Topanga State Park

AT high noon on a recent Sunday at Topanga State Park, a crow swooped down out of a hazy sky and plucked a rattlesnake off a boulder. Half an hour later, a red-tailed hawk flew by, a rat writhing in its talons. I watched the birds and their prey as I strode up one of the wide fire roads from the parking lot on the western side of this 9,000-acre park, all of which lies within L.A.

Topanga State Park has received a $350,000 grant to renovate a 35-acre corner of the sprawling recreation area that had fallen into disrepair, an official said. The money to improve lower Los Liones Canyon came from the California Transportation Commission's Environment Enhancement and Mitigation program, said Susan Ross, superintendent of Topanga Park.

About 30 area artisans will exhibit and sell their wares Saturday and Sunday at the Nature Center in Topanga State Park in an effort to raise funds and help support the park's volunteer program. In the first Santa Monica Mountains Gathering of Arts festival, fine arts and crafts--including paintings of California parks, pottery and ceramic sculptures, handmade porcelain tiles, decorative tile tables, photographs, jewelry and rustic handmade furniture--will be available for purchase between 10 a.

Adding another square to a patchwork quilt of public parkland, the National Park Service and other government agencies have acquired Rancho Estates, a 38-acre wilderness expanse in the Santa Monica Mountains. After bringing in bulldozers to begin grading the property last year, owner Tom Steers shifted course and agreed to a price below the land's appraised value of $1.7 million.

A human skull found this month in a state park's dry riverbed has eluded identification and awaits the expertise of forensic anthropologists. The skull, of a person of unknown age and gender, lies in a temperature-controlled corner of the Los Angeles County coroner's office. Hikers came upon the skull March 1 in a dry riverbed deep in the hilly terrain of Topanga State Park. Deputies from the Lost Hills sheriff's station retrieved it with help from a department rescue helicopter.

A hiker was seriously injured Saturday afternoon in a 45-foot fall down a cliff in Topanga State Park, the Los Angeles City Fire Department reported. The 23-year-old man, whose name was not disclosed, was taken by helicopter to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, department spokesman Jim Wells said. The man sustained severe head and chest injuries, Wells said. He had been hiking with six friends when he fell at 3:44 p.m.

Finding Topanga State Park can be a stern test of woodsmanship. For the first-time visitor, it's a tough place to get to, and park officials haven't gone out of their way to help. Topanga Canyon Boulevard, the nearest thoroughfare to the entrance, has no signs directing visitors to park headquarters off narrow, winding Entrada Road south of Woodland Hills. Moreover, the park's telephone number is listed neither in the telephone book nor with directory assistance.

An air rescue paramedic fell more than 50 feet to his death in Topanga State Park because a clasp on his safety harness apparently was improperly secured to a helicopter, Los Angeles County Fire Chief P. Michael Freeman said Wednesday. The carabiner, an aluminum, spring-loaded device used to secure the harness to the aircraft, was found unlocked, Freeman said at a news conference. Carabiners are commonly used by rock and mountain climbers.

The April 1 Topanga State Park "battle" story has a limited focus. What's needed are discussions as to ways to increase use of the vast parkland the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy purchased with our tax dollars, and who's to monitor the park? Surely, we didn't buy and expand the area to serve but the "750 hikers" who use it each month. With the extremely high numbers of people living in the Westside, shouldn't we have a park comparable to that which serves those who live near the eastern end of the mountain range, i.e., Griffith Park?

A stream bed, parking spaces and restrooms will be built in an extensive improvement of the Los Liones Canyon portion of Topanga State Park, officials said. The stream, which had been channeled into a crumbling concrete pipe, is now being "naturalized" into a meandering stream bed using rocks and other natural materials, said state parks landscape architect Karen Adams.