Los Angeles & Southern California - Andrea Schulte-Peevers [40]
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NATIONAL PARKS
Southern California has two federally protected parks. Joshua Tree National Park, north of Palm Springs, straddles the transition zone between the Colorado Desert and the higher, cooler and moister Mojave Desert. It’s home to the yuccalike Joshua tree, made famous by Irish rockers U2 who posed in the park on the cover of their 1987 Joshua Tree album. World-class rock climbers know ‘J-Tree’ as the best place to climb in California. Backpackers are less enthusiastic, as there is no natural water flow, but day hikers and campers enjoy the chance to scramble up, down and around the giant boulders and palm oases, while mountain bikers are hypnotized by desert vistas.
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For a comprehensive list of all California State Parks, from beaches to mountains to historical parks, log on to www.parks.ca.gov.
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The Channel Islands are an eight-island chain lying off the coast from Newport Beach to Santa Barbara. The four northern islands of San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz and Anacapa – along with tiny Santa Barbara island, 38 miles west of LA – comprise the Channel Islands National Park. Remote and uninhabited, these islands support unique flora and fauna, including 150 endemic species, and extensive tide pools and kelp forests. Getting there requires a boat ride on often-choppy seas, which keeps visitor numbers refreshingly low.
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA’S NATIONAL & STATE PARKS
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The California condor is the largest flying bird in North America. In 1982 there were only two dozen or so left in the wild. Today, thanks to captive breeding programs, there are about 200.
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The Surfrider Foundation (www.surfrider.org) is a grassroots, nonprofit, environmental organization with chapters throughout the US that works to protect our oceans and beaches.
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ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES
Southern California is a success story in many ways, but development and growth have taken a terrible toll on the environment. The creation of the Los Angeles Aqueduct made SoCal possible but also spelled doom to the Owens Valley. The pollution and destruction of wetlands threaten migratory birds on the Pacific Flyway. Each year more motor vehicles pollute the air, and open acres are swallowed up by giant subdivisions. Plus, there’s overgrazing, logging, overfishing and oil spills.
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QUENCHING SOCAL’S INSATIABLE THIRST
The growth of semi-arid Los Angeles into a megalopolis would not have been possible without water. When the city’s population surged in the early 20th century, it became clear that groundwater levels would soon be inadequate to meet its needs, let alone sustain further growth. Water had to be imported and Fred Eaton, a former LA mayor, and William Mulholland, head of the LA Department of Water & Power (LADWP), knew just how and where to get it: by aqueduct from the Owens Valley, which receives enormous runoff from the Sierra Nevada.
The fact that the Owens Valley was settled by farmers who needed the water for irrigation purposes bothered neither the two men nor the federal government, which actively supported the city’s less-than-ethical maneuvering in acquiring land and securing water rights in the area. Voters gave Mulholland the $24.5 million he needed to build the aqueduct and work began in 1908. An amazing feat of engineering – crossing barren desert floor as well as rugged mountain terrain for 233 miles – it opened to great fanfare on November 5, 1913. An extension to the Mono Basin in 1940 lengthened the aqueduct a further 105 miles.
The Owens Valley, though, would never be the same. With most of its inflows diverted, Owens Lake quickly shriveled up. A bitter feud between LA and Owens Valley farmers and ranchers grew violent when some opponents to the scheme tried to sabotage the aqueduct by blowing up a section of it. All to no avail. By 1928 LA owned 90% of the water in Owens