Temescal Canyon Association Hosts Annual Meeting

By SARAH SHMERLING | Editor-in-Chief

Members of Temescal Canyon Association gathered virtually on the evening of November 15 for an annual meeting, which featured updates within the organization as well as two guest speakers.

TCA President Gil Dembo provided updates about the association that have taken place since its last meeting in 2020, including covering expenses, which featured a donation to the National Wildlife Federation. The board also voted to extend the current board one year, due to COVID-19.

The first guest speaker was Noa Rishe Khalili, an environmental scientist who works for California State Parks. She provided updates about Will Rogers State Historic Park and Topanga State Park, as well as a summary of California State Parks’ involvement with the Palisades fire that took place in May.

In addition to hiring a new concessionaire for the horses at Will Rogers State Historic Park, there is also a new ranger on hand to help during off hours in the area. Khalili highlighted rangers at Topanga who have been doing an “outstanding job” of combating local issues, like illegal camping and parking.

“The main issue with illegal parking and illegal camping is the risk of wildfires if people aren’t careful,” she explained. “When you don’t have an approved campsite, it’s very easy for a campfire to get out of hand.”

In total, there is about $2 million of deferred maintenance being completed within Will Rogers and Topanga, including reroofing the ranch house, upgrading the HVAC system and restoration of the hay barn. Future projects include repairs to the Trippet House deck and graffiti removal at Rustic Canyon.

There is also a new trail supervisor, Jason Finlay, who is tackling deferred trail issues. Faded signs at the bottom of Los Leones Trail are in the process of being replaced—the new signs were ordered more than one year ago, so Khalili shared the expected arrival date is soon.

Khalili then launched a presentation about the Palisades fire, including what California State Parks worked on during and after the fire.

“Our main goal is to protect the park resources, which is slightly at odds with the goal of the fire department, because the goal of the fire department is to put out the fire at all costs, but there can be a lot of resource damage,” she explained.

California State Parks involvement began before the fire was put out: While helicopters were dropping water, the agency was working with the fire department’s heavy equipment crew to start repairing dozer lines that were created. She explained that the goal is to “put things back the way they were,” so additional issues, like erosion, are avoided.

“Our goals are to prevent erosion, to help the native plant communities reestablish and also to try to prevent having hikers and bikers use these dozer lines as new trails,” Khalili said. “We don’t want to end up with a spiderweb network of new trails around the park.”

By August, new plants and new greenery were being planted in the area that burned during the fire.

After Khalili spoke, Beth Pratt, the California director for the National Wildlife Federation and leader of the #SaveLACougars campaign, provided updates about the forthcoming wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon.

“When I was coming up in school and conservation 30 years ago, the dominant philosophy was you decide these islands of habitat and you keep the people and the wildlife separate,” Pratt explained. “Science is now telling us it doesn’t work. Even in the best protected places on the planet, like Yosemite or Yellowstone, if nature isn’t connected, it’s not going to have a future.”

She explained that without building a wildlife crossing at Liberty Canyon for animals to use in the Santa Monica Mountains, mountain lion extinction is “looking very likely.”

“I want to be clear: It’s not that I am advocating for backing off on places like Yosemite or Yellowstone,” Pratt explained. “I think we do need places where wildlife have primacy and where they have the ultimate protections, but what we need to rethink more is letting wildlife back and creating green spaces in areas we’ve written off, like the Los Angeles area.”

She shared that people have expressed fears that it would bring more mountain lions and wildlife into the area, but that would not be the case: The crossing would just ensure that mountain lions don’t “inbreed themselves out of existence.”

At the time of the meeting, more than $72 million had been raised by over 4,500 donors to help build the crossing. The campaign has a goal of $85 million.

The next steps include the project going out to bid toward the end of December, with Pratt saying the contractor should be selected by January, allowing the project to break ground in February or March of 2022.