Easements abound in the HGP. Recently we have discovered easement granted in 1939 to Don Lee Broadcasting from the Sherman Company. The easement dealt with use of the road inside the Sherman land. Read this document for yourself and tell us what you think?
What came first the chicken or the egg? That is a question where each a person could take either position and argue it. Unlike our adjacent eastern The Hollywoodland and its 444 acre open space existed is symbiotic to our residential area. The land around us was always there always a part of our community laced throughout with bridle trails used by residents and guests who road from with the Sunset Stables or Mr. Lawson’s Ranch and stables at 3000 Canyon Drive inside Brush Canyon. This is converse to our adjacent neighbors, the Oaks and Los Feliz. Colonel Griffith’s land was donated in 1896 and then the homes came 20 some years later. So what other geographic facts make us so much more unique than our Griffith Park neighbors? Official openings is one, bridle trails, geographic, intend of the land donation are a few more differences along with infra structure, narrow, twisty roads with significant grades, no sidewalks and houses posed 3 feet from the roadways.
The planting of the historic Payne seedlings has begun in Hollywoodland Gifted Park!
This map shows the Hollywoodland neighborhood surrounded by the western, northern and eastern portion of gifted park land . Note the Canyon Drive entrance at the bottom right edge. At some point the Gift assumed a new tract name, 10781. This map must be sometime before the 1960’s since the end of Beachwood from Linforth on was not subdivided. Note the easements indicated adjacent to the undeveloped portion of Beachwood Drive , private road, easement CE 180-98 ( The Riding academy aka Sunset Ranch) and at the top pf Mt. Lee., private road easement CE 180-98 exception A-2 OR 17203-24/33.
The turkey vulture roosts in large community groups, breaking away to forage independently during the day. Several hundred vultures may roost communally in groups which sometimes even include black vultures. It roosts on dead, leafless trees, and will also roost on man-made structures such as water or microwave towers. 
Though it nests in caves, it does not enter them except during the breeding season. The turkey vulture lowers its night-time body temperature by about 6 degrees Celsius to 34 °C (93 °F), becoming slightly hypothermic.
This vulture is often seen standing in a spread-winged stance. The stance is believed to serve multiple functions: drying the wings, warming the body, and baking off bacteria. It is practiced more often following damp or rainy nights. This same behavior is displayed by other New World vultures, by Old World vultures, and by storks. Like storks, the turkey vulture often defecates on its own legs, using the evaporation of the water in the feces and/or urine to cool itself, a process known as urohidrosis. It cools the blood vessels in the unfeathered tarsi and feet, and causes white uric acid to streak the legs. The turkey vulture has few natural predators. Adult, immature and fledging vultures may fall prey to great owls, hornedowls, red tailed hawks, golden eagles and bald eagles, while eggs and nestlings may be preyed on by mammals such as raccoons and opossums. Foxes can occasionally ambush an adult but species that can climb are more likely to breach and predate nests than adults. Its primary form of defense is regurgitating semi-digested meat, a foul-smelling substance which deters most creatures intent on raiding a vulture nest. It will also sting if the predator is close enough to get the vomit in its face or eyes. In some cases, the vulture must rid its crop of a heavy, undigested meal in order to take flight to flee from a potential predator. Its life expectancy in the wild ranges upward of 16 years, with a captive life span of over 30 years being possible.
The turkey vulture is awkward on the ground with an ungainly, hopping walk. It requires a great deal of effort to take flight, flapping its wings while pushing off the ground and hopping with its feet.[33] While soaring, the turkey vulture holds its wings in a shallow v-shape and often tips from side to side, frequently causing the gray flight feathers to appear silvery as they catch the light. The flight of the turkey vulture is an example of static soaring flight, in which it flaps its wings very infrequently, and takes advantage of rising thermals to stay soaring.
One of our neighbor’s and a friend of Hollywoodland Gifted Park, shared this image showing more unchecked illegal activity in HGP.
This man launched the inaugural flight of his new drone on the Sycamore Trail. The drone is in his left hand & the box it came out of under his arm. People know they can get away with this behavior . Imagine our poor wildlife, the noise and intrusion to our residents also
These photos show physical abuse of the rock formations and landscape HGP near the official and exclusive entrance from Canyon Drive. Sad and unacceptable.
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Breaking news from t
he baby animal beat! Biologists with the U.S. National Park Service recently discovered two new puma kittens in the Santa Monica Mountains, and the pair is nothing short of adorable.
The blue-eyed boy and girl, named P-46 and P-47, respectively, are already donning tracking devices so researchers can keep tabs on them. These two will need as many guardians as they can get, because the lil’ big cats have a tough road ahead of them. Their habitat, on the outskirts of Los Angeles, is essentially an island surrounded by freeways, and the mountain lion population there faces many threats, including fragmentation, speeding cars, rat poison, and inbreeding. In fact, the kittens’ mom, P-19, had two previo
us litters by her own father. A paternity test will soon let the scientists know whether this time around the papa is a newcomer (with new genes), a cat by the name of P-45.
Despite the challenging landscape, the pumas in the Santa Monica Mountains are making do—this is the eleventh litter the NPS has discovered since it began studying the area in 2002.
Wildflower Update
Today Greg Williams and I visited the Theodore Payne Foundation, toured the gardens, greenhouses, met with Director Kitty Connelly and Genny Arnold, Seed Manager and even saw some of Mr. Payne’s original instr
uments and t
ools.
Seeds will be arriving in the next few weeks . We hope to sow the hillside near the Beachwood Parking lot and planters in the Village Green rains permitting.Small seed packets will also be available at My Fair Lady’s Flower Shop.
Possibly left over from P22 found 2 weeks ago in HGP near Innsdale.
These are a series of photos submitted by a Mulholland Hwy property owner. Please note this street directly abuts the HGP area and is consistently abused by visitors.
The caring property owner was able engage the city who first sent a graffiti control team that spray painted our 
historic wall ( cultural heritage designation #535) with paint incongruous to its character. She then interfaced with one of our “City Angels” Lambert Geisinger in Cultural Heritage who contacted the Public Works Commission to expedite appropriate removal of paint. Thank you Lambert!
Sent by a HGP supporter:
Here are a couple more for your website. One is what the caisson at the top of Deronda morphed into – a solar powered 360 video camera that feeds to the LAPD. With usual brilliant City engineering it is placed behind a palm tree so that it cannot see the up the Mt. Lee Rd. very well. The other is a quarter mile up from the camera. 
The city sent a crew to cut down a sumac that was sliding onto the road. They did and threw the debris off the other side of the road!
This January 1, 2016 photograph outlines “use” problems plaguing the Hollywoodland Gifted Park and the adjacent single family residential community, Hollywoodland. Despite all the postings, “hikers” trespass on private and public land. N
ote the small group adjacent to the letter D who are hiking in off limits territory, creating new illegal footpaths. Within a 30 minute period more than 12 people were observed on these unauthorized footpaths.
Seventy one (71) years ago Earl Haskell represented the M.H. Sherman Company gifting Hollywoodland’s 444.5 acres of open space to the City of Los Angeles. That transaction took place at the December 18, 1944 Board of Playground and Recreation Commissioners meeting in City Hall. This was the largest single donation (other than the original Colonel Griffith land, 3,800 plus acres.) This humble gift was given with little fanfare, with little name recognition and yet it holds some of the most precious, eco sensitive land and wildlife in the entire park system.
So in the season of giving, think about giving back to our community by reinforcing Sherman’s intent and purpose. Do this by helping us preserve the gift; protecting Hollywoodland’s history her sensitive environment, the existing roadway/water easements and encourage ingress and egress to the gift through the only legal opening, Brush Canyon at Canyon Drive. Encourage the city to remove all the destructive accouterments that were added at Canyon Lake/Mulholland Highway that never had approvals or authorizations and encourage the city to respect the Cultural Heritage designations within the gift, the Hollywood(land) sign, the historic walls and the park itself. The gift should be respected and embraced not abused and destroyed.
With sincere sympathy we share the news of Don Haskell’s passing. Mr. Haskell was the son of Earl Haskell, Sherman Company representative for Hollywoodland and her gifted park from 1933- 1960’s. Arnold Haskell ( uncle) created the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar, California. This facility holds artifacts and history about Hollywoodland and her Gift as well as significant historical documents about Southern California and the western United States. We are grateful for their generous efforts in preservation and have been honored beneficiaries of the rich history and resources.
The first annual birthday/ holiday lunch for HGP was held at the historic Tam O Shanter Restaurant on December 21. The luncheon was underwritten by the Committee to Save the Hollywoodland Specific Plan. Gifts were provided by HBDU.
The next luncheon is planned at the Sherman Library and Gardens in Corona Del Mar. If you are interested in attending please leave your contact information.
The Theodore Payne historic wildflower re-creation will begin after our first soaking rain. Continue reading
What type of concrete artifact is Smokey planning here? The City has poured a large caisson at the top of Deronda, just inside the gate. It looks a little big for supporting their new signs!
Human dressed in a life size cactus outfit was observed urinating on the historic stairs in the Hollywoodland residential section, adjacent to HGP. “I thought cactus were supposed to be able to hold water.” quote from a Beachwood property owner. HGP thinks this is an awful Halloween TRICK!
Mt. Lee’s greenery has dried up more than you realize
As the drought plaguing Los Angeles drags on, patches of the city’s landscape have become parched. Beverly Hills’ grass medians are browning day by day and water saving measures like rebates for turf removal are gaining ground. In many ways, though, the effects of the drought are easy to overlook in the city spaces we inhabit. Parks are still green, fountains still flow. Ascend above street level, however, and you’ll see a whole new picture of how much Los Angeles has changed. The view from Mount Lee in the Santa Monica Mountains—better known as the endpoint of the Hollywood Sign hike—reveals a barren vista of what was once plentiful greenery.
Hundreds of hikers trek up the various Hollywood Sign trails every day, and though the dry weather doesn’t seem to have led to any decrease in foot traffic, there’s a markedly less vivid view from the top. These before and after photos from the popular trail tell the story of the drought in shades of green and yellow.
Photograph courtesy flickr.com/dittmeyer
Photograph courtesy flickr.com/Phillip Head
Photograph courtesy flickr.com/Marie Berne
Photograph courtesy flickr.com/Phillip Head
– See more at: http://www.lamag.com/citythinkblog/heres-what-the-hollywood-hike-looked-like-before-the-drought/#sthash.YBniQ4cn.dpuf
