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Politics & Government

Natural Beauty of Verdugo Mountain Park Restored After Felony Vandalism

City landscapers restore a Glendale park after it is illegally ravaged.

In the remote, high-elevation reaches of 565-acre Verdugo Mountain Park, major landscaping repair work was expected to conclude on Saturday.

In January, citizens reported extensive bike trails and earthen ramps had been illegally constructed, posing a danger to hikers, equestrians and emergency responders.

"I was shocked when I heard of the brazen and destructive act of vandalism, which threatened public safety, the integrity of the existing fire road and the surrounding vegetation that will likely cost the city thousands of dollars to remedy," said City Councilman Paul Krekorian.

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The park, named for the mountains overlooking Glendale, is on land owned by the city of Los Angeles, which has banned mountain biking at recreation facilities.

As Lakeview Terrace resident Kristin Sabo explained, bike enthusiasts nonetheless frequent the area intended for hikers and horses. Sabo first reported the unauthorized landscape alterations on the evening of Jan. 10.

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Open-space advocate Joe Barret, who heads the Sunland-Tujunga Alliance, accompanied Sabo on a trip back to the park the next day. They encountered several mountain bikers, one of whom claimed credit for the damage stretching for about a mile.

According to Barret, the man asked, "What are you doing hiking on my bike trail?" When told of its illegality, he dismissed their warning and vehemently rode off.

As Jeremy Oberstein reported, the biker then reappeared on a distant hill waving a shovel, shouting to Sabo that "he was going to carve up the canyon."

Barret said the man then stashed the shovel, jumped on a mountain bike and descended the hillside. He almost crashed into Sabo before vanishing down the twisty trail.

"This guy had put in 10-foot drops and if someone was hiking up there on a night hike or just not paying attention, someone can really get hurt on these trails," said Barret. "The rule is, you can't just go and carve out mountain bike trails for yourself. There's nothing wrong with mountain biking, but there are proper places to do it."

While no city parks allow mountain biking, many state and county wilderness areas do, including nearby La Tuna Canyon and Cherry Canyon parks as well as the Verdugo Mountains Open Space Preserve.

Despite an immediate response from Krekorian's office and the Recreation and Parks Department, Sabo declared that "inattention led to this point," believing that the city had not designated enough park ranger patrol. 

"The city has cut the Parks Department so much that they are having a hard time keeping an eye on their own property," said Sabo. "It's not that they don't want to, it's that they can't. It's sad, it's a sign that the city is cutting the Parks Department way too much, and it will probably only get worse."

The agency has an attached General Services Police division called the Office of Public Safety, which bolstered patrols of Verdugo Mountain Park throughout January and February.

"Our department has been patrolling the area and monitoring for [bike trail] activity," said Senior Lead Officer Francisco Pimentel. "As far as arrests and citations, nothing at the moment but that's not to say it can't potentially happen in the future."

The charge for carving into the park in this case would be felony vandalism, Pimentel said.

Councilman Krekorian was pleased with the "lightning speed" with which the Parks Department fixed the vandalized terrain, and Barret and Sabo were also impressed by their local government's "rapid response.

"It was very nice to see these different agencies work together so quickly to restore the open space and increase patrols," Barret said.

"There were some areas that if someone was trying to climb up there, it was pretty unsafe," said Kevin Regan, Parks Department assistant general manager. "But we graded it all out and turned it back into a trail system."

Areas inaccessible to tractors required workers to repair the turf by hand. "Some areas were very difficult to access, and some areas were very steep," said Regan.

Krekorian prompted more Office of Public Safety patrols and when the month-long investigation finished, city landscapers took on the task of repairing damaged areas and promised to post signs showing that mountain biking is prohibited, the councilman said.

"We are fortunate to live in a city of immense natural beauty that we are all free to enjoy responsibly," said Krekorian. "I would urge everyone who hikes, bikes or visits our parks to respect nature as you would your home."

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