Edgar McGregor

On Friday, September 29th, 2023, the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation held an annual community meeting at the Eaton Canyon Nature Center to give locals a chance to voice their concerns about the park. About 30 people from the local community attended, many of whom were unaffiliated with the Nature Center. Those taking questions included Eaton Canyon Park Superintendent Lorraine Lazarus, Trails Division Coordinator Michelle O’Conner, Chief Deputy Alina Bokde, and Natural Areas Administrator Kim Bosell. 

What follows is a rough outline of which questions were asked by community members and how the county responded. Also included is some context to the topic at hand when needed. Please note that these are not exact quotes from either the participant or the county, but general paraphrasing. 

Click on each individual topic below to see what was discussed.

If you’d like to fill out a survey yourself, following this link by clicking here.

*Edited on October 3, 2023 to correct errors in the original article

On September 21st, 2023, four large maroon metal sheets were installed on the United States Geological Survey’s (USGS) old stream gauging tower in Eaton Canyon located just north of the bridge. The station was once part of a large network of stream gauging stations through the country used to monitor water levels in natural waterways. These gauging stations serve a vast array of needs including irrigation, drought monitoring, and reservoir capacity monitoring. They are an integral part of this nation’s ability to produce food, support major cities, and generate clean electricity, especially in the west.

This structure was used in the past by the USGS to help understand just how much water was flowing down Eaton Canyon for farmers to purchase. Once the area became developed and agriculture moved to other parts of the state, the gauging station was no longer needed.

These metal sheets cover all entrances to this tower and are bolted shut, effectively closing the tower to explorers. The tower was likely closed due to constant vandalism, tagging, littering, and safety concerns. Other bunkers and mines further up the canyon were not closed.

Despite the general lack of it within the canyon, Eaton Canyon’s history has always been centered around water. Eaton Creek was used by native American tribes, Spanish settlers, Pasadena’s legendary orange groves, and today as a tourist attraction. More on the canyon’s history can be found here.

The gauging tower and other infrastructure was built when Eaton Canyon supplied irrigation to local farms in Altadena and Pasadena. As recently as 1969, but not after 1980, a metal catwalk existed along the western side of the canyon when passing this particular service tower. It is possible the catwalk was ripped out by either the 1969 or 1980 floods as recognizable debris exists scattered throughout the wash today. This photo courtesy of Robert D. Oventile taken just after the notorious 1969 flood shows the catwalk at the same height as the top door to the tower, and a second white door between the bottom of the tower and the concrete steps.

Earlier this spring, a young woman making use of a notorious trail cut near the Mount Wilson Toll Bridge slipped and tumbled 50 feet down the hillside, becoming unconscious along the way. Firefighters were called and the person was carried out of the canyon to safety. The hiker was ultimately fine, but this was nowhere near the first time someone has fallen down one of these steep trail cuts created by those wishing to get below the bridge. The longer we wait to fix these trail cuts, the more injuries we will see.

Hikers beginning at the Pinecrest Gate are well aware that getting to the Eaton Canyon Waterfall requires traveling underneath the bridge and following the creek through the mountain gorge section of Eaton Canyon. Instead of taking the proper trail route down the right side of the fork at the end of the bridge and then making a sharp right on the Eaton Canyon Trail, hikers cut down a steep hillside, kicking up dust, trampling plants and sending rocks falling below. This behavior is so prevalent that there are frequently multiple groups cutting across the hillside at any given moment on weekend mornings.

There are several negative impacts associated with user-created trail cuts which include:

• Liability Issues: People can get hurt more easily on trails not created by an authorized trail crew who know what they are doing. User-created trails are usually steeper, contain more loose rock, and ignore poisonous plants such as poison oak. 
• Habitat Fragmentation: Trail cuts can fragment habitats, which can disrupt wildlife movement and breeding patterns. This can lead to a decline in biodiversity and can negatively affect certain species, especially those with limited ranges.
• Soil Erosion: The construction and use of informal trails can lead to soil erosion, particularly on steep slopes. Soil erosion can degrade water quality and impact the stability of ecosystems.
• Invasive Species Spread: Human traffic on trails can inadvertently introduce and spread invasive plant species. These invasive species can out-compete native plants, disrupt natural ecosystems and reduce biodiversity.
• Altered Hydrology: Trail construction can alter water flow patterns, leading to changes in the hydrology of an area. This can affect wetlands, streams and other water features within an ecosystem.

During heavy rainstorms, these trail cuts have been known to cause severe damage to the service road connecting the main Eaton Canyon Trail to the Mount Wilson Toll road, making it impossible for the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team to get equipment into the canyon. The group has even had to come out and fix it themselves during the summer of 2022. It is time to stop people from going down these trail cuts once and for all.

How We Should Fix This Problem: 

1. In order to get ahead of this problem, the first thing we need to understand is what is causing it. As mentioned above, numerous trail cuts exist in this small area because of day hikers attempting to get to the waterfall from the Pinecrest Gate. There are no signs telling them where to go, but they know they need to go inside the mountain gorge. So, they cut down these steep trail cuts destroying ecosystems along the way.
2. Next, we need to recognize that there may be no way to truly stop this. Sorry, but putting up signs telling people this is not a trail is not going to cut it. An alternative solution, one that minimizes harm to the ecosystem but still pleases the general public, should be enacted.
3. In order to fix this issue, we suggest filling all of these trail cuts with so much large compost (branches, cactus, etc.) provided by the Eaton Canyon Natural Area that any hiker intending to use one of these cuts deems it completely useless. There needs to be so much compost piled on these trail cuts that it would require a chainsaw and an hour of work to remove. 
4. Here is the problem: The Eaton Canyon Natural Area cannot do this work. Aside from the fact that this isn’t even their jurisdiction, they cannot drive their trucks into this part of the canyon nor do they have the staffing capabilities to maintain this area. The Eaton Canyon Natural Area has plenty of large compost from their numerous gardening efforts and trail work in their area that they would happily provide to the government agencies that are responsible for this area: The City of Pasadena and the Angeles National Forest. 
5. So, an agreement should be made that either the City of Pasadena, the Angeles National Forest, or the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team collect the Eaton Canyon Natural Area’s compost to fill in these areas before the start of the 2023-2024 winter rain season. 
6. The next issue is one we all have to begrudgingly accept: The installation of naturally-looking stairs in this area. Look, people will not want to walk all the way down to the fork between the connector trail and the Eaton Canyon Trail. If we do not construct proper stairs that do not erode the connector trail between the Mount Wilson Toll Road and the Main Eaton Canyon Trail, new trail cuts will form.
7. The installation of natural stairs is required to prevent new trail cuts from forming, and thankfully we have the perfect place for that. Just past one of the user-created trail cuts that is choking out an already struggling Western Sycamore tree lies a blank hillside with nothing but invasive grasses and invasive castor bean plants. We can install a 10′ wide stairway at this location to augment trail cutters and make everyone happy. This stairwell can be built by scouts or the Altadena Mountain Rescue Team. 

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Once this work is conducted, six large and ecologically destructive trail cuts can be made mostly obsolete. Would-be trail cutters would be much less likely to attempt to make new trail cuts, runoff during our rainstorms would stop eroding the connector trail so heavily, and the hillside ecosystem beside the bridge could bounce back.

We cannot approach this issue on offense, we must take a defensive stance to protect our local natural area.