Posted: October 4th, 2006

Letter to the Editor
Pasadena Star News October 4, 2006

What goes around … I nearly choked on my coffee when I read the article about plans for completing the Altadena Crest Trail (”County maps path for trail,” Sept. 19).

The article quotes a La Vina resident, Dick Whitehouse, as saying the “pristine, untouched area..wilderness … would be absolutely destroyed” if the trail passed through lower Millard Canyon, along the western edge of the La Vina gated community of 272 homes.

I remember distinctly how La Vina came to be developed 10 years ago. First, a very beautiful area with hundreds of immense native oak trees was turned into the surface of the moon.

Several million cubic yards of dirt were moved to flatten the area. There wasn’t a living thing nor a blade of grass alive when the earthmovers and tractors were done with the job. A whole ridge bordering Millard Canyon was removed, and a streambed was filled in. I watched in horrified fascination one morning as a Caterpillar tractor crashed and crashed against a huge oak tree until the roots were completely broken, and then the entire tree, with a trunk three feet in diameter, was pushed into Millard Canyon.

In an attempt to save some of the larger heritage oaks, about 40 of them were dug up and planted in wooden boxes, with plans to relocate them in the future. Of course, the developers never got around to caring for the trees, and an unknown number, possibly all of them, died.

The predominant trees in La Vina are now palm trees and other non-native varieties. So, when a La Vina resident states that a pristine natural area on the outskirts of his neighborhood is going

To be destroyed by a narrow hiking trail down in Millard Canyon, I find his Comments to be completely disingenuous to say the least.

And traffic concerns about Canyon Crest Road are a deceitful red herring. The simple fact of the matter is that La Vina residents - in complete defiance of the Los Angeles County requirements levied on the La Vina developers in the first place to secure permission to build the development - don’t want the riffraff (that’s me) anywhere near their perfect enclave.

Stephen Slobin

Altadena