Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is an agency of the state of California in the United States founded in 1980 and dedicated to the acquisition of land for preservation as open space, for wildlife and California native plants habitat Nature Preserves, and for public recreation activities.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy was established by the California State Legislature in 1980. Since that time, it has helped to preserve over 72,000 acres of parkland in both wilderness and urban settings, and improved more than 114 public recreational facilities throughout Southern California. Additionally, it has given grants to nonprofit organizations for educational and interpretation programs that have served hundreds of thousands of children and other park visitors.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy territory originally was within the Santa Susana Mountains and Santa Monica Mountains, and the Simi Hills; areas located north and west of metropolitan Los Angeles in Ventura County and Los Angeles County. Since then its territory has been extended to the east to include parks in the San Gabriel Mountains, Verdugo Mountains, San Rafael Hills, and Puente Hills.

The 450,000 acre (1,800 km²) "zone" in which the conservancy can acquire land is bounded on the south by the Pacific Coast Highway from Santa Monica to Point Mugu. The zone extends inland roughly 50 miles (80 km) from Malibu north to Newhall Pass and 65 miles (105 km) from Thousand Oaks east to Pasadena. Several major freeways in Los Angeles cross the zone, including the Hollywood, Ventura, San Diego and Interstate 5.

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