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.
- Invasive Arundo Cane
- Security Cameras
- Altadena Drive Trash
- Online Reservations
- Closed On Mondays
- Non-native Trees
- Blocked Driveways
- New Bathrooms
- Neglect At Henninger Flats
- Outdated Visitation Figures
Participant: Many years ago, there was a rigorous volunteer effort to remove the invasive Arundo Cane plant from the Eaton Canyon area. These volunteer efforts ended some time ago and the plant is surging in the canyon again, especially on the Mount Wilson Toll Road headed up to Henninger Flats.
Context: Arundo Donax is a perennial cane species native to the greater Middle East region. It has become invasive in Oceania and subtropical North America where is takes over sandy, riparian habitats in the form of dense stands.
County Response: We will look into the matter and determine if any specimens fall within our park boundary. Our conservation group will see if anything can be done.
Participant: It is time to install security cameras around the Eaton Canyon Nature Center. Park staff frequently have to close up at night in the dark, break-ins in the parking lot are regular, and it would be nice to see which bears are going through the trash cans.
County Response: The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation has spent $2,000,000 of our $276,000,000 annual budget on security cameras at various facilities. We will look into whether or not this is possible for the Eaton Canyon Nature Center.
Participant: I am a neighbor who lives just outside the main gate on Altadena Drive. Every weekend tons of trash is left behind by visitors in front of my house. I would like to see more of an effort to get this litter cleaned up.
County Response: We will make it a priority to have our staff clean up litter in front of neighbor’s houses, especially on the weekends.
Participant: I don’t think we should require those wishing to attend events make reservations online. Having online reservations adds an extra barrier for those without wifi access or can’t read English.
County Response: There is no reservation requirement to access the park, that was just a pandemic precaution to limit trail visitation. As part of our strategic plan, a complete website overhaul will occur sometime soon. Our current website does offer tutorials on how to navigate the site in both Spanish and Mandarin.
Participant: I also live next to the canyon, and I was wondering if we could have a sheriff’s deputy open the gates in the morning and close them at night on Mondays. I understand the staffing issues, but every Monday tons of people park in front of our houses and leave behind trash. We could install a crosswalk with a blinking light to force vehicles to yield to pedestrians who are crossing. People are coming down Altadena Drive going 50 MPH on a regular basis, and it is only a matter of time before someone gets hurt or killed.
Context: Eaton Canyon is a soft close park, meaning while the gates may be closed to vehicle access, pedestrian access is never restricted. On Mondays, the park is closed and gates are locked, but people can still park on Altadena Drive and walk in. The Midwick, Pinecrest, Altadena Crest, and Station 66 entrances are never restricted, though Pinecrest was supposed to be.
County Response: We will look into the matter.
Participant: I am a naturalist in the canyon, and I am concerned about non-native trees taking over the natural area. These non natives do not belong here.
County Response: The county will make it a priority to remove non-native saplings around the park, as well as any sick or dead trees that may be a hazard to trail users or vehicles. However, if the non-native tree is already mature, we cannot remove it. A mature tree is defined as one that supports it’s own habitat.
Participant: There is also a dead non-native pine tree at the main gate to the park the poses a threat to the power lines that go to the Nature Center. It’ll come down in a severe storm.
County Response: We will look into the removal of that dead tree.
Participant: I too am a neighbor in the area and I have a complaint about people parking in front of fire hydrants and driveways on Altadena Drive when visiting this park. I had a neighbor that got her driveway blocked in one day, so she called the sheriff’s department to come have the vehicle towed. The sheriff instead wrote the vehicle a ticket and then left. She still couldn’t get out.
County Response: We will look into the best solution to limit overflow onto Altadena Drive.
Participant: Will the new bathrooms be chemical or plumbed?
Context: New outdoor bathrooms will be built by the county where the porta potties are located today just beyond the main parking lot. They will be open even when the Nature Center is closed.
County Response: They will be plumbed. We are expected to begin construction in June 2024.
Participant: Henninger Flats is being neglected by the Forest Service, and everything is being emptied out of the Nature Center up there.
County response: While the area is still under county jurisdiction, that area is a part of LA County Fire which is a different department. We will look into it, but there isn’t much we can do.
Participant: The latest figures from the county from 2019 show that 600,000 people visit the park annually. This number has risen following the pandemic, and the Eaton Canyon Trail is frequently the #1 most popular trail in Southern California on AllTrails.com. Can we install a temporary car counter strip on the driveway to determine how many people are coming in and out of the park?
County Response: Los Angeles County Parks and Recreation is undergoing reorganization to better allocate funding to the parks that need them most. This funding will be based on both visitation and acreage. A Los Angeles County program dubbed “30×30” that aims to conserve 30% of coastal and natural lands by 2030 uses cellphone data within parks to determine visitation, and we may be able to apply that technique here.
If you’d like to fill out a survey yourself, following this link by clicking here.
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