Scott Mathes

In regard to "Glendale Man's Find Could Be a Paper Trail to Drug Kingpin" (Times Valley Edition Jan. 16), several aspects of the story were not reported accurately. The documents in Little Tujunga Canyon were found by workers from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps participating in a two-week cleanup of the canyon coordinated by the California Environmental Project. I identified, prior to the work, the site where the documents were found. I was present when they were found and, as project director and sponsor, the documents were turned over to me and I contacted the authorities.

The creator of a global hair care empire, John Paul Jones de Joria has a wizard's touch for making things happen. But he just cannot make Scott Mathes disappear. For more than a year, Mathes, an environmental activist, has criticized the wealthy co-founder of Paul Mitchell Systems about the condition of his trash-strewn property in Malibu's scenic Tuna Canyon.

The creator of a global hair care empire, John Paul Jones de Joria has a wizard's touch for making things happen. But he just cannot make Scott Mathes disappear. For more than a year, Mathes, an environmental activist, has criticized the wealthy co-founder of Paul Mitchell Systems about the condition of his trash-strewn property in Malibu's scenic Tuna Canyon.

In regard to "Glendale Man's Find Could Be a Paper Trail to Drug Kingpin" (Times Valley Edition Jan. 16), several aspects of the story were not reported accurately. The documents in Little Tujunga Canyon were found by workers from the Los Angeles Conservation Corps participating in a two-week cleanup of the canyon coordinated by the California Environmental Project. I identified, prior to the work, the site where the documents were found. I was present when they were found and, as project director and sponsor, the documents were turned over to me and I contacted the authorities.

Looking over a scenic Sherman Oaks canyon cluttered with old sofas and discarded mattresses, Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo called this week for more volunteers to support the Adopt-a-Canyon program. The Adopt-a-Canyon program is patterned after the Adopt-a-Highway program, encouraging removal of litter from canyons and other natural habitats throughout California.

Spring Canyon is undergoing a spring-cleaning this week and next. Since Monday, the California Environment Project and the Los Angeles Conservation Corps have been working to clear a two-mile stretch of the lower part of the ravine north of Valley Canyon Road in Canyon Country, said Scott Mathes, CEP executive director. The dried-up creek bed has been choked with junk and debris over the years as people converted Spring Canyon into an illegal dumping site.

A stolen car, 40 tires and a couple of pay telephones were among the items that a crew of workers discovered Tuesday in the third annual cleanup of La Tuna Canyon in Tujunga. The upper canyon is the site of a two-week cleanup by minimum-wage Los Angeles Conservation Corps employees and volunteers from the California Environmental Project, said Scott Mathes, executive director of the project. The second phase of the cleanup, in the lower canyon, will be launched in mid-December, he said.

As a prelude to Earth Day, teams of volunteers will fan out into the Angeles National Forest on Sunday to clean up trash in two canyons. The one-day project is part of a countywide effort sponsored by environmental groups. "This day is designed to give people not only a chance to see the beauty of the canyons, but see how they feel about cleaning them up," said Scott Mathes, director of the Glendale-based California Environmental Project. "It's a way to introduce people to what we do."

Looking over a scenic Sherman Oaks canyon, cluttered with old sofas and discarded mattresses, Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo called Thursday for more volunteers to support the Adopt-a-Canyon program. "We have to do a better job of taking care of canyons so they're not magnets for dumping," Woo said at a news conference at Dixie Canyon.

The boys and girls in Doug Copeland's fourth- and fifth-grade class took a couple hours off from school Tuesday to clean up their back yard--the litter-strewn Big Tujunga Canyon. With their sleeves rolled up and hands protected by rubber gloves, the youngsters from Plainview Elementary School in Tujunga picked up trash left by picnickers along a stream. "This is gross," said Tony Orozco, 9, peering at his collection of cups, old clothing and part of a mattress he stuffed into a garbage bag.

By the time the kids from Ojai's Camp Ramah finished cleaning out an illegal dump in Oak View on Friday by removing 10 tons of trash, the side of Santa Ana Road above the site started to look like a junkyard. "With 10 abandoned cars hauled up from the (Ventura) riverbed, it looked like an automobile graveyard," said Scott Mathes, director of the California Environmental Project.

Two "No Dumping" signs placed along Santa Ana Road in the Ojai Valley have come and gone since a group of teen-age campers hauled six tons of trash from a nearby illegal roadside dump last summer. This summer, the debris is back and so are the teen-agers. On Friday, 56 teen-agers from Camp Ramah removed dumpsters of trash from a steep hill, playing tug-of-war with rusty abandoned cars, mattresses, wicker chairs, couches, car batteries and motor oil containers.