Santa Monica Mountains Task Force Receives National Sierra Club Award

SAN FRANCISCO – Sept. 23, 2000 –The Santa Monica Mountains Task Force, a project sponsored by the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, was among the individuals and projects receiving national awards from the Sierra Club this year.

The Task Force received a Special Service Award for more than 25 years of work on behalf of the Santa Monica Mountains. David Brown, conservation chair of the Task Force, accepted the Special Service Award on behalf of the Task Force at the Sierra Club’s annual awards banquet in San Francisco Sept. 23.

The Task Force was formed in 1972 to help educate the public, as well as elected and appointed officials, on the importance of the Santa Monica Mountains as an environmental, cultural and recreational resource.

The Task Force was instrumental in the creation of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area in 1978. Since then, it has worked to protect and increase the area dedicated to parkland and recreation. Task force members have worked closely with public officials to initiate a priority list of significant wildlands for acquisition and to become involved in open space and trail use decisions.

The Task Force sponsors a variety of regular outings such as birdwalks and evening hikes to introduce people to the mountains and to build a constituency of park users who will support efforts to save open space and wildlife habitat. A volunteer trail crew, led by Ron Webster, has built and maintained many of the trails in the Santa Monica Mountains and adjacent areas.

The Sierra Club, which was founded in 1892 by John Muir, is the country’s oldest and largest grassroots environmental organization. It currently has more than 600,000 members.

The Angeles Chapter is the Sierra Club’s oldest and largest chapter with more than 56,000 members, and will be celebrating its 90th birthday next year. For more information on the Angeles Chapter of the Sierra Club, visit their website at http://www.angeles.sierraclub.org. For information on the Santa Monica Mountains Task Force, write them at Box 344, Woodland Hills CA 91365-0344.