The Serpent in the Garden

It's snake season in the Santa Monica Mountains and hikers, dog owners, gardeners and anyone who lives in the urban-wildland interface needs to be aware that we share our community with a wide range of reptiles, including this Southern Pacific rattlesnake. Photo @ 2015 S. Guldimann

We are blessed with an abundance of snakes in Malibu, the National Park Service lists a total of 14 species in the area, but the ones most often encountered are the shy ring-necked snake that feasts on slugs;  the beautiful and aptly named king snake; the gopher snake, which lives up to its name and preys on the bane of local gardeners; and the only venomous snake in the area, the Southern Pacific rattlesnake.

The biggest snake in Malibu is unquestionably Legacy Park's giant California mountain king snake. This mosaic sculpture is the only king snake likely to be encountered in much of coastal Malibu. When I was a child, the live version of this spectacular snake was a common Point Dume garden resident, along with its close relative, the black-and-yellow-striped California king snake, but development and habitat loss has pushed the range of both species back into the Santa Monica Mountains. This is unfortunate, since one of the king snake's favorite menu items is the rattlesnake. Photo: S. Guldimann

No one ever mistakes a king snake or a ringneck for a rattlesnake, but gopher snakes are another matter. This species mimics the rattler's markings and even its behavior, which may help protect it from predators, but does little to reassure humans.

The ringneck snake, Diadophis punctatus, is probably one of the most common garden snakes in Malibu, but its rarely seen, despite its dramatic coloring. The ringneck hunts for worms and slugs. It's harmless, beneficial, quite pretty, and not remotely frightening. It rarely grows to be more than a foot and a half long, and is an expert at not being seen. Photo: NPS

Spotting a snake in an unexpected place can be a shock, but it is the snake one doesn't see that usually causes problems. The vast majority of rattlesnake bites occur when the human victim of the bite accidentally comes into contact with an unseen snake. 

I was reminded of this the other day when the Loyal Dog and I were pottering in the garden. I bent to pick up a dead branch and found that the stick had been magically transformed into a snake. Fortunately, it was a gopher snake, not a rattlesnake, but the experience was a shock and reminder to me to pay attention.

We like to think of ourselves as experienced naturalists here at the Malibu Post, ready to encounter new creatures with aplomb and panache and things like that. I'm afraid this discovery elicited a shriek of horror. If you are going to mistake a snake for a stick, it's much better to make the mistake with a harmless gopher snake than a venomous rattlesnake, but it was still unnerving. Photo: S. Guldimann

With humans, bites to the ankle are estimated to be the most common, followed by bites to the hand and lower arm. With dogs and horses, noses are are often the bite location, as the curious mammal attempts to take a closer look at the snake.

A gopher snake really will mimic the rattlesnake, curling up and waving the end of its tail in a fairly convincing imitation of its venomous cousin. The California Herps website has an amazing video documenting this phenomenon. The quick movement masks the fact that the gopher snake has a slender tail and no rattles. Gopher snakes have small, narrow heads and their eyes have round pupils, although a dark mark under each eye can create the illusion of a vertical pupil. 

Here's a close-up of the gopher snake's eye. The pupil is round, but the dark mark makes it look—at first glance—like the vertical pupil of the rattlesnake. Photo: S. Guldimann

This is the Mexican ridge-nosed rattlesnake. It's not a local species, but it was the best example I could find of that verticle pupil that is a characteristic of all rattlesnakes. The coral snake is the only dangerously venomous North American snake that doesn't have the diamond-shaped head, and we do not have coral snakes in California. The Southern Pacific rattlesnake is Malibu's only venomous snake. There are several other rattlesnake species in Southern California, including the highly venomous Mojave green, but it is limited to inland areas. Photo: Robert S. Simmons, USFWS, via Wikipedia Commons

Rattlesnakes store their venom in their heads, giving them the distinctive diamond-shaped skull. Their eyes have a vertical pupil and they tend to be thicker and more robust than gopher snakes. If in doubt, it’s better not to take a closer look, especially since young rattlesnakes may lack the characteristic rattle, but can still deliver a dangerous bite.

This young Southern Pacific rattlesnake was snoozing under a piece of bark just feet from dozens of walkers at Paramount Ranch in Agoura Hills. You can see the distinctive diamond-shaped head that is characteristic of rattlesnakes, and the pattern, which can be bright and distinct as it is here, or so dark the snake appears almost solid black. Photo: S. Guldimann

In the first seconds of surprise at seeing a snake it can be hard to tell the species apart. According to a news report, an Idyllwild man was just bitten by a rattlesnake he mistook for a gopher snake. 

“I was just trying to shoo the snake out of the wood pile,” the 55-year-old Idyllwild resident told the Press Enterprise. “I thought it was a gopher snake, but it was a rattlesnake.”

The gopher snake has the same general color scheme as the Southern Pacific rattlesnake, but it's skinnier and tapers to a narrow, somewhat pointy head. If in doubt, just keep away. It's not worth making a mistake.

Staying on trails and away from deep brush, grass or rocks is the best way to avoid encounters with rattlesnakes. Never placing a hand or foot in an area where you can't visually scan for snakes is also key. 

I was once told by longtime snake wrangler Bruce Freeman that the other kind of rattlesnake bite risk starts with the words "hold my beer and watch this." His advice for dealing with snakes is to "always bring your brain."

According to snake wrangler Bruce Freeman, wearing hightop hiking shoes, thick socks and denim or twill pants really can protect hikers from snakebite. They may be comfortable, but minimalist trail running shoes are not advisable, especially when runners are out in the evening, when snakes are more likely to be in the open, using the warmth of the exposed trail to help thermoregulate.

He also recommends wearing high-top hiking and running shoes, and twill or denim pants for extra protection. Trail runners are at greater risk from snakebite than hikers, since they move faster and don't have time to look where they are putting their feet. 

Snakes can show up where they are least expected. Rattlesnakes often venture into Malibu gardens, and have been known to make their way into houses through open doors or even pet flaps. 

More than one Malibu family has heard a rattlesnake, displeased with finding itself in the laundry room or bathroom, making use of its rattle—which creates more of a hiss or a buzz than a rattling sound. It's a testament to the generally peace-loving nature of the snake that bites are not more common.

Here's a selection of audio samples of the rattling sound.

The number of "buttons" in the snake's rattle is not an indicator of age. This snake has four rattles, but that Lego-like knub at the end of the rattle indicates where additional buttons have broken off. A new button grows every time the snake sheds its skin. Young snakes shed more often than older snakes and all snakes may shed multiple times during the year depending on conditions. Photo: S. Guldimann

While snake fencing—fencing material that is buried several inches underground, can help reduce encounters with snakes it can’t eliminate them entirely, since rattlesnakes can travel under the fencing via gopher holes. A snake pole—a shepherd’s crook designed to safely move snakes, can be a helpful tool.  Making sure doors stay closed, and that screens don't have holes in them is important, too. 

There are  a number of local snake wranglers who will remove rattlers and safely relocate them away from human habitation for a fee. Calling an expert is by far the best option when a rattlesnake shows up in a house or garden. 

California Poison Control receives nearly 300 calls a year about rattlesnake bites. Children and small animals are at the greatest risk for serious complications or death. Some bites are "dry," a warning from the snake, who doesn't want to waste venom on something it knows it isn't going to eat, but all rattlesnake bites require immediate medical attention. The venom contains a powerful hemotoxin that attacks tissue and can damage the heart and cause organ failure and necrosis in severe cases. 

There is no way of knowing if the victim has received venom or a dry bite when the incident occurs and antivenin is essential for the patient's survival. Just because people rarely die from rattlesnake bites doesn't mean a bite can't be fatal—an estimated four or five bite victims die annually. The venom can also cause the loss of a limb. A rattlesnake bite is always a serious medical emergency.

One would think this means the rattlesnake would be safe from predators, but that's not the case. Rattlesnakes are venomous, not poisonous, and many species—including some humans, eat them (supposedly they taste like, you guessed it, chicken). Rattlers are preyed on not only by king snakes, which are immune to their venom, but by hawks, owls, weasels and road runners—species that use speed and evasion to avoid getting bitten.

Rattlesnakes, like gopher snakes, primarily dine on rodents, including gophers and ground squirels. They're an important part of the local ecosystem, just not a welcome backyard wildlife species.

According to the National Park Service, common Malibu-area snakes include the gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer), California kingsnake (Lampropeltus getulus), mountain kingsnake (Lampropeltus zonata), California striped racer (Masticophis lateralis), red coachwhip (Masticophis flagellum), two-striped garter snake (Thamnophis hammondii), blackhead snake (Tantilla planiceps), ringneck snake (Diadophis punctatus), and the yellowbelly racer(Coluber constrictor). Other less common species include the blind snake (Leptotyphlops humilis), coast patch-nosed snake (Salvadora hexalepis), night snake (Hypsiglena torquata), and the lyre snake (Trimorphodon biscutatus). Most of us will never encounter even half this list, but it's good to know who our reptilian neighbors are.

The Mountains Restoration Trust offers rattlesnake avoidance training for canines. It's not a pleasant experience for dogs or their owners but it can be a lifesaver for those who live in rattlesnake habitat or who frequently walk with their dogs in the mountains. 

I was covering a workshop on the master plan for Malibu Bluffs Park recently for the Malibu Surfside News. A young father with two boys said he never takes them to Malibu's Legacy Park because there are signs warning of the presence of rattlesnakes. He asked that any future recreational development at Bluffs Park exclude rattlesnakes, apparently unaware that the park is already home to the species, in addition to plenty of other wildlife.

Rattlesnakes can turn up almost anywhere. They even sometimes end up on the beach during winter storms, when canyon debris and reptile stowaways can be carried downstream onto the sand.

The presence of wildlands and wildlife is one of the things that draws people to the community and why our city is part of the largest urban national park in the world, the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. 

Rattlesnakes are part of that ecosystem and one of the natural hazards of living here. It's up to us to stay alert and on good terms with all our neighbors, on two feet, four feet, or no feet. I forgot the snake wrangler's advice the other day. It was an important wake-up call. Next time I head for the garden or the hiking trails I'll make sure to bring my brain.

Be safe out there.

Suzanne Guldimann

3 July 2015

The Malibu Post's backyard gopher snake goes about its business.

A Reprieve for the Trees

The ancient sycamore tree on the corner of Pacific Coast Highway and Cross Creek Road has won a reprieve, but it's going to be up to Malibu residents to keep pressure on the developer who proposed the plan to bulldoze the trees to find an alternative.

Hui-tse said to Chuang-tse, "I have a large tree which no carpenter can cut into lumber. Its branches and trunk are crooked and tough, covered with bumps and depressions. No builder would turn his head to look at it..."

Chuange-tse replied, "You complain that your tree is not valuable as lumber, but you could make use of the shade it provides, rest under its sheltering branches, and stroll beneath it, admiring its character and appearance. Since it would not be endangered by an axe, what could threaten its existence? It is useless to you only because you want to make it into something else and do not use it in its proper way.”—Taoist parable, interpreted by Benjamin Hoff


On June 15, the City of Malibu's Planning Commission voted unanimously to give the embattled Cross Creek sycamore and five eucalyptus trees a reprieve, sending the developers of the La Paz shopping center back to the drawing board and the negotiating table to come up with an alternative to bulldozing the trees.

The PCH road widening proposal is part of the traffic mitigation required for the La Paz mall. The applicant, who sought to widen PCH on the ocean side of the highway to accommodate a turn lane on the land side for the 112,000-square foot La Paz development, was denied permission to remove the trees. At this point, the trees cannot legally be touched without an amendment from the city.

Malibu activists from all walks of life and all ends of the political spectrum joined together for a rally in front of the sycamore tree before the meeting. They waved signs, covered the trees slated for destruction with paper hearts and messages, and shared their concerns with each other and with the afternoon peak-hour traffic.

Many of the protestors headed straight to Malibu City Hall after the rally, for the standing-room-only meeting where the fate of the trees would be determined.

Activists gather on PCH to protest plans to bulldoze the sycamore and five eucalyptus trees the afternoon before the June 15 City of Malibu Planning Commission meeting. The people protesting were there because they care deeply about the community. They care about these trees. There were people at this rally who have been on opposite sides of other issues and opposite ends of Malibu's political spectrum. They put aside differences to support this cause together. That's an important message and one that developers and anyone who seeks to change the character of this community needs to hear. 

The trees weren't the only concern at the meeting. Many speakers raised questions about the potential impact of the road widening on the free Surfrider Beach parking under the eucalyptus trees, and the much-used trail that provides safe transit along PCH to the entrance of Malibu Lagoon State Beach.

The planning commission heard over three hours of testimony. It’s not surprising that the only people in favor of bulldozing the sycamore and the row of eucalyptus trees on PCH to build a bigger turn lane to accommodate the La Paz shopping center traffic were paid consultants and a couple of pro-development activists, the ones who never miss an opportunity to promote their agenda, but are at least our resident pro-development activists, and not nameless, faceless suits from corporate headquarters. 

Here's a schematic of the changes to the parking and beach accessway under the eucalyptus trees that the developer seeks to remove. Questions were raised over whether the applicant presented the final plan to State Parks and the Department of Fish and Wildlife, and how much the free public parking and trail would actually be impacted by the project—beach access is a Coastal Act and California Environmental Quality Act issue. 

This is another image from the applicant's presentation. The applicant's representative assured the planning commission that no parking will be lost, but the exhibit provided by the applicant indicates an impact on at least six parallel spaces. Critics pointed out that, even if there is still room to park parallel, head-in and double parking is the norm on big surf days, and the changes will impact beach access, since pedestrians will apparently have less space to safely walk to the beach.

This is the area shown in the first photo on the La Paz exhibit, above, which is marked  "no parking observed, no impact from project." The cars shown are parked double, all the way to the edge of Malibu Road. Another example of how project proponents sometimes seem to live in a different reality from residents.

One speaker pointed out that the beach access trail shown here is on State Parks land and is ESHA—environmentally sensitive habitat area that is protected by the Coastal Act and the California Environmental Quality Act. 

In addition to being one of the most popular state beaches in Southern California, Surfrider Beach was designated the first World Surfing Reserve in 2010. This was what the surf looked like on the day the Malibu Post photographed the previous photo of the surfer walking back to his car, and this is why he, and hundreds of other visitors, were at the beach. A number of speakers at the planning commission hearing questioned why this road widening project impacts the side of the road that is important to the public and is on State Park property, instead of the side where the turn lane is actually needed.

What was surprising was the fact that the Caltrans representative, a senior planner who is paid nearly $103,000 a year plus a $42k benefits package, according to the Transparent California website,  could only justify the removal of the trees on the basis that they are a potential safety hazard because somebody someday may crash into one and die, despite the fact that none of these trees have even been the cause of any major traffic accident in the 86-year history of PCH, as far as the Malibu Post’s research has been able to determine. 

Here's the assessment of the Cross Creek and PCH intersection in a presentation prepared by the city's consultants for the brand new Pacific Coast Highway Safety Study. There doesn't seem to be anything about killer trees.

“It’s a couple of feet, can’t you do something?” Planning Commission Chair David Brotman asked the Caltrans representative.

“If I’m being honest, maybe in the future, someone will come to me and say ‘why didn’t you just add those two feet and save my daughter or save my son?’” the Caltrans spokesperson replied. 

That’s it? That's the big argument for removing a historic tree that has grown in its current location since before Pacific Coast Highway was built?

Why wasn’t this highly paid expert advocating for the removal of power poles, fire hydrants, too? Unlike these trees, power poles and fire hydrants have been a significant factor in numerous fatalities and serious accidents on PCH. 

No one is saying that PCH isn't dangerous, or that accidents aren't a frequent issue, but there is no evidence to support the contention that the trees are a traffic hazard.

This map indicates serious accidents from 2010-2012. The pink dot by the notation "Civic Center Way" indicates one pedestrian accident. There is no evidence that anyone has ever struck one of the trees in question during the entire history of Pacific Coast Highway. The fact that the Cross Creek bridge, rebuilt in 1995 to the 90-foot-width of the original span, cannot be widened adds another element of lunacy to the safety argument. Widening the road to 100 feet at the tree and back to 90 feet at the bridge a few feet down the road seems half-baked at best, and highlights the fact that this is about accommodating development, not safety.

This graphic shows fatal collisions, indicated by the yellow dots. There are absolutely no fatalities at the intersection of Cross Creek and PCH. The changes to the intersection proposed by the La Paz developers are required to accommodate the increase in car trips for the new 112,000-square-foot mall, not to save helpless humanity from the danger of trees.

If the main argument for removing the trees is to protect us from ourselves at some unspecified time in the future at an intersection with a low rate of injury accidents, maybe we should just wrap the entire 27 mile stretch of PCH in bubblewrap.

Several speakers questioned why the developers focused on removing the trees, which are on State Parks property, instead of seeking to expand the road on the side of the highway with the gas station, where the traffic already queues up to turn into the Civic Center area. Unlike the trees, light poles, like the one shown here in the middle of the sidewalk, have been involved in numerous traffic accidents.

The spokesperson for the La Paz project took the rhetoric one step further. “We’re talking about the tragedy of the tree, what about the tragedy of the people who are dying?” he said.

The people who are dying at the corner of PCH and Cross Creek Road? Really? 

PCH was built in the late 1920s and only reengineered once, in 1949. Very little of it is up to the ever-evolving 21st century Caltrans standards, and many areas have major safety issues. The Cross Creek intersection isn’t one of these. It experiences severe congestion, not fatalities or even serious injury accidents. 

This traffic measure was proposed as a congestion measure, not a safety measure. The developer is required to include the turn lane to accommodate an increase in car trips not to save us from the horrible threat of trees. 

This sign summed up the mood of the evening, as many protest participants expressed dismay at the huge—in number and size—commercial projects currently underway in the Civic Center.

When did this pearl-clutching oh-the-humanity argument enter the conversation? Those same hypothetical children that will be killed by the trees could be injured in a Little League game or on the playground of their grade school. Should we also ban sports and kindergarten because an accident could happen? 

The applicant's representative stated that he tried to work with Caltrans to find another solution but was unsuccessful.

It’s hard to believe that anyone who would write off this massive, ancient sycamore that has two 12-foo-diameter trunks as a “41-inch tree” put a lot of effort into plans to save it, but perhaps they just didn't talk to the right people at Caltrans. 

While it's true that for decades Caltrans was as remote and inaccessible as the moon, that’s changed in recent years. The agency was responsive to safety concerns following the death of 13-year-old Emily Shane in 2010. The agency is actively working with National Parks and conservation agencies to build a wildlife overpass at Liberty Canyon on the 101. 

For many, the sycamore has become a symbol of the real Malibu.

Caltrans is also beginning to entertain the idea of new approaches to traffic flow, including measures like narrower lanes to encourage drivers to slow down, a traffic calming measure that is one of the proposals floated for western Malibu in the city's new Pacific Coast Highway safety study.

In recent years, Caltrans has repeatedly exhibited willingness in other communities to work around landmarks and sensitive areas. Why can’t they do that here in Malibu? 

Protesters gather under what the Environmental Impact Report for the road widening project described as "a 41-inch tree." The tree, which has two main trunks, both with a diameter of 41-inches and a circumference of almost 12 feet each, stands 55 feet tall and is estimated to be at least 160 years old.

Now that the community and the city officials have made it clear that saving the trees is a priority, we can hope the developers will make a stronger effort, but it is up to the community to keep them on track.

This project’s representative is a Malibu area resident, but the investors aren’t. They are a collection of mostly out of state corporate interests whose priority appears to be securing the permits for the property and selling it, presumably to other vast, impersonal out-of-state investors. It's unlikely that any of these people follow local Malibu news closely. 

According to the website  Corporation Wiki, Malibu La Paz Ranch, LLC, is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and is comprised of hedge funds and investment interests.

These three protesters are dwarfed by the massive twin trunks of the PCH sycamore they are seeking to save from the bulldozers.

The owner of "The Park at Cross Creek, LLC" development (the LLC for the project apparently no longer has "Whole Foods" in its title), which is located next door to the La Paz property and also dependent on the PCH widening project, is even more vast and faceless. Rumor has it, the majority controlling interest in this property belongs to Fortress Investment Group, LLC,  "a leading, highly diversified global investment management firm," according to their website.

It stretches one's suspension of disbelief to the breaking point to image that hedge funds care one iota about trees, or, for that matter, people. 

However, even the largest corporation is run by humans, not by computers, not yet at least. Perhaps now that they have been made aware of how much these trees mean to the community, whoever runs the show at Malibu LaPaz Ranch LLC will be willing to put some effort into finding a solution everyone can live with. It’s in their interests to appear responsive to the needs of the community.  It would be a good legacy, a better one than giving the impression of being the Evil Empire [TM].

Malibu's Measure R, which requires voter approval for large commercial development projects and limits chain stores, passed last November because a vast majority of Malibu residents feel overwhelmed by the seemingly unstoppable onslaught of development that includes the Crummer subdivision, the Edge subdivision, the La Paz shopping center, The Park at Cross Creek shopping center, the Malibu Bay Company's Sycamore Farms shopping center, and the Santa Monica City College Satellite campus. More than a quarter of a million square feet of development—the equivalent of building a new 20-square-foot room for every man woman and child in the City of Malibu. Image: 20th Century Fox

“I think the city is getting very close to a breach of the development agreement,” the La Paz representative said at the planning meeting. It didn't have quite the campy panache of Darth Vader's "Tear this ship apart and bring me the ambassador, I want her alive," but for many in the audience it came out sounding like that, whether or not the speaker intended it to. 

“I appreciate that you’ve spent four years [on this plan], we’ve spent four hours, so you’re going to need to give us a little more time,” Commissioner Mikke Pierson replied. The commission deliberated at length before voting unanimously to oppose the removal of the trees. They requested that that applicant return with a solution that spares the trees and the parking.

The Planning Commission's  unanimous decision provides an opportunity for everyone to work together to find a viable solution, one that preserves the trees and the character of the community, instead of the corporate interest of a collection of out-of-state hedge funds.

The view from the Pepperdine University campus revels how the trees are an important aspect of the Malibu landscape, and also how they form a significant barrier between the state park and the commercial development opposite it. It's a reminder that the trees are on State Parks property, not private property. That gives everyone, city officials, Malibu residents, beachgoers, and even—if an appeal is ultimately required to resolve the issue—the Coastal Commission, the right and the responsibility to weigh in on the issue. Changing PCH has a major longterm impact on everyone who uses the coastal route and the public beach that is key state resource.

Longtime Malibu resident and local architect Lester Tobias had this to say about the sycamore at the planning commission meeting:

"This sycamore was a seedling when our nation fought the civil war. It was not planted. It found its way to the creek's end and began its life. It hasn't killed anybody. It hasn't caused any accidents. It is not a fire hazard. It is innocent. It saw Malibu grow up. It saw the great depression, prohibition, and two world wars. It saw May Rindge fight the government. It saw the Malibu pottery tiles being made. It saw Alan Sarlo shoot the pier on big Wednesday last year...It has survived fires, floods, channel dredging, bridge building, and the original Malibu Little League fields. It is Malibu's witness tree. Although it is owned by no one, it resides on State Park property. This makes it the People's Tree. And since it resides in Malibu, it is Malibu's tree. And you are Malibu's Planning Commission and I can not see how any of you can vote to kill our tree, our witness tree, Malibu's tree, so some guy can build an office building."

Amen to that.

Oil and Water

A Ventura oil rig looks surprisingly etherial and beautiful at sunset, against the backdrop of the Channel Islands, but it's also a perpetual reminder that a single accident can have a catastrophic and long lasting impact on the fragile environment that surrounds it, and that the oil industry and our government officials need to be held accountable for safety and adequate prevention and emergency response.

The ancient Greeks are said to have poured oil on troubled waters to calm the sea, possibly as an offering to appease the god Poseidon. In the era of wide-scale petroleum production, Poseidon would more likely be dismayed than pleased by the toxic sludge by the oil industry, like the pipeline leak in Santa Barbara County that dumped more than 100,000 gallons of crude into the ocean on May 19.

Emergency responders clad in hazmat suits scoop globs of toxic tar off the cobbles at the site of the Refugio Oil Spill in Santa Barbara. Photo: U.S. Coast Guard Chief Petty Officer David Mosley, from the official Refugio Response media alert website.

It’s deeply depressing to yet again witness the Santa Barbara coast awash in crude oil that is endangering and killing the birds, fish, sea lions, dolphins, and other marine life that so many have fought to protect with legislation and the creation of marine protected areas, since the catastrophic 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill galvanized the environmental movement in California.

The first Santa Barbara oil disaster occurred at a critical moment in history for the oil industry in Southern California.  Thousands of offshore oil leases were in play in the late 1960s—including more than 3000 in the Santa Monica Bay. That spill was a wake-up call. No one wanted to see a disaster of that scale happen again.

Oil boiled out of the ruptured well below Platform A on January 28, 1969, poisoning everything it came in contact with. It took ten days to stop the rush of oil into the ocean. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill remains the third largest in U.S. waters. The blowout on Union Oil's Platform A in the Santa Barbara Channel poured an estimated 11 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean before the blow-out was contained. The accident occurred just a year after drilling commenced on the platform and despite Union Oil's assurance that a disaster of this type could never happen.  The spill energized the environmental movement, as communities united to opposed new offshore oil drilling on the California coast. Photo: NOAA

The battle against oil platforms in the Santa Monica Bay was one of the first fights my parents threw themselves into in Malibu. They moved here the year of the spill and saw the aftermath of 11 million gallons of crude oil first hand. Although Santa Barbara and Ventura counties and the Channel Islands received the brunt of the damage, oil washed ashore as far south as the Mexican border and plenty of it ended up in Malibu.

The impact of the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill was felt from Pismo Beach to the Mexican Border. Plenty of oil, in the form of tar balls, washed up along the coast in Malibu. Image: Wikimedia Commons.

Activists rallied. For Malibu conservationists, it meant petitions, letters, and buses packed with protesters bound for meetings in downtown Los Angeles.

 My mom remembers going to those meetings. “They told us they would paint the rigs blue, to match the sky,” she says. She also remembers the tar on the local beaches following the Santa Barbara spill. A bottle of nail polish remover was always in the beach bag with the sun screen and the towels.

There are natural tar seeps in Malibu that were used by the Chumash as glue and to seal the seams of their boats, but the naturally occurring oil is never seen today in the amounts that washed up along the Malibu coast in the years following the Santa Barbara spill. 

Malibu was spared the industrial pollution experienced by many of the other Southern California beach communities during the oil bonanza of the early 20th century, but even this remote and inaccessible stretch of coast wasn't immune to the oil fever that swept the west in the 1920s and I was surprised to learn the extent of oil exploration in the area.

Here's a copy of the actual "notice of intent to drill" for the first Point Dume oil derrick, signed by May Knight Rindge and dated November 14, 1923. Someone has added a 1 to the first number in the site description, changing it from 500 feet from the ocean to 1500 feet. The photo below clearly shows that the distance from the Point is correct, but that it really is only about 500 feet from the edge of the cliff, not 1500 feet.

This detail of a 1924 aerial photo shows the Point Dume oil rig, much closer to the cliff than the official description or local legend accounts for. The Adamson House Museum Archives website states: "May Rindge who was looking for sources of income to help fund her legal battles related to keeping a public road from crossing her ranch... sold some of the Union Oil Co. stock she inherited from her husband to finance [oil exploration]. [The well] operated for about two years, but no oil was ever found on the Rancho, at this or other sites. It actually contributed to her financial losses." 

Many longtime Malibu residents know the story of the Rindge oil rig on the top on Point Dume, constructed in 1924, but there was a second Point Dume oil well that was installed in 1940 and apparently abandoned in 1943. It appears that this second site is now under the garden of a well-known and highly respected musician. I wonder if he knows what is under his feet?

Here's the abandonment report for the second Point Dume well, dated August 17, 1943. Point Dume was being used by the military during WW II and was off limits to civilians from 1942-44, probably complicating any oil drilling efforts.

Records also reveal a well in what is now Charmlee Wilderness Park, and another, drilled in 1929 and plugged in 1930, down the street from Malibu High School. I was disappointed not to find any material on this well in the recent environmental reports released by the Santa Monica Malibu School District as part of the district's research on the site for the toxic substance clean up work plan that is being developed. The well location is near, but not on school property, which probably accounts for the omission. Although this is one of the only wells on the Malibu map that is listed as oil producing.

Evidence of the Malibu Park oil well location is clearly visible in several of the excellent aerial photographs provided as part of the SMMUSD's Draft Preliminary Environmental Assessment Work Plan for Juan Cabrillo Elementary, Malibu Middle and High Schools.

This image from the Adamson House Archive is described as the Rindge family's Point Dume oil derrick. This doesn't seem possible, because it shows PCH running between the ocean and the bluff, but it would make sense if this is the Malibu Park oil rig. If you compare it to the 1944 aerial photo, below, it synchs up quite well, including the beach house in the foreground.

The angle is different in this 1944 image, but the beach house is visible, front left, and there are still scars on the bluff top from the oil derrick installation, including the circular track visible in the Adamson House photo. Today, this would be near the corner of Morning View Drive and Merritt Drive.

Here's a detail of a report on the Malibu Park oil drilling operation. There's much more, including core sample information, at the state well records archive.

I was especially fascinated by two wells in Carbon Canyon (the source of the name, perhaps?) Both were drilled in 1924 by “Rieder Haag” and apparently abandoned. A survey in 1964 for the sites uncovered “no evidences of any old wells, or location, or oil, or gas, or water seeps.” 

The 1964 inspector speculated that one well may be under the parking area of the Carbon Canyon fire station. The map places the second well, described as 605 feet deep, under a massive house on the hill overlooking the highway. 

A notice of intent to drill form, dated 1923, describes the site as “2 lots, lands of Mathew Keller, east of Carbin [sic] Coal Canyon." A typed note reads: “this [is] wildcat country.”

That doesn’t refer to mountain lions or bob cats, but to oil exploration in an unproven area. 

Two sites in a remote portion of the Santa Monica Mountains above Charmlee deep in Encinal Canyon are also listed as wildcat wells. Both appear to have been drilled in 1923. How the crews lugged drilling and derrick equipment up the canyon is anyone’s guess. That area is still remote.

Here's the well inspector's note from a report on the Charmlee area well site in 1978. Another report indicates that neither this well nor the other two Encinal well sites were ever located.

An inspection in 1977 failed to find any trace of the Encinal wells. None of these wildcat wells appear to have yielded anything, but it’s interesting that, as of 2005, Chevron still apparently held the lease on two wells in the Decker Canyon area. The first of these was drilled in 1957 for the Gulf Oil Corporation. 

A Division of Oil and Gas report on proposed operations dated August 8, 1957, reveals that the wells were located on a mineral rights lease of 470 acres, and that the depth of the first well is listed as 7000-7500 feet. 

A map accompanying the claim shows parcels tagged by oil companies Franco Western, Texas, and Standard,  scattered among the more familiar names of the local settlers, like the Deckers and the Kincaids.

This map records oil leases on homesteads in the Yerba Buena and Decker area. It's available as part of the well record for one of the two Texaco leases in the Yerba Buena area, on the State of California Department of Conservation Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources website.

These early wells may not have yielded results, but they were just the beginning. A quick survey of the California Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources Well Finder reveals 25 well locations in the Malibu area. During the 1960s and 70s, the big oil companies began drilling test wells off shore.

Malibu oil drilling sites from the 1920s through the 1970s are marked on the State of California, Department of Conservation, Division of Oil, Gas, and Geothermal Resources website interactive map. According to the map key, the black and white symbol means a "dry hole" that has been "plugged and abandoned," while the black symbol is suppose to mean oil was recovered. However, I could find no official record of oil recovery at the "McKeon" well in Malibu Park, the two "Rieder Haag Co." wells at Carbon Canyon, or the two "Salisbury" wells in the Decker Canyon area, despite their designation here as productive wells. Record keeping was minimal during the early oil exploration period, and there are reams of letters from the state's oil officials attempting to track down well logs and even locations of old well sites in Malibu, with little success. There appears to be no way of knowing what was found, or even exactly where the drilling took place in some instances, and there may be still undiscovered well sites.

Chevron filed drilling reports for a site off Bluffs Park in 1970, which appears to have been previously owned by Standard Oil in the 1950s. There was a test well off Puerco Canyon in 275 feet of water drilled by Shell Western Exploration and Production, Inc. in 1969. 

Exxon Mobile drilled a test well off the coast at Paradise Cove in 189 feet of water in 1970. There is a “notice of intention to drill” form dated 1965 for this site stamped “prospect well confidential, please do not publish," but the lease expired in 1998 and the data was released, along with a memo that states that the well is near other state and federal leases, despite the fact those leases were technically placed off limits in 1994.

An August 28, 1974 Los Angeles Times article states:  “[The] Assembly asked the U.S. government not to consider leases for 5,000 offshore oil wells between Laguna Beach and Malibu until a Federal Energy Administration report [is completed]." Drilling was stalled, at least temporarily.

The lobbying power of the oil industry could not combat the anger and determination generated by the 1969 Union Oil platform disaster. The tar fouling beaches, rocks, and marine life along miles of coast was a constant reminder of the disaster that could not be ignored, but not for want of trying.

A renewed push for drilling in the 1980s resulted in the federal government authorizing 37 vast offshore lease areas from Point Mugu to Santa Maria.

Here's a clipping from the May 22, 1980 edition of the Malibu Surfside News that my mom saved. It reports on the Carter Administration's decision to remove the Santa Monica Bay from the list of proposed oil leases, 35 years almost to the day of the Refugio spill.

In 1994, the state passed the California Coastal Sanctuary Act, which “declares that offshore oil and gas production in certain areas of state waters poses an unacceptably high risk of damage and disruption to the marine environment of the state.” That act protects the coast, including the Santa Monica Bay, from new oil drilling projects, but there is a major loophole.

A postcard shows the Summerland offshore oil rigs that transformed this stretch of the Santa Barbara coast from an idyllic beach town into a suburb of hell in the 1890s. This field, the first to be developed in Santa Barbara County, played out by 1940, but extraction continued off the coast of Summerland throughout the 20th century.

The Act “authorizes the State Lands Commission to enter into a lease for the extraction of oil or gas from state-owned tide and submerged lands in the California Coastal Sanctuary if the commission determines that the oil or gas deposits are being drained by means of producing wells upon adjacent federal lands and the lease is in the best interest of the state.”

No viable oil was apparently ever found on Malibu's beaches, but Huntington Beach, Playa Del Rey, Venice and Long Beach were all transformed by the oil boom of the 1920s and '30s. The oil companies made the money, not the residents. Schools closed, the Venice "Grand Canal" was so full of oil it reportedly caught on fire on more than one occasion. By the 1990s, it was all over. the State Lands Commission denied City of Los Angeles permit applications for slant drilling under the bay, and the shore fields were mostly played out.  

There are still thousands of active and potential wells in Southern California and conservationists are concerned that the oil industry, which has a bottomless war chest for lobbying, will eventually find a way to exploit that loop hole, leaving the coast vulnerable to future drilling projects. 

That’s why Marin County state senator Mike McGuire is proposing state bill 788, to close those loops and limit future offshore oil projects. The California Coastal Protection Act of 2015 will delete the authorization, and remove the oil industry’s foothold.

California brown pelicans undergo the lengthy and uncomfortable process of being de-oiled at the International Bird Rescue facility in San Pedro following the Refugio oil spill. These birds were lucky: they were rescued and treated quickly, and have a good chance of survival. Oil burns eyes and skin and eliminates the water resistance of the birds' feathers, putting them at risk of hypothermia and drowning. Photo from the International Bird Rescue website.

“Tuesday’s devastating oil spill is yet another example of the significant dangers related to coastal oil development,” McGuire said, in a press release. “Our thoughts are with the residents of Santa Barbara and all of those who are working hard on the recovery efforts.”

Malibuites can help by signing the Change.org petition supporting the measure, and by calling their representatives and asking them to support SB 788.

Los Angeles Herald Examiner photographer Mike Sergieff documented Malibu residents participating in a Save Our Coast rally to protest ocean pollution, September 4, 1988. The photo is in the collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. The vast majority of Malibuites, whatever their stand on other local issues, have always come together to support ocean causes, whether it was protesting oil development or supporting the creation of marine protected areas. The Refugio oil spill should be a call to arms to help our neighbors in Santa Barbara. 

Santa Barbara’s wildlife also needs our help. The International Bird Rescue's oiled bird team at San Pedro is currently assisting with the de-oiling effort but depends on donations to carry out this work. You can also follow their Refugio efforts on the IBR Facebook page.


It only takes a minute to sign and share a petition, or call or email our officials, but with enough support it can make an impact.

Animals are going to die as a result of this spill, despite the best efforts of rescuers. Dolphins, sea lions, seals, birds, lobsters, fish, zooplankton so small it isn't visible to the human eye, and ocean giants like whales and elephant seals will all be impacted. That's the grim reality of an oil spill this size. It will take years for this spectacular stretch of California Coast and all the biodiversity that makes its home there to recover. 

Sea lions are one of the marine mammal species currently being impacted by the Refugio spill, along with dolphins, harbor seals, elephant seals, and potentially humpback and gray whales and sea otters. Five pelicans, two sea lions and a dolphin have already died, according to the Ventura County Star. Five elephant seals and 12 sea lions are currently being treated at Sea World's Oiled Wildlife Care Center in San Diego.

However, out of this disaster an opportunity to prevent future oil spills is emerging. This doesn't have to happen again, not in Santa Barbara, or Alaska, or the Gulf of Mexico, not if we all work together for change. We are constantly barraged with bad news and tragedy on an epic scale, but this is one of the times when we can help create meaningful change. 

Suzanne Guldimann
26 May 2015