Simi Hills

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Coordinates: 34°13′28.015″N 118°43′0.326″W / 34.22444861°N 118.71675722°W / 34.22444861; -118.71675722
Simi Hills
Mountain Range
Panoramic view of the Simi Hills looking north from the Santa Monica Mountains
Country United States
State California
Districts Ventura County, Los Angeles
Parts Ventura Ranges
Coordinates 34°13′28.015″N 118°43′0.326″W / 34.22444861°N 118.71675722°W / 34.22444861; -118.71675722
Highest point Simi Peak
 - elevation 652 m (2,139 ft)
Timezone Pacific (UTC-8)
 - summer (DST) PDT (UTC-7)
Topo map USGS Calabasas
location of Simi Hills in California [1]

The Simi Hills are a low rocky mountain range of the Transverse Ranges, located in eastern Ventura County and western Los Angeles County, of southern California, United States.

Contents

[edit] Geography

The Simi Hills are located on the western edge of the San Fernando Valley. They run east-west and they extend 26 miles (42 km) east-west, and 7 mi (11 km) north-south. The Simi Hills are part of the Transverse Ranges. They are almost entirely in Ventura County, the foothills in the south and east are part of Los Angeles County. Simi Valley lies to the north, and Chatsworth lies to the east, over the border in Los Angeles city and county. The Conejo Valley lies to the south. Nearby mountain ranges include: the higher Santa Susana (north, across the Santa Susana Pass); and Santa Monica (south) mountains. The Simi Hills are the most critical habitat and wildlife corridor linkage between the Santa Monica Mountains and the Santa Susana Mountains, Topatopa Mountains, and San Gabriel Mountains. Las Virgenes Creek, Bell Creek, Dayton Creek, Runkle Canyon Creek, Woolsey Canyon Creek, and Arroyo Calabasas are some of the watersheds in the Simi Hills.

[edit] Climate

Because of its low elevation, the Simi Hills typically experience rainy, mild winters. Snow is rare in the Simi Hills, even in the highest areas. Summers are warm and dry and wildfires do occur here. Cool winds from the Pacific Ocean come from the Oxnard Plain and blow into the inland areas through the Santa Clara River Valley and the Conejo Valley, though some low hills, such as Conejo Mountain, block these winds from the Conejo Valley. The Simi Hills further block these winds, which bring cool weather in both summer and winter from the San Fernando Valley.

[edit] Peaks

Peaks in this region include Simi Peak (2,403 ft (732 m)),[2] Chatsworth Peak (2,314 ft (700 m)),[3] and Escorpión Peak (aka: Castle Peak) (1,475 ft (450 m)).

[edit] Flora and fauna

[edit] Flora

The southern lower hills are mostly covered in grasslands and oak savanna. The northern rocky hills area is primarily Chaparral shrubland and oak woodlands. The Simi Hills are part of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. The Oaks (Quercus spp.) include: the evergreen Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), the deciduous Valley Oak (Quercus lobata), and the Scrub Oak (Quercus dumosa). Riparian zone plants include California Sycamores (Platanus racemosa) and Arroyo willows (Salix lasiolepis). Spring wildflowers include the Redbush Monkey Flower (Mimulus aurantiacus), Plummer's Mariposa Lily (Calochortus plummerae), and Canyon Sunflower (Encelia californica). Poison Oak (Toxicodendron diversilobum) is also an important member of the native plant habitat community here.

[edit] Fauna

The Simi Hills is the principal, and much wider, of only two terrestrial wildlife corridors linking the coastal Santa Monica Mountains with the inland Santa Susana Mountains, Topatopa Mountains, and San Gabriel Mountains, all of the transverse ranges fauna community.

[edit] Human History

The Simi Hills were inhabited for over 8,000 years by Paleo-indians and Chumash-Venturaño Native Americans for settlements and hunting grounds.[4][5] The Chumash had the established village of Hu'wam in Cañon del Escorpión (Bell Canyon). It was a multicultural 'crossroads' destination, where Chumash, Tongva, and Tataviam peoples traded and lived beside Bell Creek below Escorpión Peak, at the present day Bell Canyon Park.[6][7] This peak in the Simi Hills (aka: Castle Peak) is one of nine alignment points in Chumash territory and is essential to maintaining the balance of the natural world.[8] Upstream were healing springs and are rock outcrop 'grinding stones.' The Burro Flats Painted Cave, an example of the Rock art of the Chumash people, is nearby.

The Juan Bautista de Anza expedition passed through the area in 1769, being the first European sighting of the Simi Hills. The U.S. National Park Service administers the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail which enters at Moore Canyon in El Escorpión Park and crosses across the southern Hills through Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve and Cheeseboro/Palo Comado Canyon Park to the Conejo Valley.[9] In 1845 the land grant for Rancho El Escorpión, beside the Peak and named for it, was issued to one Chumash and two Tongva people and a rare instance of Native Americans being grantees, by Mexican Governor Pío Pico. The Rancho El Conejo was to the west, and included that end of the Simi Hills.

In the first half of the 20th century there were four large movie ranches in the Simi Hills for filming motion pictures on location. The gated community of Bell Canyon began development of geographic Bell Canyon in the 1968. To the north of U.S. 101, east of Thousand Oaks, and west of Simi Valley the early 1960s further suburban expansion of metropolitan Los Angeles brought small to significant parcels in the Simi Hills under development. Hillside subdivisions regraded natural contours into terraced lots, changing the Hills viewshed, drainage patterns, and habitats in those areas. The extensive planned new community projects at Jordan Ranch and Ahmanson Ranch were eventually stopped by local citizens and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy keeping extensive Hills acreage natural in open space parks.

The Simi Hills were home of the Rocketdyne Santa Susana Field Laboratory (SSFL) for open-air testing of rocket engines from 1947 to 1990, and the site of an experimental nuclear reactor experiments, one having meltdown accident in 1959.[10][11] The groundwater under portions of the Simi Hills, contaminated with toxins and radionuclides that were also historically used at SSFL, has been and are a key concern in new development decisions and the SSFL property's future limited to parkland use after an impending cleanup, initiating preservation of more open space in the range.[12]

The NPS Rim of the Valley Trail Corridor is in the planning stages and includes the Simi Hills open space parklands and proposed new areas.[13][14][15]

[edit] Parks

[edit] Nearby ranges

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Simi Hills". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:249501. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 
  2. ^ "Simi Peak". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:249502. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 
  3. ^ "Chatsworth Peak". Geographic Names Information System, U.S. Geological Survey. http://geonames.usgs.gov/pls/gnispublic/f?p=gnispq:3:::NO::P3_FID:240499. Retrieved 2009-05-03. 
  4. ^ USA Today article USA Today Accessed 2/22/2008
  5. ^ Mercury News article
  6. ^ http://www.parks.ca.gov/pages/980/files/sspshp%20ethnohistory.pdf SSPSHP Ethnohistory Accessed 2/28/2010
  7. ^ "http://www.wishtoyo.org/projects-cultural-ahmanson-ranch.html Ahmanson Ranch Becomes Private Preserve," [Wishtoyo Foundation website. Accessed 10/23/2007
  8. ^ Wishtoyo on Ahmanson Ranch accessed 10-23-2007
  9. ^ http://www.nps.gov/juba/ National Park Service: official Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail website. accessed 4/06/2010
  10. ^ http://www.dtsc-ssfl.com/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=959 State DTSC-SSFL_Area IV Nuclear Research section. accessed 4/06/2010
  11. ^ TheRocketdyneInformationSociety/ SSFL forum. accessed 3/28/2010
  12. ^ http://www.dtsc-ssfl.com/default.asp?V_DOC_ID=942 State DTSC-SSFL Groundwater Interactive Database. accessed 4/06/2010
  13. ^ http://smmc.ca.gov/ROV%20Master%20Plan.pdf access date: 6/6/2010
  14. ^ http://www.glendalenewspress.com/news/gnp-valley060510,0,1520788.story access date: 6/6/2010
  15. ^ http://www.modernhiker.com/2010/06/03/rim-of-the-valley-corridor-study-begins/comment-page-1/ access date: 6/6/2010
  16. ^ official Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Park website. accessed 4/2/2010.
  17. ^ http://www.parks.ca.gov/default.asp?page_id=611 official Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park website. accessed 1/25/2010.
  18. ^ http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=123 Santa Susana Pass State Historic Park info. accessed 11/22/2009.
  19. ^ http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=53 SMMC-Sage Ranch Park Info. accessed 6/6/2010
  20. ^ http://www.lamountains.com/maps/sageRanch.pdf SMMC-Sage Ranch Park Map. accessed 2/28/2010
  21. ^ http://www.nps.gov/samo/planyourvisit/cheeseboropalocomado.htm Cheeseboro/Palo Comado Canyon Park. accessed 6/6/2010.
  22. ^ http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=83 Cheeseboro Park. accessed 11/22/2009.
  23. ^ http://www.recreationparks.net/CA/los-angeles/el-escorpion-park-los-angeles El Escorpión Park. accessed 11/22/2009.
  24. ^ http://venturacountytrails.org/RecentPhotos/2010-02-13CastlePeak/_Page.html venturacountytrails.org-Escorpion Peak. accessed 4/04/2010
  25. ^ http://www.recreationparks.net/CA/los-angeles/bell-canyon-park-los-angeles Bell Canyon Park. accessed 11/22/2009.
  26. ^ http://www.lamountains.com/parks.asp?parkid=51 www.lamountains. Rocky Peak Park. access date: 6/6/2010

[edit] External links

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