TASK A: Before you leave home, cut out the low and high tide information from the LA Times weather page (in the Almanac section). Tape this to your report and answer the appropriate questions.

For Mapquest instructions (www.mapquest.com) to the beginning location of the fieldtrip, use the address of the Malaga Cove Ranch Market: 43 Malaga Cove Plaza, Palos Verdes Estates, CA 90274

From Santa Monica College (about 50 min.)

§ Travel south on Lincoln Bvld. For 6.8 miles

§ Just north of LAX airport, Lincoln bends right intot S Sepulveda Blvd, continue for 5.5 miles

§ Just past Artesia Blvd., I Hermosa Beach, Sepulveda becomes PCH. Continue on Pacific Coast Hwy 3.9 miles

§ Just after passing Chicago Ribs, PCH makes a turn to the left. Just after this turn, turn right at Palos Verdes Blvd and continue 1.1 miles

§ You will encounter a triangular intersection with lines of American flags at the entrance to Palos Verdes. You will bend right at this intersection onto Palos Verdes Dr West.

§ On your left you will see the Malaga Cove Plaza. The grocery-deli in this plaza has excellent take-out food and sandwiches for picnic supplies

§ Begin Fieldtrip

From the San Fernando Valley or the Westside

§ Take the San Diego Frwy (405) to

§ Harbor Frwy (110) South

§ drive south on 110 for about 4.5 miles

§ Exit on Pacific Coast Hwy (Hwy 1) West/North (to your right)

§ (PCH is the exit just after the Sepulveda Bvld exit)

§ drive west, about 6 miles on PCH

§ Turn left onto Palos Verdes Boulevard ( first stop light after Prospect – Chicago Ribs is at the intersection)

§ Continue until PV Boulevard ends at a triangular intersection. Veer to the right, onto Palos Verdes Drive West. On your left you will see the Malaga Cove Plaza. The grocery-deli in this plaza has excellent take-out food and sandwiches for picnic supplies.

§ Begin Fieldtrip

Fieldtrip Begins:

At the first stop sign on Palos Verdes West, turn right onto Via Corta. You will pass a small park on your left and continue down Via Corta. When it veers left, it becomes Via Almar. After the bend, (about .75 miles) pull over to the side of the road, where you can see the canyon.

To your right is Malaga Canyon, one of the major water drainage channels on the peninsula, collecting water from the northern slopes. On the far side of the canyon is the Spanish Colonial Style Olmstead Estate, the home of landscape architect Frederick Law Olmstead, Jr. The Olmstead Brothers created the plan for Palos Verdes in the 1920s -- one of the first comprehensively planned communities in the country.

Home of Frederick Law Olmstead Jr.

Description: Olmstead%20House Across the canyon you can see a thick stand of eucalyp-tus trees, native to Australia. These trees were planted at the beginning of the century to be harvested for railroad ties. Later, it was discovered that eucalyptus wood was not straight enough and so the trees have grown into a lovely forest. Unfortunately, many have been infested by the redgum lerp psyllid, and a number of trees have died and been cut down. An Australian wasp, the only known predator of the redgum lerp psyllid, has been introduced in the area, and it is hoped that this will stop or slow this infestation.

Stop 1 Continue on Via Almar. A little over a mile later, you will pass a pale building with a castle tower. At the tower, turn right onto Via Arroyo after the school, and then right again into the parking lot. Walk to the gazebo (at the far end of the parking lot) that overlooks the ocean cliffs, Malaga Canyon, and the cliffs above RAT beach (RAT = Right after Torrance Beach).

Description: Chowingna%20Village

The Indians of Chowinga Village lived above these cliffs, to your right as you look toward the ocean from the Gazebo. The Native Americans did not survive long after the arrival of the Spanish, and little is known of their culture. No one even knows what they called themselves, so the Indians of the LA basin are referred to as Gabrielenos, after their association with the mission at San Gabriel. The group at Malaga Cove is called Chowinga. Work on the Malaga Cove archeological site was never completed, as it was bulldozed in 1955 for a condominium project. Six years later, when a neighboring home was adding a tennis court, additional artifacts were found.

As you look north, toward Torrance Beach, try to imagine the “driftwood castles” that occupied the area beneath the cliffs in the 1920s. “Beach bums” (today’s homeless) were able to live for free, collect abundant shellfish to eat, and get fresh water from a spring emerging from the cliff. The driftwood castles were torn down and their occupants told to move on when development of “Hollywood Riviera” began in the 1930s.

TASK B: Copy the first two sentences from the plaque imbedded in the standing stone across the street from the gazebo. It is in front of a Rolling Hills Preparatory school building (the old Malaga Cove School). Read this plaque and answer the questions on the report page. You may need to return to the gazebo to answer the questions. Take a photograph of the location of Chowinga Village and another photo of yourself at the gazebo.

Optional museum visit Optional trip (available from 1-3 on Dec. 2 only.)From the gazebo, walk to the tower (pictured below) and enter the museum.

Rancho de los Palos Verdes Historical Society and Museum – Malaga Cove School Tower

Open 1-3 First Sat. of the month.

Description: Malaga%20Cove%20Schhol Located in the Malaga Cove School-Tower Building, the museum retains many of the artifacts found in the Malaga Cove site that later was given the name Chowinga Village. First excavated in 1936, by the Southwest Museum, it is believed to be the oldest evidence of human culture found on the California coast. This museum is small but has several interesting exhibits. A slide show detailing what is known about the life ways of the Indians of Malaga Cove will be presented periodically.

From where you entered the parking lot, drive down Paseo del Mar (south) and continue up the hill and around the curve, still on Paseo del Mar. The upper part of this road was washed out by shore slumping, so you must take a slight detour.

After .9 miles, when you face a NOT A THROUGH STREET sign, take a hard left. This takes you back to Palos Verdes Drive West, where you turn right.

Continue for .8 miles and then bear right onto Paseo del Mar once again. Continue for about 1.5 miles along Paseo del Mar, past Rocky Point Road and Yarmouth Road. On your right you will see a grassy area, with large boulders lining the road. Park on the roadside, and walk to the edge of the cliff. NOTE: STANDING CLOSE TO THESE CLIFFS CAN BE DANGEROUS. KEEP YOUR DISTANCE.

Stop 2 Lunada Bay

From this vantage point you can look down into Lunada Bay, a nearly perfect semicircle between two points – Rock Point (also called Palos Verdes Point) to the right and Resort Point to the left. During World War II, concern about the possibility of an attack from the ocean resulted in gun emplacements in this area. Swimming, surfing, and photographing the coastline were prohibited.

In 1961, the Dominator, a Greek freighter carrying grain from Vancouver, British Columbia to Algiers, ran aground on Rocky Point. During the week following the crash, hundreds of thousands of sightseers came from all over Los Angeles, causing immense traffic jams and serious property damage to the area. After eight months, the freighter broke in two, and the following summer the rotting grain supported an enormous breeding colony of flies. Evidence of the Dominator can still be seen at low tide, from the other side of Rocky Point.

In 1974 more than a hundred wrecked cars were removed from the P.V. beaches by giant Sikorsky helicopters. A big storm in 1981 washed 43 more cars offshore and removed most of the Dominator wreckage.

Looking out at the ocean you can see the beds of giant kelp, a greenish-brown seaweed growing offshore. This is the fastest growing plant known, increasing in length by as much as 20 inches a day. Kelp beds are harvested by special ships that cut off the tops of the plants and send the kelp in the ship’s holds on conveyor belts. The kelp is processed to produce algin, and ingredient in ice cream, beer, adhesives, shaving cream, textile dying and many more food and consumer products.

The kelp beds were in serious danger, however, during the 1970s, due to pollution and attack from sea urchins (who eat the stem just above the holdfast roots of the kelp). In an interesting example of the balance of nature, the urchins were proliferating because their main predators, sea otters, were disappearing due to hunting and habitat changes. The kelp beds have made a recovery, and are home to mackerel, bonita, barracuda, yellowtail, white sea bass, halibut, opal eye and turbot. Thresher shark (once used in McDonalds fish sandwiches) also live around the kelp.

At the southern end of the overlook area, turn left onto Avenida Mirola. Go two blocks (.3 mile) and then turn left onto Via Anacapa. Follow Anacapa .3 miles until you reach the side of Lunada Bay Plaza. Turn right on Yarmouth Road and immediately right again onto Palos Verdes Drive West.

Park at Lunada Bay Plaza and read the notes up to the Pt. Vicente Lighthouse (Stop 3), then continue your drive.

Note: The Lunada Bay Plaza is a good place to stop for coffee, lunch, or picnic supplies.

Turn right onto Palos Verdes Drive West and drive approximately 2.3 miles to the Point Vicente Interpretive Center.

As you drive along, you may notice that the hillsides are stepped, or terraced. These terraces are the result of successive periods of land uplift, as sea level changed and the land rose. The peninsula has always been higher than the surrounding area, its hard basement rock keeping it from eroding to a flatland. Just by existing, it has protected the Los Angeles shoreline and kept the beaches in existence. At one time the PV Peninsula was an island, much like Catalina today, separated from the mainland by a wide channel of water

As changes in the crust of the earth caused the land here to rise, the peninsula slowly emerged from the ocean. The speed at which the land rose varied over the millennia, and although it never stopped completely, during the years when the uplift was slow the ocean cut level beaches, backed by cliffs, around the land mass. Thirteen major marine terraces have been formally identified, though many more transitional stages can be described. The upper terraces have been modified by the effects of time – erosion, landslides and house building – and it is the lower ones that are best preserved. You are driving on terrace four: Crest Road is on terrace ten; terrace thirteen is the highest, at San Pedro Hill, the highest point on the peninsula, at 1480 feet. You were driving along one marine terrace on Paseo del Mar, and you will be driving along another when you return to Palos Verdes Drive West.

Task C: Read the attached LA Times article and answer the questions on your report sheet.

The mild, nearly perfect weather in Palos Verdes is the result of the frequent temperature inversions caused by the geographic peculiarities of the area. High pressures along the coast cause air to sink slowly down from above, warming as it sinks and trapping the cooler air below. This is called an inversion layer and is what traps pollution in the L.A. basin . In Palos Verdes, however, the cool air produced by ocean currents slides up under the warm layer, bringing fog and pleasant evening temperatures.

Very often temperatures will rise steadily as one ascends the hill (in contrast to what we expect with the adiabatic lapse rate). Often a layer of clouds will mark the boundary between the two air layers, so that one can drive from fog into sunshine by driving up or down the hill. Although it varies considerably from place to place on the peninsula, in general, one third to one half of the days are clear and few months have even three days when the sun does not appear.

You will continue through the intersection where Hawthorne Boulevard meets Palos Verdes Drive West. Just after the Hawthorne/Via Vicente intersection, get into the right turn lane. Turn right into the Point Vicente Interpretive Center and stop your car for a moment. The entrance is blocked, but take a moment to read the next paragraphs before continuing on. Note: After Hawthorne, the street names changes from Palos Verdes Drive West to Palos Verdes Drive South.

Stop 3 The Point Vicente Light House and

Point Vicente Interpretive (Whale Watch) Center.

Description: Whale%20Watch%20Interpretive%20Center Located next to Point Vicente Lighthouse, this small natural history museum is an ideal whale-watching spot. Exhibits highlight the peninsula's geology, flora and fauna. Open daily, 10 AM to 5PM, year-round, with extended hours during summer. Picnic areas are available

The Point Vicente Interpretive Center and Whale Watching Site (behind the locked gates) was scheduled for a major renovation and expansion. Unfortunately, once construction began, lead contamination was discovered in the form of spent shells and ordnance left over from artillery practice during WWII. Some of the excavated earth from the site was mistakenly dumped in a local landfill, and now it will cost millions of dollars to remove the contaminated earth from the landfill. The whale watching station was closed, the ground sealed off, and the project remains in limbo.

Description: Point%20Vincente%20Light%20house%20001 On the tip of the point near the Interpretive Center, you will see the Point Vicente Lighthouse (see illustration above), built in 1926 by the U.S. Lighthouse Service. So many ships were wrecked on the rocks below this point that ships’ captains joined together and petitioned the government to help them avoid the danger.

The lighthouse is 67 feet high and stands on a 130-foot cliff, placing it 197 feet above the ocean and making it visible from a distance of 20 miles away. The Fresnel lens is French, has 52 hand-ground glass lenses, and was made in Paris in 1888. The lens saw 40 years of service in Alaska before being transferred here. The light, controlled remotely from the U.S. Coast Guard station in the L.A. Harbor, flashes every 20- seconds and is supplemented by an electronically-operated foghorn. Human beings have thus been completely replaced by machines in the modern lighthouse business.

In the original plan for the development of PV peninsula, the hillside inland from the Interpretive Center, on the other side of Palos Verdes Drive, was to have been the site for an Italian artisans village where craftsmen would live, work, and sell their wares. Those plans, unfortunately, were abandoned during the Depression. A model of this village is displayed in the Historical Society and Museum.

TASK D: Park and go into the Interpretive Center and Answer questions

~~Stop 4~~ ~~Long Point parking lot (old Marineland) –~~

(READ ONLY – The Terranea Hotel and Resort at is under construction and Sea Cave is off limits for now.)

~~From the Interpretive Center turn right onto Palos Verdes Drive Sooth and drive .8 miles. On your right, you will see the abandoned gates of Marineland~~, with its whale-tail sign. The sign now reads TERRANEA. Turn into this parking lot ~~drive through the old Marineland, Long Point gate and into a large parking lot. Park at the bottom left side of the parking lot, past the Catalina Room Restaurant~~

~~IGNORE TASK E – HOTEL UNDER CONSTRUCTION~~

~~TASK E: CANCELLED Before beginning this walk, answer the question in TASK E. Once your walk down the hill, take a photograph and include yourself in the photo.~~

Founded in 1952 by a New York stockbroker who wanted to build the second aquatic park in the country, Oceanarium (as it was then called) opened in 1954. After Sea World opened in San Diego, attendance dropped off and the park went through a series of owners. In 1986, Marineland was sold to Harcourt, Brace & Jovanovich, Publishers, owner of Sea World. In spite of protests from local citizens, they removed all the animals and announced that the land was for sale. The land is now scheduled for development of a controversial 400-room hotel and public golf course

Required walk. Long Point Sea Caves and Natural Spring

(CURRENTLY OFF LIMITS DUE TO HOTEL CONSTRUCTION – WALK NOT REQURIED)

The easy trail down a wide path begins near the series of seven white flagpoles (no flags). At the bottom of the trail, you will notice a natural spring oozing from the cliff (the spring may be dry), with giant rye grass growing nearby. You’ll have to scramble over some rocks to see the caves (a small one, followed by a larger one), but if it is high tide, the caves may be underwater. Keep an eye out for the tide coming in if you are near the caves. If the tide is coming in you may get wet. USE CAUTION. No need to go into the cave. This is one of the few, free, and easy (wide trail, not too steep or long) trails to the PV coast, and you may see sea kayaks launching from this lovely spot. As the development of Long Point proceeds, access to these caves will probably be terminated.

~~To the east of Marineland at the top of the cliff numerous~~ ~~Native American artifacts~~ ~~have been found. From Long Point, depending on how clear it is, you can see the full length of Catalina Island, 17 miles away.~~

TASK F: Read ahead before proceeding to Portuguese Bend Landslide. Also, read article and answer questions.

Portuguese Bend Landslide Drive-Over

You are about to drive over the notorious Portuguese Bend landslide, a very rough piece of road. Read the notes on Landslides and Geology before proceeding. From the Long Point parking lot, or from the Wayfarer’s Chapel, continue driving along Palos Verdes Drive South. Drive 4.2 miles to La Rotonda Drive.

Landslides and Geology

If you look quickly to the left, just past Wayfarer’s Chapel, you will see the area ahead and the hillside above the chapel are the part of the peninsula chosen by Frank Vanderlip for his own estate in the early 1920’s. In order to select the best location, he had a climatologist come to live on the peninsula and keep extensive records. The climatologist selected this site as having the best climate on the peninsula. As you will see, he would have done much better to have sent a geologist to make the selection.

You are about to drive across the famous Palos Verdes Landslides, which have been called the “largest active landslides in the country.” You will notice dips and cracks across the road surface, which must be repaved every few months to keep the road open. You will also notice sewer and water pipes above the ground, with expansion joints to keep the pipes from breaking when there is earth movement.

There are a number of different landslides occurring now. None of them are new; ancient landslides were marked on early maps of the area. Today geological investigations of the peninsula have identified those areas subject to slide activity and have found that most of the peninsula is steady as a rock.

You will first cross the Abalone Cove landslide between the Wayfarer’s Chapel and Portuguese Point. This became reactivated in 1974, due most likely to seasons of heavy rains. Dewatering wells that removed water and pipe it to the ocean have largely stopped this slide.

Notice that the ocean coves are filled with cloudy, brown water. A sediment plume washed into the ocean from the landslide areas.

Notice the gatehouse, sometimes called Portuguese Bend Lodge, on the right. It was built in the late 20’s. by Edward Harden, who married Narcissa’s Vanderlip’s sister. He wanted an estate to rival that of William Randolph Hearst but it was never completed.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula is the northernmost portion of the Peninsular Ranges landform region. The geology of the Palos Verdes Peninsula is not particularly complex. The oldest rocks are a greenish-brown, metamorphic formation called the “Catalina Schist”. This is of Mesozoic Age (dinosaur time, 80 – 225 million years ago), and can only be seen in a few spots on the peninsula. After this schist was deposited and then melted and altered, millions of years passed. During the Miocene Epoch (25-35 mya) the schist was submerged, and muddy swamps and beaches alternated, depositing a shale and mudstone formation known as “Altamira Shale”.

As the shale was being deposited there were also volcanoes to the south that produced at least one eruption of volcanic ash that was transported by wind to Palos Verdes. It is this layer of ash that is largely causing the landslide problem, since it has been altered to a clay called bentonite, which becomes very slippery when wet.

The second and larger landslide you will cross is called the Portuguese Bend landslide. It covers about 300 acres and extends inland almost a mile. In the early 1950’s the Los Angeles County Road Department tried to complete Crenshaw Boulevard, planning to bring it down the southern hillside to Palos Verdes Drive. They excavated the roadbed and dumped more than 200,000 tons of material on top of the slide. On August 29, 1956, land movement caused a water main to break, which added large amounts of water to the soil. Within a few days houses started to shift and break up and residents had to evacuate. More than 100 homes were completely destroyed, along with the Portuguese Bend Clubhouse and Pier. Homeowners sued L.A. County and others and were awarded more than $10 million.

The slide has continued at a somewhat slower rate ever since. Most homes were abandoned and razed, but a few determined families supported their homes on steel beams so that the building would at least slide in one piece. You will see two such houses on the left.

In 1986 a $2 million state grant was given to the city to combat the slide. Some 600,000 cubic yards of dirt were moved from the top of the slide to a position lower down where it inhibited further movement, and both sections were seeded with grass. Water collection basins were put in the canyons, with surface culverts to carry the water to the ocean. Initial results showed that movement slowed from about 1.25 inches per day to about half that rate. The slide continues to move as much as 25 feet a year in some spots. (Daily Breeze, 8/26/2000)

Appropriately enough, the round green or brown (depending on the season) bushes that line the road through the slide are tumbleweed. The plant is rally a newcomer called Russian thistle that arrived in Minnesota with Russian winter wheat about a hundred years ago. It rolled and seeded itself in a westerly direction, arriving here earlier in this century. Cowboy movies that are supposedly set in the 1800’s and show tumbling tumbleweeds are inaccurate, as these exotic invaders did not arrive until later.

Proposed Breakwater As you drive along the undulating road that crosses the Portuguese Bend Landslide, you will get a quick glimpse of the small cove surrounded by Portuguese Point and Inspiration Point. You will not be able to stop to observe any further as there is no place to pull off. The water off Portuguese Point and Inspiration Point is very silty, brown colored and murky, as sediment has been continuously washing into the ocean from the landslide for the past 44 years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has proposed building a $27 million dollar, 2,500 ft. rock breakwater from Inspiration Point to the beach, enclosing 9 acres of seabed. The plan is to trap the 80,000 cubic yards of soil that drifts annually into the ocean from the creeping landslide behind the dike in an attempt to improve marine life outside of the breakwater. However, sea creatures in the 9 acres of cove immediately behind the dike would be smothered, as 7 million cubic yards of earth would build up over the next 50 years, perhaps creating mud flats or a marsh. This recently proposed project is very controversial and has generated much local opposition.

Portuguese Bend was named after the two Portuguese whaling companies that operated here in the middle part of the nineteenth century. The whaling station consisted of a crude shack that stood at the base of the cliff. Outside were two enormous copper kettles set in a rude furnace, formed of rocks and clay, in which the whale blubber was processed. Lookouts stood on the point and signaled down to whalers on the beach, who would then put out to sea in their small boats, kill the whale, and tow the carcass back to the beach. There, an apparatus with ropes and pulleys would help them to roll the whale so that the fat could be stripped off. The blubber, meat, and bone were then processed into oil in the two huge copper kettles. Between 1874 and 1877, 2,166 barrels of whale oil were produced, but then the station was abandoned for lack of fuel for the furnaces. Before the use of kerosene, whale oil was the preferred form of lamp oil, as it burned clean and bright.

TASK G: Answer questions and draw the proposed breakwater on your fieldtrip map.

Ocean Trails Golf Course

Description: 9%20Ocean%20trails%20landslide%20B&W

Landslide at Ocean Trails Golf Course before repair.

Stop 5 Nature Trails at La Rotonda

(located at southern end of Trump National Golf Course)

Continue driving along Palos Verdes Drive South 4.2 miles from Long Point. Drive just past the Ocean Trails Golf Course and turn right at La Rotonda Drive. Drive to the end of the road and turn right into the parking lot. You will take a short walk on these nature trails to the ocean cliff. Here you will find picnic tables, very nice bathrooms, and a series of nature trails that wind through the golf course. These public access nature trails were a required part of the Ocean Trails development.

. Coastal sage community in full bloom! Sign in at the guest book. Notice the native vegetation that has been planted alongside all the trails and is being sprinkler and drip-irrigated. This recently planted coastal-sage plant community is in full bloom due to the irrigation --bush sunflower, California poppies, lupine, and many others are in bloom. Look closely, as many plants have very small flowers. The buckwheat plants are easily identifiable by their dry clusters of cotton-ball like puffs that have dried in the sun and are now colored various shades of pink, red, and rust. You will also notice some shriveled black plants that died back to survive the summer and are now putting out new shoots. You will notice a sage smell. Pick a few leaves from some of the artemesia and sage plants, rub them, and smell. You will find many fragrant plants here.

Walk down the nature trail toward the edge of the cliff.

You will notice the notorious golf course ponds on your right as you walk down the path (read below).

Recent 18^th hole landslide. The golf course, through which these nature trails wind, was designed to be a world-class golf course that would rival the famous Pebble Beach Golf Course at Carmel. In June of 2000, the 18^th hole of the golf course, scheduled to open one week later, literally crumbled into the ocean. A hiker and his dog had to be rescued by helicopter from a pinnacle of land that remained standing, while the 16-acres surrounding them slumped into the ocean. Luckily, no one was on the beach below, as they would have been buried by tons of dirt. Once water seeped into the bentonite clay layer of the previously inactive but ancient landslide, the slide was triggered. The source of that water is still being debated.

The developer asserts that a sewage line running beneath the slide area must have ruptured and caused the slide. Officials with the Sanitation districts of LA County maintain that the landslide caused the main to rupture. Other experts blame the 1.2-acre lake that was adjacent to the 18^th hole, just above the landslide, saying that the lake’s PVC liners were inadequate (two thin 30 mil layers instead of a sturdy two layers of 40 mil PVC liner) and were leaking. Another theory attributes the slide to the El-Nino storms of 1998, saying water slowly percolated into the clay layer.

The golf course is now called Trump National Golf Course. He bought it when it was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The clubhouse is open to the public, and you can walk there on these public trails. A trail branching to the left makes a steep, switchback descent to a rocky shore (see below). You cannot see the 18’th hole landslide from these trails, but you can see the golf ponds and test holes that have been dug to access if the ponds were leaking. A florescent dye placed in these ponds has showed up at monitoring wells, so it appears that the lakes may have been the problem.

TASK H: There are two identical signs that read HABITAT AREA. One is posted on the path behind the bathroom (uphill side). The other is on the left side of the trail (going downhill) just before you reach a foot bridge. The sign by the footbridge may be obscured by bushes. Read the sign and answer questions. Next, walk along the cliff to your right until the path for five minutes or so. Take a photo of loose material on the slope toward the ocean that illustrates the angle of repose and answer questions.

When the trail branches at the cliff, walk to your right for about three minutes. DO NOT WALK ALL THE WAY TO THE CLUBHOUSE. Most of the landslide has been repaired and is no longer visable, but you can see some evidence of loose debris (exposed loose dirt and rocks) along the bottom of the cliff face. Notice that the debris has settled in the angle of repose. All mass movements occur on slopes. The steepness of the slope that results when loose material comes to rest depends on the size and texture of that material, and is called the angle of repose. The angle represents a balance of driving and resisting forces (gravity and friction) and commonly ranges between 33 and 37 degrees (measured from a horizontal plane.

Description: Angleofrepose This illustrates the angle Description: Angle%20of%20Repose%20B&W of repose for a tallus slope in the mountains. Find similar recently disturbed material that has come to rest on a slope and take a photo.

Optional wide but steep switchback trail to rocky beach

If you turn around from the landslide area and follow the cliff-edge trail to your south, you will encounter a switch-back trail that leads to the rocky coast.

Drive to White Point – Royal Palms State Beach.

Leaving Ocean Trails nature trails, turn right on Palos Verdes Drive South. Your are about to enter San Pedro. (Note: After you see the San Pedro sign, PV Drive turns into 25^th Street.) At the second

traffic signal, turn right from 25^th Street onto Western. At the bottom of the hill, Western dead-ends. Turn left onto Paseo Del Mar. Drive a short distance and enter the upper parking lot of White Point Bluff Park, just above Royal Palms State Beach.

Stop 6 White Point Bluff Park

above Royal Palms State Beach

Exit your car and read the historical markers that line this cliff top, beginning with the marker near the bathrooms.

TASK I: Answer questions derived from markers.

Read the following information. Sometimes parking is charged for the bluff top parking lot. If no one is there to collect, it is free. You can also park in a free lot just to the south, or across the street

From the bluff-top parking lot, just past the fountain you can see Royal Palms Beach State Park and the rocky tidal zone. This point probably got its name from the sheer mudstone cliffs which shine white to ships out at see. In the cliff to the right of the road down to the beach you can see some extensively folded beds of Altamira Shale You will be photographing these rocks later.

This beach is one spot where the grunions have come, although they really prefer the sandier Cabrillo Beach farther north in the harbor (and Dockweiler Beach near LAX). Grunions are small (6-8”) fish that have been described as a cross between a sardine and an anchovy. They frequent the California coast between Baja and Point Conception, arriving in huge numbers on sandy beaches just after the monthly highest tides and just before the full moon to mate and lay their eggs in the sand.

Description: Grunion Their silvery bodies gleaming in the moonlight, the females drill a shallow hole in the sand with their tails, laying 1,000 to 3,000 eggs at one time. Male fish circle the females and then emit a milky substance that covers the eggs. Mission accomplished, the grunions head back out to sea, joined some ten days later by their newly hatched offspring.

On grunion nights crowds gather on the beaches to enjoy the spectacle of heaps of shining, wiggling fish. Some like to catch and cook grunions, although they can only be caught with bare hands (no scoops or buckets) and anyone over 16 must have a valid fishing license.

The cement rectangle between the rocks and the shore below is the only remnant of one of the high points of Japanese enterprise I the peninsula area. After the Sino-Japanese War (1894-5), eager young Japanese came to America to avoid universal military conscription, high taxation and economic depression.

From the very beginning they were not welcomed and efforts were made to limit Japanese immigration.

Nevertheless, a small colony of Japanese established themselves here at White Point around the turn of the century. Naked divers harvested abalone with knives, bringing the shellfish back to others on the beach, where it was cooked and dried. By 1903 they had added a canning operation, but a few years later publicity brought public opposition to their presence and in 1905 the state of California forced them to leave.

In 1917 Tamiji Tagami leased the White Point area from Ramon Sepulveda and constructed a luxury resort hotel. Five hot sulphur pools were the main attraction, filled by natural hot springs. The rectangle below is the foundation for the largest of the pools. There was also a 50-room, two-story hotel, a restaurant, theater, dance floor and enclosed boating area. The fountain now on the cliff top once stood in front of the hotel. A barge was anchored three miles offshore and water taxis brought visitors out to fish. Thousands of Japanese came from all over the southwest to visit the hotel.

While the Japanese enjoyed the resort at White Point, Ramon Sepulveda developed his own resort, called Royal Palms, The Family Club, on the beach to the right. A huge, native rock fireplace was built into the base of the cliff, (it’s still there) next to the large terrazzo dance floor. Beautiful gardens stretched along the lower bluff and surrounded a small house. In 1927 a storm and tidal wave destroyed the wall of the swimming pool, and in 1933 the Long Beach earthquake cut off the flow from the hot springs. These changes and the effects of the Depression caused the hotel to be abandoned. At the outbreak of WWII, the U.S. Navy took over the site and allowed a demolition team to practice there, destroying what remained of the hotel.

During the 20’s and 30’s more Japanese farmers arrived in Palos Verses, and their children went to school at Malaga Cove. They prospered there; the San Pedro tomato, famous for its flavor and color, was exported as far as the east coast. During the Depression the Japanese farmers were generous with food for the unemployed.

In 1941, the fragile peace between the Japanese and the rest of the peninsulans was broken. The west coast was declared a theater of war. The Palos Verdes Estates City Council voted that all Japanese be removed from the peninsula because it was a strategic area. The local Japanese tried to cooperate but by the following spring their forced evacuation was underway. The evacuation camps were brutal places and the evacuees suffered greatly. In 1945 the Japanese exclusion order was lifted but most Japanese had nowhere to return. Many went east where anti-Japanese bigotry was not so strong. In 1946 a relocation camp was set up at Lomita Field for those who did return, and the local newspaper asked residents to hire them as gardeners or handymen.

The Ishibashi family returned to the peninsula and began farming peas and garbanzo beans. Family members still farm land near the Marineland site and adjacent to Torrance airport. A history of this important Palos Verdes family is one of the exhibits at the PV Historical Society and Museum.

Stop 7 Royal Palms State Beach

Walk or drive down to Royal Palms Beach (just below White Point Bluff Park). On weekends and during the summer and fall, you will have to pay a parking fee to drive down, so you may want to park above and walk down.

Across from the two palm trees at the bottom of the road leading into Royal Palms beach, in the cliff to the right of the road, you can see some extensively folded beds of Altamira Shale. The smooth black rocks (in the tidal zone) are part of a basaltic lava flow, while the rocks used in the breakwater around the lower parking lot are granite, brought from somewhere north of Los Angeles.

Description: Folded%20Beds%20of%20Altimira%20Shale Folded Beds of Altimira Shale

TASK J: Take two photos: Photograph folded beds of Altamira Shale and the basalt in the tidal zone. Read article and answer questions.

If you wish to walk along the beach to your right, you can see the large fireplaces in the wall of the cliff. To your left, you can explore the tide pools near the hot springs if the tide is low. Occasionally waders may feel a plume of warm water from the now-diminished hot springs that used to supply hot water for hotel bathers. If you drive down to the beach, you may have to pay $6, depending on the time of day or season.

Stop 8 Point Fermin Park

Continue east along Paseo del Mar for 1.7 miles to Point Fermin Park. Turn right at Gaffey street and into the park. Park your car, read the following notes, and walk the perimeter of the park.

Just before reaching Pt. Fermin Park, on your left, you will pass White Point Reservation, once part of the military defense of the west coasts. The large cement construction on the hillside is Battery Paul D. Bunker, built in 1942 to hold two 16-inch guns able to send a 2,340-pound projectile 26 miles – all the way to Catalina! Current plans for this retired military reservation are to replant native vegetation and make this a natural preserve.

At Pt. Fermin park you’ll find restrooms, a light house, and various lookouts. This scenic park surrounds the southernmost point in Los Angeles County. A stroll through it will show you one of the oldest lighthouses on the west coast, yet another landslide, and the famous Walker’s Café, a colorful San Pedro landmark. Notice the large, but messy, fig trees.

To view the landslide, turn left as you enter Pt. Fermin Park and park your car. Walk to the left (from entrance), past Walker’s café until you encounter the tall, spiked, gray security fence. Walk along the dirt path on the outside perimeter of this fence (past the sign that says “permission to enter granted by owner”). After about two minutes, you will be at our highest vantage point and can see isolated islands of pavement that remained suspended after the landslide. This is as close as you can get.

Task K: Take photo and answer questions re: the Pt. Fermin landslide. Include yourself in the photo.

Description: sunkencity The Point Fermin landslide, which happened suddenly in 1929 and was reactivated in 1940 and 1941. This is a “glide block” slide, where large pieces of solid rock collapse without breaking up. You can still see the tracks of the streetcar line that ran along Paseo del Mar and large plates of isolated pavement sitting likes caps on top of blocks.

The Point Fermin Lighthouse, the Victorian-style building surrounded by flower gardens, was built in 1874 on three acres of land donated by Jose Diego Sepulveda. Early in this century Point Fermin Park was developed, with gardens, pathways and handsome covered picnic areas overlooking the ocean. In the late 1970s the lighthouse was finally closed down, its job taken over by radar and other electronic devices.

The park is one of the few places on the peninsula where Monarch butterflies spend the winter, concentrated in clusters on the trees. They summer farther north but cannot survive freezing temperatures, so they head south, their black bordered orange wings making a spectacular display as they gather in a few coastal locations where their food, the milkweed plant, is available.

Stop 9 Marine Mammal Care Center at Angel’s Gate Park & Korean Friendship Bell

From the parking lot at Pt. Fermin, drive straight north on Gaffey Street for .3 mile. Take your second left and drive along Leavenworth Drive until you come to the Marine mammal Care Center.

Park your car and walk along the path to the right of the building. 3:00 is feeding time. YOU CAN WALK BEHIND THE BUILDING TO SEE THE ANIMALS AT ANY TIME, EVEN WHEN THE BUILDING IS CLOSED.

TASK L Answer questions

The Korean Friendship Bell

You will see the Korean Friendship Bell on the hillside below the entrance to Angel’s Gate Park. You can get to the Korean Bell parking lot from Leavenworth drive. Exit your car and walk to the bell.

You are standing on the hillside where the ships of Cabrillo may well have spotted the campfires that led them to call the area “Bay of Smokes” in 1542. As the port of San Pedro grew the new (as of 1847) U.S. Government gave thought to the security of its western territories. Land was set aside here in 1888 as a military reservation to aid in the defense of the harbor.

The “Bell of Friendship”, donated to the United States by the people of Korea as a Bicentennial gift. It is patterned after the largest Oriental bell in existence, the bronze bell of King Songdok, made in 1771. A group of more than 20 Korean craftsmen under the direction of a famous sculptor took more than six months to cast the bell.

On the sides of the bell the Statue of Liberty is paired four times with a Korean sprit, to symbolize friendship between the two nations. They stand on drifting clouds and the sun appears between their raised hands. Each Korean spirit holds a different item: a Korean flag, a branch, and a dove. Relief work showing the Rose of Sharon decorates the rim of the bell.

Designed to hang low to the ground, the bell has a sound tube extending from the top to carry its reverberations outward. Underneath there is a hollow, tile-lined area that enables vibrations to be felt as long as five minutes after the bell is struck with its log striker.

Originally Griffith Park was chosen as the site for the bell, but once this hillside was proposed all involved felt that it was more suitable. The myriad government agencies involved worked to arrange for its location overlooking Los Angeles Harbor so it could serve as the Statue of Liberty of the Pacific. When it was dedicated in 1976 it was struck 13 times, to symbolize the 13 colonies, and it is still sounded on July 4, August 15 (Korean Independence Day) and New Year’s Day.

Description: FG13_10a

Wave-cut terraces, as seen in this illustration are common on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Description: 20%20Wave%20cut%20terraces%20from%20korean%20bell

Task M: From the hillside below the Korean Bell, observe Long Point protruding into the ocean several miles to the north-west. (not visible on a foggy day). Photograph or sketch Long Point and mark the marine terraces above it. See photo below for guidance.

Stop 10 Gaffey Street Overlook of San Pedro and Los Angeles Harbor

Leave the parking lot and turn left onto Gaffey Street. Turn right after .1 mile (at the top of the slope) into the harbor overlook.

From this location you have a panoramic view of San Pedro and the Harbor. In the distance you can see the Three dark smokestacks of the Queen Marry. To the left you can see the Vincent Thomas Bridge that replaced the ferry service in 1963. It was criticized for being a “bridge to nowhere” when it was built, but today is a vital part of the LA freeway system.

The Los Angeles harbor, located in San Pedro, is the second busiest on the west coast – after Long Beach Harbor, its other half.

Identified by Juan Cabrillo in 1542 as “an excellent harbor,” for three centuries San Pedro Bay remained little more than an underutilized mud flat, 25 miles from the Los Angeles Pueblo. When the U.S> seized California there was no deep-water access at San Pedro, and merchants had to send small boats and rafts to meet cargo-carrying ships at anchor in the bay. Beginning in the 1850s lumber for the burgeoning towns became an important commodity; it arrived chiefly by sea and was off-loaded at San Pedro. The effort to establish a deep-water port took 50 years. Prior to dredging the port and building a breakwater, this area was a tidal flat, and boats were off-loaded at sea, using small boats that could negotiate the shallow harbor.

The opening of the Panama Canal in 1914 crated vast potential for Los Angeles, which became the first major port of call for shipping from the East Coast, Europe, and some Central and South American countries.

The 1920s were a peak period, with petroleum, cotton, and citrus flowing out and bananas and other products flowing in. During WWII the navy took over control of the harbor. More than 1,000 ships were built there, including 26 warships. The breakwater was extended after the war, in 1949. In the 1970s cruise ships began to dock at San Pedro, and the main channel was dredged to 45 feet.

The Los Angeles facility, which has adopted the title Worldport L.A. remains commonly known as Los Angeles Harbor. With state-of-the-art container systems, in 1988 the port handled $54 billion in cargo, more than any other West Coast port. By 1990 it had bypassed New York as the busiest commercial gateway in the U.S. Together with Long Beach, its twin port, the combined ports are the third largest port in the world, behind Singapore and Hong Kong. Moe than half the LA port’s revenue, by tonnage, involves the Far East. Automobiles, auto parts, gasoline, jet fuel, steel, footwear, lumber, scrap metal, copper ores, and inorganic compounds are among the major imports. (Pitt & Pitt, 1997)

TASK N: Take a photo of the port from this overlook.

With the exception of the following optional tour of the Ft. MacArthur Military Museum, you have now reached the end of the field trip.

Return home: You can retrace your steps and drive north, around the peninsula and back to Pacific Coast Highway, or you can continue on Gaffey Street to the Harbor (110) Freeway (just past 1^st Street). After 9-10 miles on the 110, you’ll reach the San Diego (405) Freeway North. Take the 405 to the San Fernando Valley and home.

Optional stop Optional Tour of the Ft. MacArthur Military Museum.

Retrace your route .1 miles down Gaffey and turn right into the Ft. MacArthur the museum parking lot just above the Korean Bell parking lot.

Open Saturdays, 1-5. Free. (Children will love this – secret tunnels with speaking tubes, fake buildings to hide the giant guns, etc.)

The Military Museum has displays and souvenirs of the war eras, diagrams and maps of the reservations, and historical information on the war and its effect on California. A walking tour leaflet explains the many features of the batteries, like the plotting room, the Commander Station (with rows of functioning speaking tubes that connect to other rooms) and the long, narrow tunnels that connect the various rooms. The underground parts of the battery can only be visited when the museum is open, but much can be seen above ground.

In 1914 the area was named Fort MacArthur, after Arthur MacArthur, a hero of the war in the Philippines (and Douglas’s father), and a coastal artillery battalion moved in.

During World War I the Fort served as a training site for thousands of solders headed for France.

During the late 1920s additional firepower was added to the fortification. Two mobile 14-inch guns were mounted on railroad gun carriages and tracks. When the guns were fired for the first time in 1927, the shock waves broke windows all over the city.

In the 1950s, Fort MacArthur was used as a Nike-Ajax Missile Base. In 1974 much of the Fort was declared surplus and in 1976 the Battery Osgood-Farley was placed on the National Register of Historic Places.

Sources:

A substantial portion of these field trip notes were taken from:

Dye, Barbara K. 1988. A Driving Tour of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Self Published.

Photograph of Ocean Trails Landslide from Los Angeles Times Magazine.

Remaining photographs taken by P.Kellner. Sketch of Pt. Vicente Lighthouse drawn by P. Kellner.

Articles reprinted from The Los Angeles Times.

Angle of repose illustration taken from Wikipedia.

Wave-cut terraces illustration from Elemental Geosystems by Robert Christopherson.

This document is may not be reproduced without permission from all of the above.

Selected Articles from the Los Angeles Times Concerning Palos Verdes Peninsula:

CITYSCAPES / DAVID FERRELL
Peninsula's Bluffs Rise in Isolation From the Frenzy

By DAVID FERRELL

You can call them cliff dwellers, because Vickie Terry and her cousin, Robin Christian, hold their kaffeeklatsches perched like eagles on the tops of cliffs.

They started 23 years ago. They used to convene once a month on the bluffs near Point Mugu, looking out over the ocean while they discussed their families, their childhoods, events in the news--anything, really.

Now that Terry lives in Chapel Hill, N.C., it is tougher to maintain the tradition, but they try when they can. So on a misty Thursday morning, with Terry in town for her mother's 81st birthday, they occupy a shady aerie atop a cliff in Palos Verdes Estates, more than 100 feet above the rocky beach of Bluff Cove. What passes for a bench is the massive root of a gnarled pine tree. They sip their coffee from silver mugs with a big thermos between them.

"You feel like you're the only people here," Christian says, describing the expanse and solitude.

The view is spectacular. Off in the distance rises the facing cliff across the cove--a striated wall of tobacco brown and tan, mottled with green brush--and beyond that the long stripe of sand running through Redondo, Hermosa and Manhattan beaches.

These cliffs are among the Los Angeles region's most arresting features. Running nearly unbroken for 15 miles around the rim of the Palos Verdes Peninsula, they soar to 150 feet in places--sheer drops and precipitous slopes.

The cliffs form a wall against the beach throngs you might find in Redondo and Manhattan. On the cliffs you see a much smaller, less frenzied, crowd: artists, hikers, people walking their dogs. There are no skateboarders, no beach babes, no blasting tape decks. At night, lovers roll quietly into secluded vantage points.

Terry attended Palos Verdes High in the 1960s. She remembers very well.

"Palm Tree Lane was a smooch spot," she says, recalling their nickname for a cliff-top row of palms. Her avid tone invites a question: Did she park there herself?

"Absolutely. Several times."

Christian gives her a sharp look.

"I'm not even going to touch that."

In Los Angeles, a vast flood plain lying flat against the sea, the cliffs are an anomaly. A million years of geologic uplift, powered by the grinding of tectonic plates, hoisted the Palos Verdes Peninsula off the sea floor. The land is still rising about a foot every 1,000 years, according to geologists.

Like Gibraltar, the exposed rock has endured because it is especially hard. Some of it is sedimentary strata, rich in fossils, created 15 million years ago and cemented with silica or dolomite. Some is igneous basalt, formed by volcanic foment just below the ocean floor.

Wind, rain and tides have carved the cliffs and the narrow, rocky beaches below, says Perry Ehlig, a professor emeritus of geology at Cal State L.A. Seen from above, the cliffs form a line as wrinkled as crepe paper. They are changing at an astonishing rate, compared to other geologic features.

Landslides this half-century have destroyed homes near Portuguese Bend and Bluff Cove. This spring, a 400-foot chunk fell out of a new cliff-top golf course, a slide that not only dumped 1 million gallons of sewage into the sea--the effluent from a ruptured pipe--but also plunged a man who was walking his dog 100 feet down the cliff into a crevice. He was not badly hurt but had to be rescued by airlift.

In spite of these mishaps, the cliffs are widely beloved, a favorite place of rich and poor, locals and outsiders alike.

Jim Piper was a skinny kid from Hermosa when he first surfed here in 1957. He fondly recalls the system of ropes that surfers used to negotiate the steep dirt trails that slice down some of the cliffs. Rain would make the trails muddy and slick, but surfers, being surfers, were determined to surf anyway.

Today the ropes are gone, but surfers and beachcombers still use the trails to scramble down to Lunada Bay, Bluff Cove and other inlets.

Piper, a retired commercial pilot, has not caught a wave in ages, but he and his wife, Diana, so loved the striking landscape that they moved here. They have lived for 28 years on Paseo del Mar, in a tree-shrouded, two-story home across the street from the cliffs.

Homes rimming the peninsula seem to rest on a giant pedestal--a fitting image, given the property values: upward of $5 million for the better cliff-top views. Yet price alone fails to convey the startling contrast between neighborhoods above and the dense, noisy beach towns below.

To drive up here is like entering "a time warp," says Jim Hendrickson, the city manager of Palos Verdes Estates, the oldest of the four small towns on the hill. PVE, as the locals call it, was incorporated in 1939--a 60th-year celebration was just held--and has grown to a population of 14,550. Still, it remains a town with no street lights and not a single traffic signal. Those who live here do not come for the sand, surf and parties; they are an older bunch looking for a retreat from the surrounding metropolis.

The feel is languid, quiet, and, in spite of the wealth, unpretentious. There are rambling lawns and circuitous roads, trees and peacocks, and only enough markets and eateries to keep from starving. Swaths of open land undulate and abruptly fall away to the rocks below.

In such isolation, news rarely happens. A murder recorded earlier this year was the first in PVE since 1992. When a body turns up here, it is usually because someone hauled it in from a more violent place and dumped it over the cliff. Or because someone fell. Or jumped.

Suicides occur at the cliffs perhaps three or four times a year, authorities say. A few of them--high school sweethearts, a Superior Court judge--are sufficiently stunning to merit a big write-up; others go almost unnoticed.

Stroll below the cliffs of Rocky Point and you can smell death in the air. It is only a dead seal that has washed ashore, lying flattened on the rocks near a much larger carcass: the remains of the Dominator, a Greek freighter that piled up here in 1961. Lost in a dense fog without radar, the 441-foot ship crashed on a reef and defied more than 50 attempts by salvagers to move it. Though all of its crew members were rescued, several divers later drowned venturing too close to the wreckage.

The rusted bow, 35 feet long, now sits canted on the beach--you can walk on the side of it--and eaten through in places. It is a mottled orange, frosted with guano and surrounded by other debris: twisted beams, bent panels of uncertain purpose, half a car engine melted away by the salt water. Sixty yards away is the broken hulk of a bulldozer, its massive shovel crushed against the tide pool rocks.

The only person on the beach today is Evan Mathis, the creative director of an advertising agency. He has climbed down the cliff trail at Lunada Bay because he wants to create a rough, metallic look for the cover of a video. So all alone, he clambers around the Dominator, shooting photos of the corrosion.

"I just happen to know it's a local resource for this type of thing," Mathis shrugs when he is finished, preparing for the steep climb back up the cliff face. "It's a pretty cool thing to check out."

Caption:
PHOTO: A surfer carries his board up the bluffs near Palos Verdes Estates.
PHOTOGRAPHER: KEN LUBAS / Los Angeles Times

City Aims for Open Space, Not Housing
Land: Rancho Palos Verdes hopes to buy about 800 acres, saying landslide threats preclude homes. But developers say that problem can be solved.

Talk about aromatherapy. The smell of sage along the southern slopes of the Palos Verdes Peninsula wafts up to greet visitors as if the hills were part of a giant outdoor spa.

There are, of course, no Jacuzzis or facial peels on those rugged cliffs. But the pleasures for hikers and cyclists include the scent of sage, a glimpse of the endangered blue butterfly or an occasional fox, and the spectacular ocean view to Santa Catalina Island.

That's why nature enthusiasts and the city of Rancho Palos Verdes hope to stop housing tracts from covering those 800 or so acres, one of the last major open spaces in southern Los Angeles County.

They want to buy the land and create a nature preserve in the area just north of Portuguese Bend, on the eastern side of Palos Verdes Drive South.

"There are other areas preserved around the peninsula, but most of them are only about 20 to 100 acres. That's postage stamp size in terms of ecology," said Keith Lenard, executive director of the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy, a nonprofit organization founded in 1988 to preserve undeveloped land. "It's not just the best of what's left. It is what's left," he said.

Lenard hopes to take advantage of newly available state and federal funds, and private donations, to raise what he estimated to be the $35 million it will take to buy the land.

The land's owners see the picture differently and the potential price tag much higher. To them it is prime property for expensive, ocean-view homes.

While they would have to set aside some areas to preserve the environment, they say they can develop most of it for homes or agriculture.

The main thing keeping them from selling it off in parcels is a city-imposed moratorium on construction in much of the area because of landslide dangers. If they can show that the land is safe, then they should be able to sell it to developers, the owners argue.

Since 1978, Rancho Palos Verdes has imposed the building freeze on much of the area now under consideration for the preserve.

Evidence of the earth's movement can be seen in the buckled pavement of Palos Verdes Drive South, just below the bend. According to recent geological studies, parts of the Portuguese Bend area can move more than 6 inches a year.

Like many regions with prime real estate in Southern California, the city is struggling to balance the preservation of open space, the push for development and safety.

Together with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the city is seeking to identify which areas are suitable for conservation and which for development.

Until recently, stabilizing the land was thought to be too costly. But with land prices soaring and new engineering technologies, construction on the land is no longer a dream, according to its owners.

The proposed preservation zone is home to several endangered species, including the California gnatcatcher.

Lenard argues that the area is also important for recreation, and that it is the most accessible open space for the South Bay area.

Nature enthusiasts who do not have time to head to the Santa Monica or San Bernardino mountains can spend hours hiking the Portuguese Bend switchbacks, while taking in the stunning views and a cool breeze off the Pacific. The more adventurous can enjoy horse riding and mountain biking.

Rick Humphries, an artist and graphic designer in Torrance, grew up on the peninsula and still returns to Portuguese Bend whenever he can.

"It's like you're stepping into the past," he said. "It's how Palos Verdes was when I grew up. I take my family up there all the time and go hiking with my 18-year-old daughter.

"On a warm, sunny day, with the colors of the water . . . you feel like you're in another world. You forget you're outside of Los Angeles."

Nature Conservancy senior science and policy advisor Michael O'Connell said biologists are interested in the land because it is home to a number of rare plants, particularly cactuses, as well as endangered species such as the gnatcatcher.

"It's a pretty unique place, one of the last natural coastal habitats in Los Angeles County," said O'Connell.

The effort to turn the Portuguese Bend area into a nature preserve was first batted around in the late 1980s. In 1996, the city purchased 160 acres to the east, which could someday be connected to the proposed preserve.

But it was not until last year that the city requested appraisals of land around the bend, in hopes of buying a roughly 100-acre tract with $4 million in county park bonds earmarked for land acquisition.

Rancho Palos Verdes's planning, building and code enforcement director, Joel Rojas, said the city voted earlier this month to begin negotiations for the 100 acres as a possible step toward larger purchases.

What makes the timing right, Lenard said, is the recent creation of additional state and federal funds, some of which are available for land acquisition and protection of coastal areas and endangered species.

So far, a wide gap still exists between the city's estimate of the land's worth and that of its owners. York Long Point Associates owns most of the land in the western part of the proposed preserve.

Orange County developer Barry Hon's Palos Verdes Portuguese Bend Land Holding Co. owns most of the land on the east side of the bend, plus the 100 acres on the west side that are under discussion.

Michael Walker, vice president of the Land Holding Co., said his group has not received an offer from the city and would not comment on the land's value.

Lenard says the time required and the cost of stabilizing the land and getting city permits would eventually persuade owners to sell the land for a preserve.

Jim York, president of York Capital Group, the general partner of Long Point Associates, disagrees. He says only a few million dollars and some heavy-duty cosmetic surgery are needed to stabilize the sliding hills.

York estimates that it would cost about $100,000 per acre to pump out the water and replace some of the slippery clay just below the surface with more stable soil. It's not a bad deal when ocean-view property can cost more than $500,000 an acre.

York expects the results of a geological study of his land next month. He says he is merely looking for the highest bidder.

"Everything's for sale. I'm not a developer. I'm a land investor. At this time, the group that appears most likely to offer the highest price is a home builder."

-MAP: (no caption), Los Angeles Times

July 14, 2000

March 25, 2000

EPA Will Try to Cap DDT Layer Off Palos Verdes

By MARLA CONE TIMES ENVIRONMENTAL WRITER

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans an unprecedented experiment this summer to cover 180 acres of ocean floor off Palos Verdes Peninsula, a potentially risky effort to deal with the world's largest deposit of the pesticide DDT.

The pilot project, in which tons of sand will be dropped into water as deep as 200 feet, is the first tangible step toward resolving a decades-old problem that haunts Southern California's marine environment.

For 25 years, through 1971, chemical manufacturer Montrose Corp. dumped residue into the Los Angeles County sewer system, allowing 110 tons of DDT to spread across 17 square miles of the ocean floor. The chemical, which is linked to cancer and reproductive problems, is still contaminating fish consumed by some Southern Californians and killing bald eagle chicks.

The area--the Palos Verdes Shelf--was declared a Superfund environmental cleanup site in 1996, and on Wednesday, the EPA will announce its initial plan for protecting people and wildlife from the underwater contamination.

In addition to the $5-million sand-capping experiment, the EPA is proposing to spend $22 million to enforce a no-fishing zone around the deposit and increase efforts to warn consumers to avoid eating white croaker caught off Palos Verdes.

During a two-month period, the EPA plans to drop about 50,000 dump-truck loads of sand and silt two miles offshore, on four small sections of ocean floor near sewer outfall pipes.

If the test succeeds, the EPA intends to spend about $100 million more to seal much of the Palos Verdes Shelf--three or four square miles--beginning in 2002.

Never before have environmental officials tried to place a layer, called a "cap," on a hazardous waste deposit in such deep water or on such a sloped ocean bottom. Digging up the deposit would be too risky and expensive. Even if it were safely dredged up, there would be no place to dispose of so much toxic waste.

"The levels of DDT are simply not acceptable for a recreational area that is so highly used and valued," said Michael Montgomery, the EPA's chief of Superfund cleanup in California and Arizona. "Capping it is the lone technology we have that has a high possibility of working and having a great benefit. If we can't cap it, there might not be anything we can do."

The companies held responsible for the pollution say the cap will be ineffective at best and at worst could stir up the DDT and unleash even more contamination. They argue that the best option is leaving the deposit alone, allowing it to slowly degrade and be buried by natural forces.

"They're nuts to do this," said Karl Lytz, a San Francisco attorney representing the now-defunct Montrose Corp., which manufactured DDT in a plant near Torrance. "It's unnecessary; it's wasteful. If you do this thing, it's completely ineffective and it's potentially really dangerous."

Many scientists involved in marine research are skeptical about the capping project and say the EPA should undertake a rigorous scientific review first.

Issues include whether the sand layer can effectively control the DDT and resist erosion and earthquakes. Scientists also question whether the risk to human and marine life is great enough to warrant the expenditure and whether sensitive resources, including kelp beds less than a mile away, would be harmed.

"These are complex issues that require an independent peer review of EPA action, and EPA has not yet undertaken that review," said Steve Weisberg, director of the Southern California Water Research Project, a scientific group largely funded by the EPA that has researched the contaminated site. Weisberg stopped participating in the EPA's technical review committee for the project because he felt the process was dominated by lawyers rather than science.

Tony Michaels, director of the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies, is also skeptical. "It's a real question whether this is worth doing," he said. "Capping isn't a real solution.

"It puts a barrier between the DDT and the rest of the world, but the DDT is still there, despite spending all that money," Michaels added. "My gut feeling is that I would be skeptical that it will work. Doing nothing is not an acceptable solution either."

Experiment Expected to Answer Questions

EPA officials acknowledge the uncertainties but say it is time to head out to sea and experiment.

"A lot of the questions people have will be answered with this pilot project," said Keith Takata, regional chief of the EPA's Superfund program.

Mark Gold, executive director of the environmental group Heal the Bay, said the pilot project is a great idea and is small enough that he has no concerns about it causing ecological harm. If the experiment proves successful, a proposal for a far larger cap is expected to be unveiled by year's end.

A long, acrimonious legal battle has been waged over the contamination, and the capping project is likely to become a new focal point.

For 10 years, Montrose, Chris-Craft Industries and four other companies have fought a federal and state lawsuit seeking about $170 million in damages for the cleanup and restoration of wildlife off Palos Verdes. Another $67 million in settlements has already been paid by 150 Southern California municipalities that used the sewer system and three companies: Simpson Paper Co., Potlatch Corp. and CBS Corp.

The Palos Verdes Shelf lawsuit is the largest natural-resource damage case in the nation, previously exceeded in scope only by the Exxon Valdez case in Alaska. A federal district judge in Los Angeles, newly assigned to the case, recently put it on a fast track by ordering a trial to begin in October.

In the meantime, the EPA plans to undertake its pilot project, hauling as much as half a million cubic yards of sand and silt out to sea.

The sediment will come from a channel just outside Long Beach Harbor where a massive dredging project is beginning in May to deepen the port's main entrance. The EPA has quickened the pace of its own project to make use of port sediment, which tests show is relatively uncontaminated.

"It's good, clean stuff," said Robert Kanter, the Port of Long Beach's director of planning and environmental affairs. "It's from outside the harbor, outside the breakwater, and that area is quite clean."

In late summer, a small ship called a dredger will drop the sand on four 45-acre plots off White's Point, northeast of the outfall pipeline where Los Angeles County discharges its sewage.

The four plots will be covered with layers of different thicknesses, varying from 6 to 18 inches, and assorted types of sand to determine what cover works best. The thinner the cap, the lower the cost but the greater the risk of erosion.

Capping of underwater toxic waste has been proved to work well at dozens of Superfund sites throughout the nation in recent years. But most have been in shallow rivers or harbors, not the open ocean. The only other deep-ocean project has been off New York Harbor, where a cap was placed a few years ago at 40- to 70-foot depths, considerably shallower than the Palos Verdes Shelf, which drops down to 200 feet.

An Illinois dredging company, NATCO Limited Partnership, will perform the work. The company worked on the New York cap, as well as other large EPA Superfund projects.

William Pagendarm, NATCO's vice president and general manager, said he expects little disruption of the DDT because the dredged sand will be fine particles.

"We dump material in ocean disposal sites all over the country. I don't anticipate it's going to disturb what's down there," Pagendarm said. "You've got material that drops out of the bottom of the dredge as particles and it more or less gently drifts to the bottom of the ocean."

The critical issue is whether contamination turns up when the EPA monitors the water during the dumping.

"Disturbing the [DDT] site is a concern, but ultimately we think we can find a placement method that will cause minimum disruption," the EPA's Montgomery said.

The NATCO team will try dropping the sand at various rates, from dumping the equivalent of 100 truckloads in a few minutes to letting it trickle out over half an hour.

"If you drop a massive amount, with a huge 'kerplop,' it could push some of [the contamination] into the water column. But I think they could find a speed to lay it down without remobilizing the DDT," said Linda Duguay, director of USC's Sea Grant program for ocean research.

Rate of DDT Decay a Matter for Debate

Government officials estimate that Montrose discharged 1,800 tons of DDT into the ocean off Palos Verdes--more than the volume of DDT that has flowed into the entire Mississippi River, Montgomery said.

Scientists agree the DDT is being broken down naturally by microbes and being buried under sediment. But the rate of decay is a subject of considerable debate.

John List, a retired Caltech environmental engineer hired by Montrose, says the natural decay is rapid, with half the DDT apparently disappearing every 16 to 26 years. EPA officials, however, say it would take many decades for the deposit to naturally reach a non-hazardous concentration.

On the other hand, the federal government does not know how much contamination it would prevent with the cap. U.S. Army Corps of Engineers data show that even a large cap would prevent only 2 pounds of DDT a year from seeping into the water. But EPA officials say that calculation does not include the substantial amounts of DDT getting into the food chain through worms and other burrowing creatures.

DDT, banned in the United States since 1972, was widely used and touted as safe for killing mosquitoes and other pests until scientists discovered that it accumulated in the fat of fish and consequently, in animals and humans.

DDT in birds affects eggshells, making them so thin that chicks die. Brown pelicans, bald eagles, peregrine falcons and other species nearly vanished across the nation in the 1950s and 1960s, with the effects especially severe off Southern California.

Today, bald eagles nesting on Santa Catalina Island still cannot lay eggs without human intervention because DDT lingers in their bodies from eating contaminated fish. Seals, dolphins and other marine mammals off Southern California also still contain high levels. And the pesticide is a sex hormone-altering substance that can affect fish, birds and other animals.

The White's Point deposit also contains PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, another substance that accumulates in marine life.

In humans, DDT and PCBs can cause cancer as well as reproductive problems, neurological damage and immune suppression. Breast-fed infants are at particular risk.

Commercial fishing of white croaker, a bottom-dwelling fish, is banned around the deposit, but illegal fishing is believed to be commonplace. Also, people routinely ignore warning signs and fish off Cabrillo Pier.

The EPA says that one of every 1,000 people who eat four or five meals of white croaker a month would contract cancer from the contamination. "That's a phenomenally high number," the EPA's Takata said.

The fish is especially popular among Asian Americans. Heal the Bay tested white croaker sold in some Asian markets and found high DDT concentrations.

To police an 11-year fishing ban around the deposit, the EPA is proposing to fund a large-scale enforcement program including the hiring of 16 game wardens and six office employees at the California Department of Fish and Game.

Only $430,000 of the $22-million proposal is aimed at public education and outreach, mainly targeted toward Asian American communities.

Some environmentalists say more money should be spent on educating consumers and less on enforcement. Education is a tough task, said Inbo Sim of the Korean Resource Center in Los Angeles, because croaker is popular, especially among Korean Americans, who consider it a delicacy.

The EPA will seek public comment on its plan through April. Four information meetings will be held, beginning April 11 at 7 p.m. at Cal State Long Beach's Peterson Hall.

Field Trip Report

About this report – read carefully and follow instructions:

The photographs that are requested are to be taped or mounted to 8 1/2 by 11” sheets of paper (several to a page). If you go with someone else, you can use photocopies of their photos, but you must have a photos of yourself at each of the appropriate stops. Each photo must be labeled, such as TASK 3: Geographic location of Chowinga Village. There should be an arrow identifying you in the photos.

Answers to most of the questions I have asked you are in the text of the field trip or in the attached articles. Other questions require that you state your own opinion or observation. This is not a difficult report, but you will be graded on how complete and thorough your answers are. Some questions derived from this report will appear on your final, so you may wish to keep a photocopy of this report to study for your exam.

You are welcome to take this trip as a group, but I will not accept any group reports. Each student needs to hand in their own report and photos. Answers must be in your own words, not copied from another student’s report. I do not want fancy typed and formatted reports. Just use this form, write or print legibly, and staple your photo sheets to it.

Put your name on each page of this report. Please do not turn in the field trip instructions or the articles with this report.

TASK A: Tape the tide information from the LA Times weather page into the following space

TASK B:

1. Write the first two sentences from the historical marker in the following space.

2. An ecotone is a boundary transition zone between adjoining ecosystems that will contain different soil conditions, climatic conditions, and/or elevation. Frequently, ecotones offer a greater diversity of species than either of the adjoining ecosystems. The location of Chowinga village is in an ecotone. You may not have the exact names for the adjoining ecoysystems, but use your own observations of the local geography to describe the different environments below and above the village location.

The different ecotones I noticed at this site are:

3. Take a photograph or make a sketch of the location of Chowinga village. Attach it to this report and label it “Geographic site of Chowinga Village”. Also take a photo of yourself standing in front of the gazebo.

4. According to the historical marker, it is estimated that this location has been continuously occupied for as long as __________ years. Obviously it was an advantageous site. Imagine that you were living a subsistence lifestyle at this site. What advantages do you think this Chowinga village location offered to its inhabitants? Write below.

TASK C: Read the attached article titled: “Peninsula Bluffs Rise in Isolation from the Frenzy.”

The peninsulas cliffs run nearly unbroken for ___ miles and soar up to ___ feet in places. How long have the peninsula been uplifting? _________ years Currently the peninsula is rising about ______ every 1,000 years.

Just below the ocean floor, the peninsula is resting on bedrock made of ____________ (type of rock).

TASK D: From reading the field trip text and from the sign at Pt. Vicente, answer this question:

1. Why was the Whale Watch center at Point Vicente closed until recently?

From the exhibits in the interpretive center, supply the following missing information:

From Exhibit Titled Time & Terraced Land

· The continuous action of the waves against the cliff caused erosion and a gradual sloping of each terras.

· The __ (number of terraces) wave-cut shorelines of the Palos Verdes area record the emergence of an _______ that became the Palos Verdes Peninsula when the Los Angeles basin ultimately ________ with _________.

From Map Titled Terraces

· Palos Verdes has been emerging from the oceqan over the past __ (number) million years.

· The overall uplift has been about _____ feet from an initial water depth of 3000 feet.

· Over the last million years, the uplift has been ______ millimeters per year, or the thickness of a typical ______ ____ every hundred years.

· What drives the surface uplift of the Peninsula?

_______ _____________ across the _____ ________ ________.

Geological Evolution of Palos Verdes Hills

· During which geologic eras was the ocean crust on this part of the California shoreline being subkducted?

_____________ Era and the ______________ Era.

· When did subduction stop in Southern California? ___ million years ago.

Ancient Seas

· Behind you is a fossile of a giant M_____ S____ found at upper Lunada Bay.

Early Inhabitants Diorama

· What was the name of the earliest known human inhabitance of the Palos Verdes Peninsula?

_____ (People of the Earth)

From Great Wave of Change Exhibit

· What family was forced to mortgage their interest in the Rancho Palos Verdes? The S________ family.

TASK E: (IGNORE TASK E until hotel is built and public access is restored.)

~~Examine the tide tables your taped to this page and answer these questions:~~

1. High tide today (the day of your trip) will occur at ______ and ______. Low tide for today will occur at _____ and _____>. What time is it now – just before you are walking to the sea cave? ______. Will the tide becoming in or going out? ____________.

2. Take a photograph of the natural spring or the sea cave (unless it is high tide and the cave is underwater). Include yourself in the photo. Label the photograph and include an arrow pointing to yourself.

TASK F: From your field trip text, answer the following questions:

1. When was this landslide activated? 19___

2. What caused it ?

Read the article titled: City Aims for Open Space, Not Housing . . . “ and answer the following questions:

3. Why won’t the developer sell his land to the city for open space since he is prohibited from building on the unstable land?

4. If the land was stabilized, how much does the developer think he could sell an acre for? $__________.

5. What does he propose to do?

6. The developer estimates it will cost $_________ per acre.

TASK G: From your field trip text:

1. What was Portuguese Bend named after?

2. What type of activity occurred here?

3. Why does the Army Corps want to build a breakwater below Portuguese bend?

4. Draw the proposed breakwater between the two points on the map provided on page 1 of this field trip.

TASK H: Walk down the nature trail at Ocean Trails. When you have almost reached the cliff, you will see a sign on the left titled HABITAT AREA. Answer the following questions:

1. This vegetation association is known as C_____ S____ S______. The two birds native to this area that have been listed on the Endangered Species List are the __________ and the ___________. There are also __ (number) endangered plant species in this area.

2. After you have reached the fenced off end of the nature trail (to the north), where you see a portion of the landslide and the derricks involved in “pinning” the slide, take a photo (or make a sketch) and indicate with an arrow, the “angle of repose”. The angle of repose ranges somewhere between ____ and ____ degrees when measured from a horizontal plane.

Is the angle of repose that you photographed as steep, steeper or about the same angle as the photo of the mountain talus slope? _____________

TASK I: Answers to White Point Questions (from White Point Bluff Park historical markers):

1. The Catalina Channel is ___ miles wide.

2. How many Indians were estimated to live on Catalina Island in the 16^th century? _________

3. When did Issei Japanese fishermen begin abalone fishing at this site? ____

4. The Abalone shells were shipped to ___________ (American city) to be made into buttons, until 1906.

5. The ______ family created a famous beachcomber industry by collecting and selling shoreline debris from this site for use as decorative items.

TASK J: Take two photos:

1. Photograph the folded beds of Altimira shale in the hillside and black basalt rocks in the tidal zone at Royal Palms Beach.

Read the LA Times Article titled: “EPA Will Try to Cap. . .” and answer the following questions:

2. The 180 acres just offshore contain the world’s largest deposit of ______. The lawsuit against the polluters Montrose Plant (in Torrance), Chris-Craft Industries, and four other companies sought $ ____ million in damages and is the largest natural-resource damage case in the nation., previously exceeded in scope only by the _______ case in Alaska. (continued on next page)

3. Describe the consequences for wildlife of this substance entering the food chain.

4. This toxic substance was pumped out the sewage outfall pipe just off White Point until it was banned in 19 ___.

5. This is currently the largest Superfund site in the nation. Describe how EPA’s pilot project will attempt to curtail the risk of these toxic sediments.

Task K: The Pt. Fermin landslide is a ______ block slide. Photograph (or sketch) what you can see of the Pt. Fermin landslide from the trail along the security fence. Label and attach this photo.

Task L: List the species of marine mammals that you observed.

3. A new animal care facility has recently opened just to the left of the Marine Mammal Care Center. What is it called? _____________________

Task M: Look at Long Point protruding into the ocean several miles to the west. (not visible on a foggy day). Photograph or sketch Long Point. Label and attach the photo to this report and use an arrow to indicate the marine terraces. If it is too foggy to see Long Point, you can skip this task.

TASK N: Take a photo of the port from this overlook. Include yourself in the photo. Label the photo and include it with this report.