Hollywood United Neighborhood Council

PARKS AND OPEN SPACE COMMITTEE

Chair: Susan Swan susan@myhunc.com

Resource-based, ad-hoc as needed.
Please contact Susan for information regarding the next meeting.

Griffith Observatory Circulation and Parking Enhancement Plan

The Agenda will be posted at least 72 hours prior to the scheduled meeting at the designated sites as listed at the bottom of the Home Page.

GRIFFITH PARK ACCESS

Proposal for Hollywood Trail Access

Court decisions surrounding the closure of the Beachwood Gate to the Hollyridge Trail on April 18, 2017:
Sunset Ranch Preliminary Decision
Sunset Ranch 3/13/17 Order

Cross-Complaint for Declaratory Relief Trespass and Public Nuisance

Councilmember Ryu has allocated $100,000 of discretionary funds towards a study to look at the areas on the western side of Griffith Park to review date. We are working with RAP, DOT, LAPD, the Mayor’s office, and other city departments to outline the scope of the study to look for solutions to Park access, visitor management and urban wilderness protection.

ACCESS, SAFETY & MOBILITY STUDY FOR GRIFFITH PARK & HOLLYWOOD SIGN RELEASED

Read the Press Release here

Read the Report here. (The 29 Recommendations are in the Table of Contents)

Read the Data Collection & Analysis here.

Read the Motion here.

Read the FAQ here.

GRIFFITH PARK ADVISORY BOARD

The GPAB meets monthly, the fourth Thursday of the month, 6:30pm, at the Crystal Springs Ranger Station
Griffith Park Visitor’s Center Auditorium
4730 Crystal Springs Drive Los Angeles, CA 90027

Agendas will be posted at the Crystal Springs Ranger Station and online at: http://www.laparks.org/griffithpark/advisory

GRIFFITH PARK VISION PLAN
Action Proposals in the Vision for Griffith Park

APPLY FOR A SEAT ON THE GRIFFITH PARK ADVISORY BOARD (GPAB)
Download and fill out the application. Any interested applicants can either forward their completed application to: Park.Services@lacity.org or mail to: Dept. of Recreation and Parks, P.O. Box 5385, Glendale, CA. 91221-5385, Attn.: Deirdre Symons.

LOS ANGELES 2024 OLYMPIC BID BOOK
Griffith Park-relevant pages 65-70
LOS ANGELES 2024 OLYMPIC BID BOOK
https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/b737bf50-2c9c-4bfc-9ccd-8848c9af31d5

Griffith Park Advisory Board letter regarding usage of Griffith Park for Olympic Bicycling

Griffith Park Advisory Board letter regarding the Griffith Park Circulation and Parking Enhancement Plan MND 2/2016

Griffith Park Advisory Board letter regarding the Wayfaring Signage 2/1016

Link to the Griffith Park Circulation and Parking Enhancement Plan MND
https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/davidryucc/pages/121/attachments/original/1452819495/Draft_IS-MND_GriffithPark_1-7-16_2015.pdf?1452819495

Link to the Griffith Park Action Plan as presented 12/10/2015

http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-dying-urban-trees-20170403-story.html

The trees that make Southern California shady and green are dying. Fast.
By Louis Sahagan, Los Angeles Times, April 20
The trees that shade, cool and feed people from Ventura County to the Mexican border are dying so fast that within a few years it’s possible the region will look, feel, sound and smell much less pleasant than it does now.

“We’re witnessing a transition to a post-oasis landscape in Southern California,” says Greg McPherson, a supervisory research forester with the U.S. Forest Service who has been studying what he and others call an unprecedented die-off of the trees greening Southern California’s parks, campuses and yards.

Botanists in recent years have documented insect and disease infestations as they’ve hop-scotched about the region, devastating Griffith Park’s sycamores and destroying over 100,000 willows in San Diego County’s Tijuana River Valley Regional Park, for example.

It’s not a pretty one.

His initial estimate is that just one particularly dangerous menace — the polyphagous shot hole borer beetle — could kill as many as 27 million trees in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Bernardino counties, including parts of the desert.

That’s roughly 38% of the 71 million trees in the 4,244 square mile urban region with a population of about 20 million people.

And that insect is just one of the imminent threats.

“Many of the trees we grow evolved in temperate climates and can’t tolerate the stress of drought, water restrictions, higher salinity levels in recycled water, wind and new pests that arrive almost daily via global trade and tourism, local transportation systems, nurseries and the movement of infected firewood,” he said.

If as many trees as projected die, the cost to remove and replace them could be about $36 billion, he said.

But Southern Californians would face many other costs.

“Catastrophic loss of our canopy,” McPherson said, “would have consequences for human health and well-being, property values, air-conditioning savings, carbon storage, the removal of pollutants from the air we breathe, and wildlife habitat.”

Jerrold Turney, plant pathologist for Los Angeles County, likened the surge in urban tree mortality to “watching a train wreck in slow motion.”

“It’s heartbreaking,” he said, “to see trees dying in such dramatic numbers in famously lush cities like Pasadena, Alhambra and Arcadia: sycamores, all the maples, olives, liquidambers, flower plums, myrtles, oleanders and oaks.”

Mark Hoddle, director of UC Riverside’s Center for Invasive Species, said that the tree loss is “starting to cascade across the urban landscape.”

“Without shade trees, water temperatures will rise and algae will bloom in riparian areas, for instance,” Hoddle said. “As a result, fish, frog and native insect populations will diminish, along with the pleasure of hiking, because there’ll be nothing to look at but dead boughs of trees.”

“And,” he added, “there will be no miraculous recovery of these urban ecosystems after the beetles are done with them.”

Among the hardest-hit native species of urban trees are California sycamores, typically found along streams and commonly used as shade and street trees in places such as Griffith Park and along downtown’s Wilshire Boulevard.

“Here’s the sad news about sycamores,” said Akif Eskalen, a plant pathologist at the University of California, Riverside. “If we cannot control the shot hole borer, it will kill all the sycamores in California. And when they’re done with sycamores, they’ll move to other trees.”

By 2012, pathologists knew that the shot hole borer was transmitting a fatal fungal disease to 19 species of trees in Southern California, he said. Since then, scientists have identified 30 additional host species.

“We expect the number of tree hosts to grow even higher over the next few years,” Eskalen said. “And at this point, there’s not much we can do about that.”

Meanwhile, the relatively recent invasion of shot hole borers is only part of the crisis that scientists are scrambling to control.

In San Diego County, it was a cousin of the ployphagous beetle, the Kuroshio shot hole borer, that infested more than 144,000 willow trees in Tijuana River Valley Regional Park last year, officials said.
The goldspotted oak borer has killed tens of thousands of drought-stressed oak trees while moving from San Diego County to Los Angeles County.
The aphid-size Asian citrus psyllid is transferring an incurable bacterial disease from tree to tree as it feeds on citrus leaves.
A flying insect known as the glassy-winged sharpshooter is spreading oleander leaf scorch, a bacterial disease that was first discovered in the Palm Springs area and has now spread throughout Southern California.
The 1 1/2-inch-long South American palm weevil poses a serious threat to palms throughout the Southwestern United States after turning up in 2016 in the neighborhoods just north of the Mexican border.
In Orange County’s Holy Jim Canyon, “the word is plague,” said Michael Milligan, chief of the local volunteer fire department. “Thousands of dead and still-standing alders look like pick-up sticks propped up along the creek.”

At Craig Regional Park in Fullerton, circular dirt patches of dirt are all that remains of dozens of venerable sycamores that had shaded a canyon where families came to picnic and even hold weddings.

Vanessa Fields, 47, of Brea, and her friend Diane Swanson, 67, of Buena Park, were stunned by the devastation they came upon during a lunch-hour stroll on a recent weekday.

“What the heck happened here?” Fields asked. “Where’s the gorgeous trees?”

That same day, horticulture expert John Kabashima was checking up on one of the many stricken sycamores at that park.

Peering through a magnifying glass, he marveled at the persistence of polyphagous beetles fulfilling their complex life-cycles. The bugs are smaller than sesame seeds, but they bore by the thousands into the bark, then line the tunnels with a species of fungi that disrupts the transport of water and nutrients from roots to leaves. Within a few weeks, their larvae hatch, mature and mate to produce new generations in the tree.

“This pest is unusual in that it reproduces . . . within the tree,” he said. “As a result, it is extremely difficult to reach and treat.”

Kabashima said state and federal officials have been slow to respond with organized campaigns to eradicate the pests that are ravaging the trees because urban forests don’t support logging crews and regional economies.

“When it comes to invasive insects and disease, agriculture gets all the attention and money,” Kabashima said with a sigh. “Urban forests have been left out in the cold.”

Many of the invasive insects and diseases ravaging Southern California arrived as stowaways on trees and plants installed during the post-World War II housing boom.

Unchecked by natural predators, their numbers exploded during the most severe drought on record, which officially ended earlier this month.

Scientists say that an average of nine new insect species establish populations on the landscape each year, and three of those interlopers become significant pests.

Los Angeles State Historic Park is about to open after 16 years of delays
Los Angeles State Historic Park is about to open after 16 years of delays
Frank McDonough, botanist at the Los Angeles County Arboretum, suggested that urban forests are suffering partly because “so many of the trees we grow don’t belong here and aren’t sustainable without plentiful supplies of imported water.”

“Historic photos of the region show coastal shrubs, oaks on the foothills and sycamores along streams and rivers,” he said. “Yet, we planted way too many trees from areas that get two to three times as much rain as we do.”

Liquidambar is one example. The species evolved in the Southeastern United States, then developers and property owners planted it in Southern California after World War II. At the time, the trees seemed perfect: Not too tall, with lustrous maple-like leaves that turn into a spectacular show of yellow, pink and red hues in the fall.

Decades later, leaf scorch, shot hole borers and drought are quickly adding Liquidambar to the long list of trees whose days in Southern California appear to be numbered.

Andy Lipkis, founder of the nonprofit TreePeople, said Southern Californians are starting to pay attention to the crisis, recognizing just how indebted they are to the region’s trees.

“Losing our trees would cost us a lot,” he said, including “the accelerated loss of the California Dream in neighborhoods throughout the region.”

“Trees” he said, “reduce heat and light intensity, protect water, rid the air of pollutants and instill a sense of peace by filling the landscape with the sights, smells and sounds of nature.”

McPherson said he hopes his report wakes up the state’s leaders to the die-off. The next steps, he said, should include monitoring the unprecedented damage the urban forests are suffering, and taking steps to remove dead trees and plant new, probably different ones: “a new, diverse palette of well-adapted species that may not be currently available in nurseries.”

“It may be, for example, that trees that grow well in, say, Phoenix ... are the ones that will grow well in Los Angeles in decades to come,” he said.

Griffith Park Master Plan

Autry National Center Expansion
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)
Initial Study and Checklist

Listen to the audio of the Recreation and Parks meeting to go over the Guidelines for the Puck Alcohol Variance for the Griffith Observatory, also a link to GGPNC updates on the process

Documents relating to Wolfgang Puck's application for a variance to serve alcohol at the Observatory Cafe:
Attachment A, Dec 8th, final (if the link doesn't work, go to the bottom of this page)
Attachment B
Floor Plan Site Plan
Radius Map
Puck ZA2006-10405-ZVMLUA.pdf
Park Commission Report
Puck Alcohol Variance

From the RAP Commission agenda:

Commission Meetings can be heard live over the telephone through the Council Phone system.

To listen to a meeting, please call one of the following numbers:

~ from Downtown Los Angeles (213) 621-CITY (2489)

~ from West Los Angeles (310) 471-CITY (2489)

~ from San Pedro (310) 547-CITY (2489)

~ from Van Nuys (818) 904-9450

Griffith Park Master Plan Working Group

GRIFFITH PARK MASTER PLAN NOW AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING AND COMMENT

In response to several requests from Working Group members, the deadline for public review and comment on the draft plan has been extended until October 2, 2013. It is the goal of the Department to take the finalized plan to the RAP Board of Commissioners on November 20, 2013. All of the Commission meetings are open to the public, subject to the Brown Act, with the agenda posted on the RAP website 72 hours in advance of the meeting.

Please address comments in writing to:
Michael A. Shull
Assistant General Manager, Planning, Construction and Maintenance Branch
221 N. Figueroa Street, Suite 100
Los Angeles, CA 90012

VISION PLAN

APPENDIX 1 Wildlife_Management_Plan

APPENDIX 2 Plants_and_Trees

APPENDIX 3 State_Parks_Park_and_Rec_Trends

APPENDIX 4 Large_Mammal_and_Herptile_Survey

Griffith Park Natural History Survey

An Environmental Affair is produced monthly by the EAD to inform residents about environmental issues and activities in Los Angeles. For questions, or to update or cancel your free subscription, call the Environmental Information Center Hotline at (213) 978-0888, send an email to: ead.info@lacity.org, or visit out "Contact EAD" web page. You can also reach us by fax at (213) 978-0893.

___________________________________________________________________________

Get Involved! Make a Difference...

Hollywood Beautification Team

Friends of the L.A River

10 Ways to Go Green at Work

Greener homes are in the spotlight these days, but what about the other places where many of us spent huge chunks of our time--our offices? Some simple changes of habit can save energy and resources at work, and these small steps can be multiplied by persuading the powers-that-be at your workplace to adopt environmentally friendly (and often cost-effective) policies.

1. Be bright about light
Artificial lighting accounts for 44 percent of the electricity use in office buildings.

Make it a habit to turn off the lights when you're leaving any room for 15 minutes or more and utilize natural light when you can.
Make it a policy to buy Energy Star-rated light bulbs and fixtures, which use at least two-thirds less energy than regular lighting, and install timers or motion sensors that automatically shut off lights when they're not needed.

2. Maximize computer efficiency
Computers in the business sector unnecessarily waste $1 billion worth of electricity a year.

Make it a habit to turn off your computer—and the power strip it's plugged into—when you leave for the day. Otherwise, you're still burning energy even if you're not burning the midnight oil. (Check with your IT department to make sure the computer doesn't need to be on to run backups or other maintenance.) During the day, setting your computer to go to sleep automatically during short breaks can cut energy use by 70 percent. Remember, screen savers don't save energy.
Make it a policy to invest in energy-saving computers, monitors, and printers and make sure that old equipment is properly recycled. Look for a recycler that has pledged not to export hazardous e-waste and to follow other safety guidelines. Old computers that still work, and are less than five years old, can be donated to organizations that will refurbish them and find them new homes. (You may even get a tax deduction.)

3. Print smarter
The average U.S. office worker goes through 10,000 sheets of copy paper a year.

Make it a habit to print on both sides or use the back side of old documents for faxes, scrap paper, or drafts. Avoid color printing and print in draft mode whenever feasible.
Make it a policy to buy chlorine-free paper with a higher percentage of post-consumer recycled content. Also consider switching to a lighter stock of paper or alternatives made from bamboo, hemp, cotton, or kenaf. Recycle toner and ink cartridges and buy remanufactured ones. According to Office Depot, each remanufactured toner cartridge "keeps approximately 2.5 pounds of metal and plastic out of landfills...and conserves about a half gallon of oil."

4. Go paperless when possible

Make it a habit to think before you print: could this be read or stored online instead? When you receive unwanted catalogs, newsletters, magazines, or junk mail, request to be removed from the mailing list before you recycle the item.
Make it a policy to post employee manuals and similar materials online, rather than distribute print copies. They're easier to update that way too.

5. Ramp up your recycling

Make it a habit to recycle everything your company collects. Just about any kind of paper you would encounter in an office, including fax paper, envelopes, and junk mail, can be recycled. So can your old cell phone, PDA, or pager.
Make it a policy to place recycling bins in accessible, high-traffic areas and provide clear information about what can and can not be recycled.

6. Close the loop

Make it a policy to purchase office supplies and furniture made from recycled materials.

7. Watch what (and how) you eat

Make it a habit to bring your own mug and dishware for those meals you eat at the office.
Make it a policy to provide reusable dishes, silverware, and glasses. Switch to Fair Trade and organic coffee and tea, and buy as much organic and local food as possible for parties and other events. Provide filtering drinking water to reduce bottled-water waste.

8. Rethink your travel

Make it a habit to take the train, bus, or subway when feasible instead of a rental car when traveling on business. If you have to rent a car, some rental agencies now offer hybrids and other high-mileage vehicles.
Make it a policy to invest in videoconferencing and other technological solutions that can reduce the amount of employee travel.

9. Reconsider your commute

Make it a habit to carpool, bike, or take transit to work, and/or telecommute when possible. If you need to drive occasionally, consider joining a car-sharing service like Zipcar and Flexcar instead of owning your own wheels.
Make it a policy to encourage telecommuting (a nice perk that's also good for the planet!) and make it easy for employees to take alternative modes of transportation by subsidizing commuter checks, offering bike parking, or organizing a carpool board.

10. Create a healthy office environment

Make it a habit to use nontoxic cleaning products. Brighten up your cubicle with plants, which absorb indoor pollution.
Make it a policy to buy furniture, carpeting, and paint that are free of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and won't off-gas toxic chemicals.

Jennifer Robinson Conservation Program Coordinator
Sierra Club Angeles Chapter
3435 Wilshire Blvd., Suite 320
Los Angeles, CA 90010
(213) 387-4287 x204
jennifer.robinson@sierraclub.org

Meeting Notes

January 2007

11/14/05 Ranger Update

August 2004 Town Hall Meeting