedule

LOS ANGELES (September 2, 2021) — The California Wildlife Conservation Board has granted the National Wildlife Federation $20 million for the construction of the wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon in the Los Angeles area. Combined with a $5 million dollar grant awarded by the board in 2020, the WCB has now matched the $25 million Conservation Challenge grant from Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation. This leaves the #SaveLACougars campaign with $6.5 million to raise in order to start construction on the landmark conservation project before the end of this year.  “I am so gratified that the Wildlife Conservation Board is joining in making a major contribution to the wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon, which is so needed in our region,” said Wallis Annenberg, Chairman, President, and CEO of Annenberg Foundation. “Wildlife crossings restore ecosystems that had been fractured and disrupted. They reconnect lands and species that are aching to be whole. I believe these crossings go beyond mere conservation, toward a kind of environmental rejuvenation that is long overdue. It's a model for the kind of public-private partnerships that can heal our environment for the long haul. Thanks to this extraordinary commitment, California is now in the vanguard of that change. And, of course, I am so proud to be helping the animals and ecosystem to address a global biodiversity hotspot with what is believed to be the largest urban wildlife crossing in the world.”  “This is a huge step forward,” said California Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot. “Not only will Liberty Crossing be the largest wildlife crossing of its kind in the world, it is emblematic of the bold and creative solutions we need to protect California’s wildlife as our state continues to grow. Nature-based solutions like Liberty Crossing are also essential for combatting the climate crisis and our work to conserve 30 percent of California’s land and coastal waters by 2030. The National Wildlife Federation and all local leaders and groups working together on this effort deserve great credit. We need more of these landmark collaborations to tackle the challenges we now face together.”   “Wildlife are facing unprecedented challenges in California from the impacts of climate change such as historic drought, heat and fires,” noted John Donnelly, director of the Wildlife Conservation Board. “One of the main strategic priorities for the Wildlife Conservation Board is enhancing connectivity throughout the state to increase the resiliency of both flora and fauna to these challenges. We are pleased to provide this grant to a project that will connect an entire regional ecosystem and help ensure we preserve the incredible biodiversity of the Santa Monica Mountains.”  “The wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon will be the largest in the world, and we cannot thank California Governor Gavin Newsom, and the state legislature enough — especially Senator Henry Stern, Assemblymember Richard Bloom, Assembly Transportation Committee Chair Laura Friedman and California Natural Resources Secretary, Wade Crowfoot — as well as the California Wildlife Conservation Board director John Donnelly and California Department of Fish and Wildlife Director Chuck Bonham, for working to match the historic private investment by Wallis Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “As the National Wildlife Federation works to restore wildlife corridors across the nation, the wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon is the absolute best example in the world of how we can reconnect fragmented wildlife habitat even in the most dense urban areas.” “Time is running out for these mountain lions,” said Beth Pratt, California Regional Executive Director for the National Wildlife Federation and leader of the #SaveLACougars campaign. “All that stands between us and groundbreaking is $6.5 million — we hope other philanthropists will step up and get us past the finish line so these remarkable cats can have a future in the Los Angeles area.”  The wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon is a project for the next century, and the structure will endure for decades, providing a lasting benefit to wildlife for generations to come. Two decades of study by the National Park Service in the Los Angeles area has shown roads and development are not only proving deadly for animals trying to cross, but have also created islands of habitat that can genetically isolate all wildlife — from bobcats to birds and lizards. This visionary wildlife crossing will preserve biodiversity across the region by re-connecting an integral wildlife corridor, and most critically, help save a threatened local population of mountain lions from extinction. Without intervention, they could vanish from the area within our lifetime. In April of 2020, the California Fish and Game Commission unanimously voted to advance a petition to declare this population of cougars as threatened under the state’s Endangered Species Act for final consideration. When complete, the crossing will be the largest in the world, the first of its kind in California, and will serve as a global model for urban wildlife conservation. As evidenced from decades of wildlife crossing projects across the world, such as the successful structures in Banff National Park, and the array of animals seen using an overpass in Utah in a recent viral video, wildlife crossings work. As a major green infrastructure project for the state of California, construction for the crossing will generate jobs in the region and economic benefits into the future.  The wildlife crossing is a public-private partnership of monumental scope that has leveraged the expertise and leadership of dozens of organizations and institutions. The core partners include Caltrans, the National Park Service, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy/Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains, and the National Wildlife Federation. The project partners also added a world-renowned design team led by a landscape architectural practice, Living Habitats LLC, that collaborates with Caltrans and coordinates with a broad team of wildlife crossing experts in the planning and design development of the wildlife crossing. To learn more about the #SaveLACougars campaign and its efforts to build the wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon visit https://savelacougars.org/