Big Tujunga Wash

Re "Hearing for Golf Course Plan Is Today," Oct. 9. I attended the public hearing discussing whether or not to build a golf course in environmentally heavy Big Tujunga Wash. And let me tell you, big business won! There were too many suits and ties at that hearing. Suits and ties fly airplanes, and when they see a large, empty space in Southern California, they get very excited. "Hey, we've got to build something down there." When the plane lands, it's time for the concrete. The Big Tujunga Wash should stay the way it is for the next thousand years, say the state Department of Fish and Game and the Army Corps of Engineers.

A side-by-side refrigerator and a Jacuzzi tub dumped in the Big Tujunga Wash in plain view of Tomi Lyn Bowling's home is what first spurred the Sunland resident to action in 2003. For several years afterward, she led successful efforts to clean up the junk. Then came the homeless. Some transients built shelters in the wash, using scraps and plastic sheeting. Others pitched tents. Residents complain that bushes have been turned into bathrooms. They also worry about the use of drugs, the destruction of wildlife and the potential devaluation of their nearby homes.

A developer planning to create a golf course in Big Tujunga Wash has rejected a $3.5-million offer for the environmentally sensitive land, made earlier this week by the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, a state parklands agency. In a letter sent to members of the Los Angeles City Council, Mark Armbruster, an attorney representing Foothill Golf Development Corp., said that the bid was too low and that the corporation still wants the council to approve permits for the golf course.

Fire and the resultant threat of flooding and mudslides forced Bronwen Aker from her family's longtime home in the Big Tujunga Wash -- and devastated her finances. Single after two divorces, she was living in the forest home she inherited from her grandmother when the Station fire rushed through last summer. The house survived, but the fire denuded the ground and severely increased the risk of flooding, compelling her to move out. Now, the 45-year-old Web developer is paying rent on a house in Canoga Park while also shelling out for taxes and other expenses on the home in Big Tujunga.

Authorities are searching for a 57-year-old horse enthusiast from Pacoima who disappeared while riding on paths around Hansen Dam made slippery by this week's rains. Fire officials said Antonio Rosales went out for his regular morning ride on Monday and did not return. Family members fear that the former semiprofessional rodeo rider may have fallen off the horse while trying to cross the rain-swollen Big Tujunga Wash, which flows into Hansen Dam.

At a hearing Monday over a plan to build an 18-hole private golf club in Big Tujunga Wash, opinions were sharply split between those who said it would be a boon to the area and those who fear it would destroy a natural treasure. "I've never seen a golf course yet where I could get in touch with my Creator," complained Anita Jesse, a Sunland resident who disputed the developer's claims that the course would be environmentally sensitive.

From a distance, the Big Tujunga Wash looks like an untouched wildlife preserve set against the majestic San Gabriel Mountains. But up close, the vast landscape is strewn with trash, tires, rusting appliances and twisted scrap metal.

It doesn't have the worldwide name recognition of Yosemite National Park, but the Angeles National Forest has five times the visitors--29 million a year--making it the most heavily used federal land in the country, according to U.S. forest officials. So who cleans up the tons upon tons of trash left behind by such a massive contingent? In some areas, the task belongs to a tiny handful of workers, who sometimes can't keep pace.

Developing an 18-hole private golf club on a rugged 355-acre site in Big Tujunga Wash would severely damage one of the city's most environmentally sensitive areas, according to a long-awaited report on the controversial project released Thursday. The $50-million project proposed by Cosmo World Corp.

The Los Angeles City Council took the proper course last week when it postponed a vote on whether to allow a golf course in the Big Tujunga Wash. But that was just the first--and perhaps easiest--step in an effort to preserve the ecologically sensitive wash. The two-week delay is meant to allow the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy to make a purchase offer for 350 acres on which Foothill Golf Development Group intends to build a public course and wildflower preserve.

A $7-million partial revitalization of the Tujunga Wash helps conserve water and provides new recreational space in the San Fernando Valley, Los Angeles officials said Wednesday. The effort, known as the Tujunga Wash Greenway and Stream Restoration Project, diverts some of the water currently flowing into a flood control channel and sends it to an adjacent 1 1/2 -mile stream that runs alongside the wash in Valley Glen.

If you have been watching TV and you think that the scarlet pimpernel is an adventurous little flower that gets around, you ain't seen nothin' yet. When it comes to high-profile mobility and garnering publicity, the real achiever in the floral kingdom is the San Fernando Valley spineflower, whose deeds of derring-do are all the more remarkable because it's extinct. Usually, when a plant is extinct, it's outta here, gone, kaput. But not in this area. Here, when a flower becomes extinct, that's only the beginning of its career.

An arbitration panel has cleared the way for construction of the 352-acre Red Tail Golf Course and Equestrian Center in the Big Tujunga Wash area, rejecting attempts by the state Department of Fish and Game to block the project, according to a decision this week. The panel, led by retired Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, ruled that the golf course would not need a stream alteration agreement, as the state had demanded, according to the decision.

An arbitration panel has cleared the way for construction of the 352-acre Red Tail Golf Course and Equestrian Center in the Big Tujunga Wash area, rejecting attempts by the state Department of Fish and Game to block the project. The panel, led by retired Superior Court Judge Diane Wayne, ruled this week that the project would not need a special state permit for stream bed alteration as Fish and Game had demanded.

Development of the controversial Red Tail golf and equestrian project in Big Tujunga Wash has been delayed by objections from the state Department of Fish and Game, according to company officials. Although the Los Angeles City Council approved the project in May of last year, a special permit known as a "stream alteration agreement" remains the last regulatory hurdle facing the golf-course developer, Foothills Golf Development Co.

Confusion over who is responsible for cleaning storm debris out of the Tujunga Wash cost the city $540,000, according to a report issued Friday by City Controller Rick Tuttle. The muddle of city, state and federal agencies that have jurisdiction over the wash forced the city in 1997 to take the lead and move to dredge the area to prevent flooding and avoid liability, the report said.

The Los Angeles City Council recently approved a proposal to allow a developer to build a golf course in the Big Tujunga Wash, one of the city's last remaining wilderness areas and the last place in the city where a major river runs freely. Residents, environmentalists, unions and city officials were deeply divided over the plan by Foothills Golf Development Group to build a course on 160 acres. KARIMA A.

In a stunning reversal, the Los Angeles City Council voted Tuesday to approve a golf course development in the Big Tujunga Wash, one of the city's few remaining wilderness areas. The action caps a decade-long fight that pitted government, environmentalists and unions against a mammoth Japanese development firm with interests in the project. Council members said they came to the 10-4 vote, reversing a decision from last July, because Deputy City Atty.