Sherman Asks U.S. to Trade Land for Trail

Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) is urging the federal government to swap some of its California land holdings in order to fill a crucial link in the Backbone Trail through the Santa Monica Mountains.

Sherman’s plan would halve the uncompleted stretch of trail, which is administered by the National Park Service.

In a letter to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, Sherman urges Babbitt to consider trading several small parcels of federal land that are adjacent to or surrounded by California parklands in order to obtain the Capra property, 160 acres just south of Encinal Canyon Road, four miles west of the Los Angeles-Ventura county border.

Among the federal parcels Sherman would like to see traded is roughly 80 acres surrounded on three sides by Point Mugu State Park, about 60 acres surrounded on three sides by Leo Carrillo State Park and nearly 40 acres near Topanga State Park.

Sherman hopes such a swap would win the approval of Gov. Pete Wilson, who opposed an earlier attempt to safeguard the Capra parcel for public use.

The governor last year vetoed a bill by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica) to buy the land in order to prevent its sale by the California state controller, who took the deed in lieu of back taxes. At the time, Wilson said he vetoed the bill because the parcel was closer to federal, rather than state, parkland.

“You have to be creative when there is so little money available, particularly at the federal level,” Sherman said.

One National Park Service employee said Babbitt is likely to be amenable to Sherman’s proposal.

With the Capra parcel added to the holdings of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, the Backbone Trail would grow by 4.5 miles, about half the remaining stretch the government needs to complete the pathway.