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Today in S.C.V. History April 19
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Hello Auto Group has announced its partnership with the Santa Clarita Veteran Services Collaborative for the second annual Military Spouse Appreciation Event. This event, dedicated to honoring military spouses, will take place on Military Spouse Appreciation Day Friday, May 10, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Anthony Vince Nail Spa at 24250 Town Center Drive #140, Valencia, CA 91355.
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The Santa Clarita Artists Association has announced the 2024 scholarship award recipients. These deserving individuals have shown excellence in their high school art education and shared their plans to continue their artistic endeavors.
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The Valley Industry Association of Santa Clarita is set to ignite innovation and transformation with its VIA Workforce Development Conference 2024 at the Hyatt Regency Valencia on Thursday, May 16. Jorge Marquez, chairman of the Los Angeles County Workforce Development Board, has been added to the list of speakers appearing at the event. He will serve as the opening speaker at the conference.
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The city of Santaw Clarita will host the Free To Be Me Festival for its third year at an exciting new location. On Sunday, May 5, from noon to 3 p.m., celebrate Santa Clarita’s special needs communities and their families at West Creek Park, 24247 Village Circle Drive, Valencia, CA 91354.
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The Los Angeles County Department of Economic Opportunity and its regional partners have held the first of several upcoming rapid response events to urgently connect soon-to-be laid off local workers, impacted by the recent bankruptcy and closure of dozens of local 99 Cents Only Stores, to critical workforce services.
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Youth in Los Angeles County foster care as young as 13 can open their own checking and savings accounts without an adult co-owner through the Youth Access Banking program.
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The Santa Clarita City Council will hold a regular meeting on Tuesday, April 23 at 6 p.m. The council will meet at City Hall, City Council Chambers, Items on the agenda include: Measure H funding, awarding construction contracts for traffic improvements and updating criteria for speed hump installation or removal.
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Visit Vasquez Rock Natural Area and Nature Center for a Day at The Rocks, a family fun event and tribal celebration of the Village of Mapipinga. A Day at The Rocks will be held Saturday, April 27 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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Princess Cruises, headquartered in Valencia, and ship builder Fincantieri of Monfalcone, Italy have announced the mutual decision to postpone the delivery of the next Sphere Class ship, Star Princess.
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The Master's University men's golf team shot a 13-under 275 to finish second at the Golden State Athletic Conference Men's Golf Championships held at Briarwood Country Club in Sun City West, Ariz.
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Join local nonprofit Project Sebastian for an exhilarating day of racing and community support at its Rare Warrior 24 race on Saturday, June 1, at Heritage Park in the heart of Santa Clarita.
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Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff's Station Station deputies will be taking part in the “DEA National Drug Take Back Day,” Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., in front of the SCV Sheriff’s Station, located at 26201 Golden Valley Road.
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The College of the Canyons Center for Civic and Community Engagement—in collaboration with COC’s Golden Z Club—invites the community to attend the Nonprofit Community Resource Fair on Tuesday, April 30.
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College of the Canyons made quick work of visiting L.A. Valley College in a shortened 11-3 home victory that came on a day in which the program unveiled its newly named Michele Jenkins Softball Team Room during a pre-game dedication ceremony.
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For aspiring scientists at The Master’s University, taking up a student research project is no small commitment.
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The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health is warning residents not to use a Vietnamese herbal ointment called “Cao Bôi Trĩ Cây Thầu Dầu” (Castor Oil Hemorrhoid Extract) because it contains lead and can be fatal.
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State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond hosted a California Apprenticeship Summit Wednesday to raise awareness of apprenticeship opportunities and career technical education pathways that connect California’s youth to high-wage, high-growth career opportunities.
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College of the Canyons student-athletes Nichole Muro (softball) and Angelo Aleman (baseball) have been named the COC Athletic Department's Women's and Men's Student-Athletes of the Week for the period running April 8-13.
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California State Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, announced Wednesday his bill improving transparency between parents and schools’ sexual education curricula passed out of the Senate Education Committee.
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The 76.6-mile-long Antelope Valley Line has the third-highest ridership in Metrolink’s system with an estimated average of 9,000 passengers daily. However, the uneven terrain and single-tracking along the line in some areas forces trains to travel at a slower speed which results in an estimated travel time of approximately one hour between Santa Clarita and Union Station.
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Team Dragon Eyes, affectionately known as TDE, is gearing up to host its highly anticipated Fifth Annual Dragonboat Festival race on Saturday, June 1 at Castaic Lake, Lower Lagoon.
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This year marks the 20th year that the city of Santa Clarita has been hosting the annual Bike to Work Challenge. The community is invited to celebrate by riding a bike to work the week of May 13, and stopping by a pit stop on Thursday, May 16.
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17 Comments
Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel I would love to sponsor a bill to declare those parts of the Angeles National Forrest wilderness. Let me know when you’re leading a hike to the area and count me in!
Lee C. Rogers, this area is closed for the remainder of the year due to the Powerhouse fire in two of the areas, and habitat restoration in the others. As soon as it’s open, I will let you know!!! THX!
Please know that once a Wilderness designation is given to an area it means that access is lost.
No access will be lost. The trails that used to be there are non-sustainable, and I’ve adjusted the boundary lines so the mountain bikers can keep the American Eagle Trail. I’m also asking that the forest make that a legal trail.
Let’s be clear that the Wilderness designation means that those who prefer to explore and enjoy the outdoors on a bicycle are excluded from a Wilderness area. But such designation still would allow someone like Dianne the ability to use unmechanized tools to clear old trials for use by hikers and equestrians only. Doesn’t sound like good public policy to exclude the 2nd largest and fastest growing trial user group (cyclists). The backcountry non-motorized designation is a more inclusive designation. And the definition of Wilderness should be changed to allow for cycling.
Yes, let’s close off more areas of land from use by all but the heartiest of hikers. Why would we want people of different abilities to have a chance to see what you can see Dianne Erskine-Hellrigel?
Just it is clear. Non motorized bikes and wheelchairs are banned in Wilderness Areas as are camp fires.
Those trails are not sustainable. They will go back to nature. There are no plans to recreate trails that are going to be destroyed by unstable earth/landslides. You bikers use the American Eagle Trail and the boundary has been adjusted to reflect that and keep that trail open for you. AND, all of the roads that divide all of the roadless areas will remain open for you as well. And, right now, all of these areas are closed due to the powerhouse fire. Please note that it is a $5,000 fine per person who enters into these areas, and a possible 6 month jail stint. Two bikers were seen in Fish Canyon last weekend…..
While I applaud the efforts to preserve wild and beautiful places in our country, I and scores of others strongly oppose the misuse of the Wilderness designation. A careful review of the original Wilderness Act shows it was never intended to be so widely used. The Wilderness designation has been vastly overapplied in recent years enabled by well funded legal action from environmental groups.
The USFS and BLM have numerous designations which protect precious lands, yet enable use by more non-motorized user groups. Many environmentalists like the Wilderness designation because it restricts access to only those users they approve of and keeps all other users out of vast expanses of land. All around Souther California, Nevada and Utah, millions of acres of remote and relatively desolate land that have historically been used for mountain biking and OHVs have been classified as recommended Wilderness, shutting generations of kids and families out of historical areas they’ve biked for generations. Interestingly, many of these lands don’t remotely qualify as Wilderness, but again, aggressive legislation has forced the closure of these lands.
Unfortunately this aggressive closure and restriction on land is not only in remote areas. The USFS is being forced, again via litigation, to classify tens of thousands of acres in our own back yard, near Castaic, as recommended Wilderness. If Congress approves this area as Wilderness, there will never be new trails or family bicycle access to these wonderful areas. Again, these lands should remain classified as back country non-motorized (BCNM), one of the most restrictive of designations, and not as Wilderness.
Many readers may fail to understand the impact of such restrictive Wilderness designations for years, but as they come closer to our homes and our communities expand, the effects will be felt not only by climbers, bicyclists and OHV users, but by everyone when land we’d all love to enjoy is forever restricted to only a few users.
Let’s all work to preserve wild and beautiful places, but also work to resist and turn back some of the unnecessary or overly restrictive Wilderness designations.
Instead of complaining about trails that you DO NOT use, you would be much further ahead if you worked with me on the 25+ trails that I have mapped in the contiguous Angeles National Forest. These trails, when approved, will connect every single Congressional District and will take us on foot, on bike, or on horseback from Santa Clarita all the way to Cucamonga. They will all be multi-use Kevin D. Korenthal, Ken Raleigh, and Sean M. Morrisey. Due to the diversity of endangered species in the Fish Canyon area, NO TRAILS will ever be built there. To hike in there, I will be using the same roads that you will be using.
Not to mention the other thing in Fish Canyon that everybody needs to stay the hell away from.
This conversation physically sickens my stomach. For a bunch of supposed Republicans to suggest that “mountain bikers” should be a federally protected class is absurd. Mountain bikers have rights – mountain BIKES do not. Mountain bikers have exactly the same rights as ultimate fighters and ballerinas – they have the right to HIKE (or not).
All I see are threats to ride bicycles all over the sacred Indian archaeological sites that are riddled throughout Castaic Canyon, Fish Canyon, Elderberry Canyon and San Francisquito Canyon. Why do you suppose you haven’t been able to ride bikes there?
What’s next? ATVs? Monster trucks? Why not just nuke the Native American sites and be done with it?
If you persist in trying to make (literally) a federal case out of your quest to desecrate Native American sites, I will have no choice but to bring the tribes into the discussion, and you WILL lose. And you MIGHT lose some of the privileges that you CURRENTLY enjoy elsewhere.
Diane, thanks for what you are doing in the Angeles, assuming they are all multi-use. We desperately need the additional trails. Please let us know how to assist with securing and advancing the cause on those trails.
That said, those of us that enjoy mountain biking with our families or OHV vehicles will continue to oppose the abuse of the Wilderness act in making areas never intended to be Wilderness into study areas. We want to preserve plenty of land and access for generations to come and not close it down.
Though we realize the Fish area and 40,000+ acres north of Castaic will eventually be Wilderness, we will continue to believe that’s an inappropriate designation and one that’s far to limiting for such an expanse of land so close to home.
Thank you, Leon. Mountain bikes were documented as zipping back and forth over the native American burial grounds in Fish Canyon. I also have photos of a dead Arroyo Toad (endangered) that was run over by a bike, and a Southwestern Pond Turtle (Endangered) that was also run over by a bike and killed. I also have photos of multiple illegal trails that the mountain bikers put in, and they were running over the sand banks in the river during breeding time right in the center of the Arroyo Toad breeding ground. These reasons are why it needs to be closed.
Furthermore, the topography does not allow for any new trails in the area. The roads that are there will remain open for OHV, bike, equestrian and hiking. The non-sustainable trails will be closed to all to protect the endangered species. It is not cost effective to keep them open when the forest service would have to be repairing them on a weekly basis. And, the endangered species need to recover, and the Native American sites need to be left alone.
Diane, please forward or let me know where I can pick up the copies documentation in the cases of the toad, turtle, and if possible burial ground so we can investigate further.
Tony Arnold, all of the trails that I am working on in the Angeles National forest will be designated multi-use (hike, bike, horse). If you and your buddies want to help, I will let you know as soon as I get the go-ahead to put them in. The go-ahead will hinge on the passage of the National Recreation Area in the Angeles. With that comes money.