The National Park Service released its study earlier this month on the Rim of the Valley Corridor and is holding a meeting in Newhall for Santa Clarita, Agua Dulce, Castaic and Acton residents on May 5 in Hart Hall at Hart Park from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. It will be the first of a round of meetings that will be completed by the end of the month.

Four alternatives were presented in the last round of meetings. Alternate A did nothing. Alternate B merely worked with other entities such as the county, state and Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. Alternate C worked on connectivity of the urban areas of Los Angeles to the open-space areas near Los Angeles. Alternate D protected the animal corridors including our Soledad corridor, which is currently in danger of being closed off.

The National Park Service, despite 95 percent of the community asking for a combination of C and D, has recommended Alternate C. This alternate has been updated a bit for this final round to include some corridor protection and lots of interface with the downtown Los Angeles areas, nature education, community outreach, etc.

The new Alternate D incorporates C and protects all of the wildlife corridors and habitat around the Rim of the Valley Study Area. This will help prevent the deaths of large predatory animals trying to cross freeways in search of food, water and mates. It will also help to prevent negative human and animal conflicts.

We have recently lost two local mountain lions. One was hit by a car at the Calgrove off-ramp of the I-5 freeway, and the other was hit by a car at the Placerita off-ramp of the SR-14 freeway. Just north of us, we lost a bear that was hit by a car.

We’re constantly losing coyotes, fox, bobcats and other animals because they have nowhere to cross safely from one isolated piece of land (called an island habitat) to another piece of land. Our corridors are interrupted.

We cannot continue to lose the animals at such a high rate and keep our ecosystem in good shape. A male mountain lion needs 100 square miles to survive. A female needs 50 square miles. That means for 100 square miles or 50 square miles around the area where the two cats were killed, there are no mountain lions. The species cannot survive at this rate. They must travel for food, water and genetic diversity. If there are no predators left, we will be stuck with and overabundance of prey animals invading our urban areas in search of food. We could be inundated with rats, skunks and even tons of deer eating our gardens. Alternate D will connect the corridors between the San Gabriel Mountains, Santa Susana Mountains, and the Santa Monica Mountains.

There is no change of use in any of the study alternatives. This means if you ride a bike or a horse or you hike, none of the trails you currently use will be changed as far as the way you use it.

There is a huge trail that will be built as part of this legislation, if the bill is passed. It will be multi-use. (See red line on map.) Forty percent of this trail is already in existence. The NPS will merely connect the dots. Most of the land will not be owned by the NPS.

The Rim of the Valley Coalition, the Community Hiking Club, the Santa Clara River Watershed Conservancy, conservation activists and many other organizations are requesting that the National Park Service endorse Alternate D as their preferred alternative.

U.S. Rep. Adam Schiff, who is championing the bill later this year in Congress, also wants Alternate D. He has said if enough constituents around the Rim of the Valley Corridor request Alternate D, that is what the final bill will be.

This is your chance to make a difference, both for people and for our wild animal neighbors.

Alternate D would add 313, 000 acres to the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area (SMMNRA) Parklands. Alternate C would add 173,000 acres. This would be a patchwork of city, county, state and federal land. SMMNRA would not own any of the land that is under different jurisdiction, but it would partner with those entities. There is NO eminent domain under this legislation. Private lands will remain private, unless the owners wish to sell or donate land to the National Park Service.

There are a lot of natural and cultural resources within the study and a huge range of opportunities for us finally to connect the corridors. The last of the free-flowing Los Angeles River is a part of the study, as are historical sites such as El Pueblo de Los Angeles, where our urban Los Angeles began.

This draft study is the first step to accomplish our goals. The final outcome and the face of the land in Los Angeles County is now up to you.

The public comment period ends June 30. After that, the NPS will issue a final report, hopefully by December. As soon as this report is issued, Schiff will propose legislation. This will be your last opportunity to participate in this important part of the process.

The entire study is available online [here]. If you cannot attend the meeting in Newhall on May 5, please consider commenting on the study on line on the link above. Everyone’s comments are important.

Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel is executive director of the Community Hiking Club and president of the Santa Clara River Watershed Conservancy. If you’d like to be part of the solution, join the Community Hiking Club’s Stewardship Committee. Contact Dianne through communityhikingclub.org or at zuliebear@aol.com.