TOYON is now the official native plant of Los Angeles!
Click HERE to listen to KCRW interview of horticulturist Lili Singer.
Urge the
Forest Service to Protect the
Last Few Wild and Roadless Areas in the
San Gabriel Mountains!
The
Forest Service is hosting a very
important meeting at it's Arcadia
Headquarters (see below) on Wednesday,
May 30th from 4-7 p.m. (it's open house
format so come any time during this
window) to help determine the future of
the last remaining roadless areas in the
San Gabriel Mountains that are not
currently wilderness.
These roadless areas add up to almost
100,000 acres and provide us with
magnificent scenery, hiking, fresh air
and clean water. We want to see all the
roadless areas they have identified in
their
management plan protected forever as
wilderness!
Sierra Club's Juana Torres hiking in the
Condor Peak Roadless Area which under
current plans would not be protected as
wilderness by the Forest Service.
These special
places have names like Condor Peak (near Big
Tujunga Cnyon), West Fork (along the San
Gabriel River) and Fish Canyon (in the
rugged western San Gabriels). If these
places aren't protected now they may
eventually be opened to mining, cell phone
towers and illegal off-roading!
Jon us on May 30th to get your request that
these areas be protected as wilderness on
the public record. Sierra Club volunteers
wearing San Gabriel Mtns Forever T-shirts
will be at the meeting giving out suggested
comments and answering any questions you may
have.
Please let me know if you can make it at
(213) 387-6528 x 226 or via e-mail at
juana.torres@sierraclub.org.
Thanks,
Juana Torres- Sierra Club
Directions:
Angeles National Forest Headquarters, 701
North Santa Anita Avenue, Arcadia, CA 91006.
From the 210 Freeway exit Santa Anita Avenue
and turn south (away from the mountains).
The entrance will be on the right hand side.
Los Angeles
County General Plan Update 2035 –
Revised Draft Available!
The
General Plan Update will guide growth
and development in the unincorporated
areas of Los Angeles County through the
year 2035. It provides a framework of
goals, policies and implementation
programs centered on the theme of
sustainability – or meeting our current
needs without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their
economic, social and environmental
needs. Major policies include:
Expanding Transit Oriented Districts (TODs)
to focus growth in areas with existing
infrastructure and access to transit
choices.
Promoting Mixed-Use to encourage
higher-density commercial/residential
development along identified major
commercial corridors within proposed
TODs.
Expanding Significant Ecological Areas
to ensure long-term biotic diversity in
the County without precluding
development in those areas.
Creating Employment Protection
Districts to ensure that valuable
industrial land remains available for
quality jobs-producing industries and
businesses.
Protecting Agricultural Resources by
recognizing the importance of local
agriculture and protecting it from
incompatible surrounding development.
Links/Resources
Revised Draft General Plan and Land Use
Policy Maps incorporating comments and
feedback received over the last year are
available online at
http://planning.lacounty.gov/generalplan/draft2012.
GP-Net: Look up any parcel in the
unincorporated areas to find out its
current and proposed land use
designations and other related
information at
http://planning.lacounty.gov/generalplan/maps.
Implementation – Draft Zones: As part of
the General Plan Update’s implementation
program, new zones will be created and
the mixed use and manufacturing zones
will be revised to carry out the goals
and policies of the General Plan Update.
You can review them at
http://planning.lacounty.gov/generalplan/zoning.
Please direct any comments or questions
regarding the draft zones to our
Ordinance Studies Section at (213)
974-6432 or ordstudies@planning.lacounty.gov.
Your Support is Important
The General Plan Update is lengthy and
comprehensive in scope. If you’re
looking for particular information,
please feel free to let us know and
we’ll be happy to connect you with the
information you need. Your support for
the County’s General Plan Update is
important to us and we welcome your
comments and questions.
Thank-you,
The General Plan Update Team
(213) 974-6417
genplan@planning.lacounty.gov
LA NATIVE
An ecofriendly future for light rail stations
www.lanative.org
Our goal is simple: get the MTA and Expo
Authority to use native species for the
station landscaping in phase two of the
Expo light rail line.
The site is still being fine-tuned, but
the basic concepts are all there. This
grassroots movement needs help from each
of you in spreading the word on this
long-overdue change in the way we use
plants in our public projects. Under
the Resources & Links section of the
website, you will find copies of both
our colorful Brochure (for interested
stakeholders) and our White Paper (for
media and government). Please feel free
to distribute both documents to anyone
who will read them!
The website also includes a link to our
petition on this matter. Please sign
the petition, if you will. You can link
directly to the petition via:
http://m.ipetitions.com/#petition/la-native
LA NATIVE WHITE
PAPER
To find out why the Expo Line Phase 2
should utilize
mostly native plants, click
HERE.
|
Supervisors
tentatively approve first phases of Newhall Ranch
Final battle to save the river looms
While many homeowners continue to struggle with falling home prices and
under water loans, and commercial vacancy rates in the SCV are at an all
time high, the County’s answer to the problem was to approve an additional
5,500 additional housing units and 2.5 million more square feet of new
commercial space. These first two phases of the Newhall Ranch project
obtained tentative approval this month in spite of the approximately 10,000
existing approved but unbuilt units already in Santa Clarita.
Sited along the Santa Clara River west of the I-5 freeway in one of the most
sensitive wildlife areas in Southern California, these projects received
intense opposition from SCOPE and other environmental groups as well as
members of the community. Downstream farmers and property owners expressed
concerns about chloride pollution and flooding. Unanswered questions remain
regarding the recent water supply well closure and possible spread of the
ammonium perchlorate pollution plume.
SCOPE (Santa Clarita Organization for Planning the Environment) will
not give up the fight to save the Santa Clara from this massive
auto-oriented suburban sprawl project. The last free-flowing river in Los
Angeles County should not be channelized. And the County should provide
housing options that do not contribute to increased air pollution and
greenhouse gases.
SCOPE will not give up, but needs your help.
Please make a donation.
www.scope.org
Cal-IPC's
2012
Wildland
Weed Field
Courses and
Habitat
Restoration
Workdays!
Our upcoming
field
courses and
habitat
restoration
workdays
trains
natural
resource
managers and
restoration
volunteers
on all
aspects of
invasive
weed
management.
Registration
and course
details at
www.cal-ipc.org/fieldcourses/index.php.
Habitat Restoration Workday
Saturday, July 14, Malibu
Riparian & Upland
Restoration
Gain hands-on field
experience controlling
invasive plants with experts
in the field while working
towards your Cal-IPC Trained
Wildland Manager
Certificate. Click
here for more details.
Click here to register for
field courses now.
THEODORE PAYNE FOUNDATION CLASSES
To register for classes, call (818) 768-1802 during business hours. Visit TPF's online calendar for details on these and other classes and events at www.theodorepayne.org
An important advance in systematics of
California plants:
The Jepson eFlora is now on line.
See http://ucjeps.berkeley.edu/IJM.html
The eFlora includes all of the taxonomic treatments of the print Manual and has in addition treatments for taxa that were excluded from the print Manual because of doubts about naturalization status. Interactive distribution maps linked to specimen data from the Consortium of California Herbaria are included. Words that were abbreviated to save space in the print Manual have been expanded. Keys are linked to the treatments to which they refer. Accepted names and synonyms can be searched for. The eFlora is linked to the Jepson Online Interchange, and from there to numerous electronic tools.
The Jepson Herbarium will work with the treatment authors and users to keep the eFlora in sync with advances in California botanical knowledge.
ECOVISIONS YOUTUBE
INVASIVE PLANT VIDEOS
Ecovisions has produced a series of YouTube videos about invasive plants, specifically English ivy, brooms, yellow starthistle, pampas grass and more. Find them at http://www.ecovisions.org/video.html.
A NEW OAK WOODLAND CURRICULUM ACTIVITY
