Four years ago we had aerial photographs taken of the peninsula. I don't
remember the height the photos were taken at, but we ended up with three,
8' x 4' photos showing the entire peninsula. We hung the photos on a
wall, covered them with mylar, took felt pens and started drawing in all
the streets, landmarks and TRAILS. Every trail was ridden to see where
it went and plotted on the map. Research was done to find the original
trail names, unnamed trails were christened. Water holes identified,
steep hills marked, trail difficulty was established (very subjective).
Advertisers were solicited, the mylar was cut, copied, and bound; and
what came out was PVPHA's Guide to the Equestrian Trails of the Palos
Verdes Peninsula. We are now into our second printing.
Why did we do this? No, it is not just a way to make money for the
organization (although we've made money hand over fist with it). This is
a well-to-do community and money has never been a problem for us. THE
MORE PEOPLE THAT USE THE TRAILS THE LESS LIKELY WE ARE OF LOSING THEM.
Not all of the peninsulas trails are in this guide because it is to the
equestrian trails. We have three kinds of trails out here - equestrian
only (hikers are ok), multipurpose (horses, hikers and bicycles), and
walking trails (foot traffic only) - equestrian and multipurpose trails
are in the guide. There are many easier, cheaper ways to do what we did,
but none of the other ways we discussed offered proof that any specific
trail existed. The photographs give us the proof that all the trails in
our guide do indeed exist and are not just lines on a piece of paper (a
developer tried to say that there were no trails in the area he wanted to
build on and we nailed him).
Everybody uses our guide. We sell them in all the local tack shops, the
Nature Store, The Sierra Club uses the guide to conduct its weekly nature
walks, they sell it too. It was presented to all the city counsels on
"the hill" and a couple of the city halls sell it. It's even in the
library. Just about the only place it cannot be found is in the bicycle
shops. And believe-you-me there are a lot more people on the trails. If
anything it has brought the trails to light and there are now a lot more
people helping us fight the developers in their efforts to destroy what
we moved to the peninsula for. Development is inevitable, but even if
some of our trails are lost (and I'm sure they will be), the developers
are being pressured enough to include trails in their projects where they
weren't before.
Yes, it takes money to fight for our trails. Get as many organizations
involved as you can. Just remember DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT, DOCUMENT. Hope
this has been a little help to all who are having trail problems. Sorry
I took up so much of your time (I could have gotten more specific and
really taken up space).
Happy Holidays!
Tori