Nonprofit Acquires 120 Acres Surrounding Local Trail

About 120 acres of open space that surrounds the popular is now the property of a nonprofit organization and protected from future development.

The Secret Trail is a 1.59-mile stretch of the the 17-mile Calabasas/Cold Creek Trail that traverses the Santa Monica Mountains.

The recently purchased the swath of land between Mulholland Highway and Calabasas Peak that surrounds the trail and ascends to the Calabasas Motorway.

Following the purchase, the trust transferred the property's title to the nonprofit

Acquiring the open space protects the natural landscape from being developed, said Debbie Bruschaber, acting director of the Mountains Restoration Trust.

"The property’s foreclosure status and location made developer interest imminent and put the Secret Trail in jeopardy, but it will continue to protect the headwaters and sustainability of the Cold Creek watershed,” Bruschaber said in a press release.

The trust already owns about 1,000 acres of the Cold Creek Preserve watershed.

The 120 acres surrounding the Secret Trail were initially donated to the trust with a $750,000 lien against it. Through donations, including a $50,000 contribution from the city of Calabasas, the trust paid off the lien.

Woody Smeck, area superintendent of the Santa Monica Mountains, called the recently purchased land biologically rich and that it passes through grassland, chaparral, oak woodland, willow riparian, scrub oak woodlands and geologic volcanic rock outcrops.

“The Secret Trail is one of the most likely areas where visitors can encounter wildlife," Smeck said in a press release. "There are 13 different kinds of raptors and a dense population of coyote, bobcat, mule deer and mountain lion. It’s one of the most biologically productive areas in the Santa Monica Mountains."