Archive for the ‘Verdugo Mountains’ Category

City of Glendale Mountain Bike Patrol Program to Launch

Thursday, November 8th, 2012

The City of Glendale has announced that their Hiking and Mountain Biking Patrol program is ready to launch. They are seeking volunteers interested in spending a few hours per month riding or hiking the trails of the Verdugo Mountains. Applications are available from the City’s Community Services and Parks Department. Mountain bikers will be required to attend the CORBA Free Skills Clinic. Following is the announcement from the City:

 

 

At long last we are pleased to announce that applications are now available for the City of Glendale’s volunteer Trail Safety Patrol (TSP) program.

We ask that, at your earliest convenience, you stop by the Community Services & Parks Department at Glendale City Hall to pick up your application packet.  The Department is open every day from 8 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday through Thursday; and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday.

At that time, we would like to take a few minutes to get acquainted (this is not a formal interview), then have you pick up your application packet and proceed to our Human Resources office where you will receive information on the mandatory fingerprint and background check that is required of all City volunteers. 

Glendale City Hall is located at 613 East Broadway, Glendale, CA 91206.  The Community Services & Parks Department is located on the first floor in Room 120.  Please ask to speak to Iris Hidalgo.

The Human Services Department is also on the first floor of City Hall, across the lobby, in Room 100.  Please ask to speak to Ando Vardanyan.

Free Visitor Parking is available in the City’s parking structure on Wilson Avenue, north of Broadway and west of Glendale Avenue.

Your application packet will include the following:

  • TSP Application Form
  • TSP Physician Approval Form
  • TSP Insurance Information Form
  • TSP Bike Liability Waiver 
  • TSP Hike Liability Waiver 
  • City Volunteer Registration Form/Conviction History 
  • City Volunteer Agreement Form

Please note that the mandatory fingerprint/background check and the mandatory liability/bike insurance will be obtained at no cost to you. 

You need to sign either the Bike Waiver or the Hike Waiver, not both, depending on which unit you are applying for.  If you are applying for the Hike Unit, you only need to fill out the top portion of the Insurance Information Form.  All other forms must be completely filled out, signed, and dated.

As soon as you have completed all the forms, please return them to the Community Services & Parks Department, 613 East Broadway, Room 120, Glendale, CA  91206.  If we were unable to meet when you picked up the documents, please return them in person so that we have a chance to meet face to face.

The application packet must be returned to us no later than November 30, 2012.

Please note the following important dates:

  • Saturday, December 1, 2012 – members of the Mountain Bike Unit must take the CORBA Mountain Bike Skills class at MalibuCreek State Park from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.  All members of the Mountain Bike Unit must pass this course in order to be part of the Trail Safety Patrol.   

      Please go to:  http://corbamtb.com/programs/skills.shtml for more information.

  • Sunday, December 2, 2012 – members of the Hike Unit must meet in Brand Park at 9 a.m. for the hike test up the Brand Motorway.  All members of the Hike Unit must hike the 6.2 mile route of the Verdugo Mountains 10K in under 2.5 hours.

·        Saturday, December 8, 2012 – all volunteers must undergo the mandatory 8-hour training program to be held in the Glendale Police Department’s Community Room from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.  The Police Department is located at 131 North Isabel Street, Glendale, CA  91206.  A free visitor parking lot is across the street from the station.      

We know this is a lot to digest, so if you have any questions, or if there are any problems, please feel free to call me at the number below or simply reply to this email.  If you have any friends or colleagues with mountain biking or hiking skills who you think might be interested in participating, please have them contact me.  We can always use more excellent volunteers.

We look forward to working with you to make this an outstanding program that benefits all those who use Glendale’s trails and open space.

Rim of the Valley Corridor Preliminary Findings – Public Hearings in November

Thursday, October 25th, 2012

The Special Resource Study for the Rim of the Valley Corridor has been released. While we have not yet had a chance to look at the proposed alternatives, we will do so in the coming weeks and after the first round of meetings. We reported on the ROTV corridor study’s release of Scoping comments in 2011.  The alternatives presented in Newsletter #3 should address and consider these comments.

The four alternatives presented are:

  • Alternative A: No Action (A continuation of current management)
  • Alternative B: Cooperative Conservation Partnership
  • Alternative C: Connecting Urban Parks – Santa Monica Mountain National Recreation Area Boundary Adjustment
  • Alternative D: Connecting Natural Habitat – SMMNRA Boundary Adjustment

While all these alternatives have their advantages and disadvantages, there is an overlapping study for the San Gabriel Watershed and Mountains Special Resource Study. It’s unclear from these preliminary documents how these two studies overlap, and how much of the effort in each is a duplication.

It is within CORBA’s mission to help protect and preserve our open spaces and public lands, in addition to providing access to those public lands through natural-surface, shared use trails. None of the alternatives presented in this newsletter outline any specific actions with regards to the Rim of the Valley Trail, but rather, provide an outline for the role the National Park Service might play in its future development and management.

We’ll look over these alternatives and publish our comments, and strongly encourage others to also comment by the January 7 deadline.

Below the break is the meeting schedule and offical notice for the study, which can be downloaded here.

——————————————————————————————————————

Preliminary Findings & Alternative Concepts Newsletter Available for

Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study

Dear Friends,

We are happy to report our progress on the Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study, and we invite your feedback on the preliminary ideas which are presented in our recently published Newsletter #3. The newsletter includes preliminary study findings that address whether resources of the study area are nationally significant, and whether they are suitable and feasible for inclusion in the national park system as a new park unit or as an addition to Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA). Based on these preliminary findings, four preliminary alternative concepts are also presented in the newsletter for your consideration. Please send us your comments by January 7, 2013. 

The four preliminary alternative concepts presented in the newsletter illustrate different ways of providing protection and public enjoyment of resources that have been identified as potentiallynationally significant.  They include different levels and types of involvement by the National Park Service (NPS). Most importantly, these preliminary alternative concepts serve as a starting point for discussion and public input.

Please tell us what you think about the alternative concepts. Do you like one particular concept more than the others? Do you like various elements of each of the concepts? Do you have an entirely different vision of how the area should be managed? Your comments will help us refine the concepts and will ultimately lead to a recommendation to Congress.

We have scheduled seven public meetings extending through the month of November, concluding with a final meeting in early December. During these meetings, we will update you on our progress on the Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study and listen to your thoughts and ideas. Dates, times and locations of these meetings are listed below.  The NPS will also host a virtual public meeting online. Information on the virtual public meeting will be posted on the study website.

We look forward to hearing from you!

 

Wednesday, November 7, 7 – 9 p.m.
Conejo Recreation and Parks District, Community Room
403 W. Hillcrest Dr., Thousand Oaks,CA 91360

Thursday, November 8, 7 – 9 p.m.
George A. Caravalho Santa Clarita Sports Complex, Activities Center Building
20880 Centre Point Parkway
Santa Clarita, CA 91350

Tuesday, November 13, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.***
Pacific Community Center
501 S. Pacific Ave.
Glendale, CA 91204

Thursday, November 15, 7 – 9 p.m.
Mason Recreation Center
10500 Mason Ave.
Chatsworth, CA 91311

Tuesday, November 27, 6:30 – 8:30 p.m.
Encino Community Center Women’s Club
4935 Balboa Blvd.
Encino, CA 91316

Thursday, November 29, 7 – 9 p.m.***
Moorpark Community Center
799 Moorpark Ave.
Moorpark, CA 93021

Saturday, December 1, 10 a.m. – noon
Eaton Canyon Nature Center
1750 North Altadena Dr.
Pasadena, CA 91107

CORBA Presentation for Land Managers, October 19, 2012

Monday, October 1st, 2012

CORBA and our neighboring IMBA chapter, the Mount Wilson Bicycling Association, will be co-hosting the IMBA Trail Care Crew for a visit to our local mountains. As a part of their visit, we are together hosting a session for Land Managers. The session will introduce you to IMBA as an organization. Attendees will learn how we, as local IMBA Chapters, can help land managers with their trails and open space programs, as well as up-to-date techniques and principles of trail design and construction. Additionally the Trail Care Crew will teach a one-day trailbuilding and maintenance class for volunteers.

The IMBA Trail Care Crew is world-renowned for their expertise in trail design, maintenance, and other issues. This is a unique opportunity to learn from those who live, breathe, and eat multi-use trails year-round, and to exchange ideas about trail construction, conflict resolution and other issues shared by most land managers.

The session is being held at the Angeles National Forest headquarters.

From the IMBA web site: “The Land Manager training educates land managers on IMBA and the practice of designing, building and maintaining sustainable trails; as well as the importance of partnerships with local mountain biking organizations to achieve great trails. The curriculum is geared toward land managers who oversee land that is either provides, or has the potential to provide mountain biking opportunities. This presentation is essential to inform land managers and community leaders on how to partner with clubs to build responsible, thoughtful trails. This presentation helps grow local group’s trust in IMBA, trail building and mountain biking.”

Besides the United States Forest Service, California State Parks, and Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation, we cordially invite all local government agencies and trail advocacy organizations in our area. The session size is limited to 30 people.

Please RSVP or email any questions to steve at corbamtb.com, or call 323-743-3682. 

IMBA Trail Care Crew with CORBA and MWBA
Land Managers’ Workshop
Friday, October 19, 2012, 1pm – 4pm.
Angeles National Forest Headquarters
701 N. Santa Anita Ave,
Arcadia, CA 91006

Directions: Google Map. If you are on the 210 freeway heading east, exit Santa Anita Avenue, and turn right at the off-ramp. Then turn immediately right into the ANF Headquarters, just a few yards south of the off-ramp. From the 210 west, turn left, proceed under the freeeway, and look for the first driveway after passing the eastbound freeway off ramp.

City of Glendale Trail Safety Patrol Program

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

The City of Glendale is looking to get more eyes and ears on its trails through the new Trail Safety Patrol program. The program will be similar to the volunteer patrols conducted by the Mountain Bike Unit (MBU) in the Santa Monica Mountains and elsewhere, except they are looking to enlist volunteers from both the hiking and mountain biking communities.  News about the program emerged recently through a story on the L.A. Times blog.

Mountain bike patrol applicants will be required to attend CORBA’s free skills clinic, while hikers must be able to hike Brand Motorway in under 2.5 hours. Applicants must be at least 18 years old, in good physical health with a letter from a physician indicating you are capable of participating in the program. A background check and registration as an official City of Glendale volunteer will also be required.

A more complete description of the roles and responsibilities of the Trail Safety Patrol program can be found on the City of Glendale’s website at: http://www.ci.glendale.ca.us/government/council_packets/Reports_062612/CC_8b_062612.pdf

We encourage anyone who is already riding the Verdugo mountains on a regular basis to consider joining the program. You’ll be helping keep the trails safer for everyone, and will be good will ambassadors of the mountain biking community as a whole.

The Trail Safety program is being developed by the City’s Community Services and Parks department. Volunteer training is expected to get underway in August.  If you’d like to be notified when the program is ready to accept applications, please email Marc Stirdivant at mstirdivant@ci.glendale.ca.us and the City’s Volunteer Coordinator, Iris Hidalgo, at ihidalgo@ci.glendale.ca.us.  Include your name, address, phone number, summary of your experience as a hiker or mountain bikers, and why you’d like to be a member of the patrol. Volunteer patrollers will be expected to spend a minimum of four hours per month on patrol. If you’re already riding the Verdugo mountains regularly, it will be easy to meet the requirements.

New San Vicente Mountain Communications Tower Public Presentation (the Nike Site)

Thursday, January 12th, 2012
A new communications tower is being proposed for the top of San Vicente Mountain, near the location of the Nike site at Westridge and Mulholland in the Santa Monica Mountains. This is a highly popular destination for trail users and visitors to the Santa Monica Mountains.

UltraSystems, a company specializing in environmental planning, will be conducting a public  presentation on the project for interested parties:

7:00 p.m., Tuesday, January 17, 2012, West Los Angeles City Council Office, 1645 Corinth Ave., Second Floor Hearing Room, LA, CA 90025.  

The presentation will help the public and the trail user communities understand exactly what the impacts of this new 200′ tower will be.

While this meeting will concentrate solely on the the San Vicente Mountain project, at least four other sites are being proposed for similar projects.  Mount Lee is within Griffith Park, behind the Hollywood sign and is off-limits to cyclists.

The other peaks are Mount Lukens in the Angeles National Forest, Verdugo Peak at the top of  Hostetter Fire Road (AKA “La Tuna”), and the Baldwin Hills.  The Mount Lee and Baldwin hills projects are for new equipment buildings within existing facility boundaries. Mount Lukens and Verdugo Peak are both slated to have existing towers replaced and upgraded. These projects will be discussed at a later meeting.

Eagle Scout Project at Verdugo Peak

Tuesday, September 13th, 2011

On Sunday, September 11th, 32 volunteers headed up Hostettor road (La Tuna Canyon) in the Verdugo Mountains. Eagle Scout candidate and Verdugo Peak Trailwork St. Francis High School racer Steven Ayoob had chosen to work on the trails at Verdugo Peak for his Eagle Scout project. Verdugo Peak is the highest peak in the Verdugo Mountains. CORBA trail crew volunteer Steve Messser served as an advisor for the project, supplying CORBA’s tools and expertise.

After a round of coffee, juice and donuts, the group held a moment of silence in memory of the victims of September 11, 2001. Steven gave instructions and organized the group before heading up to the peak and trailwork site. At the top Steve Messer gave a talk on safety, tool use and the objectives of the trailwork.

Steven Ayoob is a member of Boy Scout Troop 127 out of Glendale, and is the troop’s fifth Eagle Scout candidate for 2011. He has ridden the trails in the Verdugos and wanted to help improve and preserve them. The user-created trails that lead up to the peak along the old firebreaks have been ridden and hiked for decades. They have been becoming increasingly rutted and eroded in recent years. About 32 volunteers came out to help with the project, filling ruts, cutting in rolling dips and nicks to divert water, and trimming brush.

Ayoob also had some of the volunteers install a restored and freshly painted park bench on an overlook near the top of Whiting Woods motorway, giving weary hikers and riders a place to sit and enjoy the views of the Crescenta Valley and San Gabriel Mountains.

One of the volunteers who came out was Eagle Scout Chris Sercel, whose Eagle Scout project was the restoration of the Doc Larsen trail in 2010. He put the leadership and trailbuilding skills he’d learned in his project to good use, helping direct one of the two crews working on different sections of the trail. Sercel’s Court of Honor, the ceremony and final step in the long trail to become an Eagle Scout, was held the day before on Saturday, September 10th. At that ceremony Chris surprised CORBA’s Steve Messer with an Eagle Scout Mentor pin for his guidance on the Doc Larsen project, a true honor.

Ayoob’s Eagle Scout project was coordinated with the City of Glendale’s Community Services and Parks Department. CORBA thanks Steven and all the volunteers for their contributions to Glendale’s trails, and we congratulate him on a successful Eagle Scout Project.

Summary of Public Scoping Comments Newsletter Available for Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study

Monday, August 29th, 2011

What follows is the contents of an email we received from the National Park Service:

 

Summary of Public Scoping Comments Newsletter Available for
Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study

Thank you for taking time to send us scoping comments to help guide the Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study. We received more than 2,000 comment letters and e-mails. Over the past several months, we have been reviewing and analyzing your ideas, suggestions and questions. We thank you for taking the time to comment. We’ve learned a lot about the issues that concern you, the special places that you value, and what you hope this study process will accomplish. This summary of Public Scoping Comments, “What We Heard from You,” is now available in Newsletter #2.

The public comments focused primarily on the following broad topics:

– suggestions for the scope and definition of the study area
– suggestions for the study process
– natural and cultural resources that the NPS should consider for possible significance
– existing recreational uses and future recreational needs
– issues and opportunities to be considered in the study process

Also included in this newsletter is an update to our “Frequently Asked Questions” and “Next Steps in the Study Process.”

We look forward to staying in touch with you throughout the process!

Anne Dove                          Margie Steigerwald
Project Manager                   Planner
We need your help getting the word out! 

Given the size and complexity of the study area, we need your help in getting the word out about the study.  If you know anyone who would be interested in this study, please forward this message to them and encourage them to sign-up for our distribution list. 

Download Newsletters

 Contact Information

Mail:      National Park Service
                  Rim of the Valley Corridor Special Resource Study
                  570 W. Avenue 26, #175
                  Los Angeles, CA  90065

Website:  �
www.nps.gov/pwro/rimofthevalley

 E-mail:     pwr_rimofthevalley@nps.gov 

 Phone:     Anne Dove, Project Manager (323) 441-9307
                       Margie Steigerwald, Planner (805) 370-2373

 

Bike Park Project Introduced to Glendale Commission

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Monday afternoon, April 18, 2011 at 2:30pm was the monthly meeting of the City of Glendale, Parks, Recreation and Community Services Commission. CORBA’s Steve Messer spoke during the Oral Communications period of the meeting. The Commission were introduced by Messer to the Glendale Bike Skills Park project.

The Bike Skills Park wasn’t an agenda item, and oral communications are limited to five minutes for each speaker. After Messer made his quick presentation several questions were asked by the commissioners. They were surprised that there isn’t any other bike park in Southern California. They were also surprised that there are four High School teams using Glendale trails for training.

More questions followed about the land requirement and how this proposal dovetails with the Safe and Healthy Streets Plan, which was to go before City Council the following day, Tuesday, April 19 (see below).  The Safe and Healthy Streets Plan has been developed by Colin Bogart of the L.A. County Bicycle Coalition in partnership with the City of Glendale, under a grant from the County of Los Angeles. It includes a recommendation for a Bike Skills Park in its educational section.

Even though this was not an agenda item, Jess Duran, Director of the City’s Community Services and Parks Department made the recommendation “for the department to do a quick feasibility analysis, to put a group together including Colin Bogart and see what the feasibility might be.”  He also added, “I can tell you that now is not a good time to be requesting new projects given the challenges of the budget and the staff resources, but we could do a quick feasibility analysis. I’d also like to get some background from staff to what extent we’ve evaluated this type of project before.”

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Glendale Bike Skills Park – Show Your Support!

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Glendale needs a Bike Skills Park. Southern California needs a Bike Skills Park. Sign our petition and let the City of Glendale know!

Italian Bike Park showing Wooden and Dirt features

Bike Park showing Wooden and Dirt features (Italy)

Bike Skills Parks are a dedicated area for bicycles and include features like a pump track, progressive tabletop jumps, balance training features, XC short tracks, and much more. They can include dirt features, man-made (cut) wooden features, natural wooden features, and rock features. They are becoming more and more popular as people realize the skill-building fun and health-promoting exercise they provide.

A great example is the Woodward West Bike Park in Fresno. The City of Fresno, local mountain bike advocacy groups and the community came together to make this park a reality. We would like to see that model emulated here in Glendale.

In 2007 and 2008, the CORBA trail crew assisted the City of Glendale in developing their Trails Master Plan. In that plan are several desired new trail corridors in the Verdugos, San Rafael Hills and the foothills of Mt. Lukens. The biggest and most significant addition to the Trails Master Plan is a Bike Skills Park.

In Glendale’s Citywide Trails Master Plan for the San Rafael Hills (available as a PDF here), a bike skills park location is identified as “A” on the San Rafael map. Subsequent to the City’s adoption of the Trails Master Plan, CORBA volunteers worked with the City to identify the most suitable location.

With City Parks staff, we identified what we believe is an ideal location for a Bike Skills Park project. There is access from existing park facilities, and it could easily be tied in to the trail network of Cherry Canyon and the San Rafael Hills.  There are no nearby neighbors to disturb, and the location is surrounded by open space to the east and the 2 freeway on the western side. The land itself consists of debris fill from the construction of the 2 freeway.

Glendale will be revising its Bicycle Master Plan in 2011, and we want to see the Bike Skills Park included in that plan. As of this writing the public hearing dates for Glendale’s Bike Plan have not yet been set. When those hearings are held, we want to show how much demand and community support exists for a Bike Skills Park.

To demonstrate that need, we are gathering signatures on a petition. You can read and sign our petition online on iPetitions.com. If you prefer, you can print out a PDF version of our Petition and gather signatures from your friends, family and neighbors. If you choose the printed petition, please snail mail, email or fax the petition sheets back to us as they are filled.

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Rim of the Valley Study Comments

Friday, October 29th, 2010

As we reported back in August, the National Park Service has been holding public hearings on the Rim of the Valley Special Resource Study.  The public meetings have provided an opportunity for many to voice their support and/or concerns for the concept study.  Until midnight tonight, you can email your comments to the National Park Service.

Rim of the Valley Study Area Map

Rim of the Valley Study Area

The Rim of the Valley is comprised of the open spaces that surround the San Fernando, La Crescenta, Santa Clarita, Simi and Conejo valleys. This area spans both Los Angeles and Ventury County, and a bevy of land managers from different agencies. CORBA fully supports the prospect of having these various land managers come together under the direction of the National Park Service, with the goal of permanently protecting this vital ecological and recreational resource.

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