1.
Local government in California
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California has an extensive and complicated system of local government that manages public functions throughout the state. Like most states, California is divided into counties, of which there are 58 covering the entire state, most urbanized areas are incorporated as cities, though not all of California is within the boundaries of a city. School districts, which are independent of cities and counties, handle public education, due to geographical variations in property tax and sales tax revenue and differing attitudes towards priorities, there are variations in the levels of various services from one city to the next. The basic political subdivision of California are the 58 counties, in addition the county serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas, providing services such as police, parks, street maintenance, land use regulations, zoning, and waste disposal. Counties have taxing and police powers, counties may promulgate ordinances which are usually codified in a county code, and violations of the ordinances are misdemeanor crimes unless otherwise specified as an infraction. Thirteen counties are charter counties while the rest are general law counties, most counties elect all of their supervisors by district except San Mateo and Tehama. All counties elect their treasurers except Los Angeles, Sacramento, Santa Clara, all counties elect their district attorneys and their sheriffs. Counties may also have an assessor, a recorder, an auditor, a controller, a treasurer, a tax collector, a county clerk, a registrar of voters, a coroner, and/or a medical examiner. Californias judicial system is organized along county lines, but the county courts are a part of the court system. This unfunded mandate was a source of frustration for both the superior courts and the counties. A LAFCO regulates the creation of districts and annexation of unincorporated land to cities within the county. No incorporated city may cross county boundaries, and special districts that span county lines must be approved by the state Legislature. California also uses grand juries, with at least one per county and these county-level grand juries are often called civil grand juries because their primary focus is on oversight of government institutions at the county level and lower. They meet at least once per year, on January 4,1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. On April 22, the counties of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yolo, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding counties was to rename Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, the last county in California to be established is Imperial County on August 7,1907. Since 1911, counties in California have been allowed limited home rule, in 1933, county supervisors gained authority to fix salaries for all county officers other than themselves
2.
Los Angeles County, California
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Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, is the most populous county in both the United States and the state of California, the countrys most populous state. Its population is larger than that of 42 individual U. S. states and it has 88 incorporated cities and many unincorporated areas and at 4,083 square miles, it is larger than the combined areas of the U. S. states of Delaware and Rhode Island. The county is home to more than one-quarter of California residents and is one of the most ethnically diverse counties in the U. S and its county seat, the City of Los Angeles, is also its most populous city at about four million. Los Angeles County is one of the counties of California. The county originally included parts of what are now Kern, San Bernardino, Riverside, as the population increased, sections were split off to organize San Bernardino County in 1853, Kern County in 1866, and Orange County in 1889. According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has an area of 4,751 square miles, Los Angeles County borders 70 miles of coast on the Pacific Ocean and encompasses mountain ranges, valleys, forests, islands, lakes, rivers, and desert. The western extent of the Mojave Desert begins in the Antelope Valley, most of the population of Los Angeles County is located in the south and southwest, with major population centers in the Los Angeles Basin, San Fernando Valley and San Gabriel Valley. Other population centers are found in the Santa Clarita Valley, Pomona Valley, Crescenta Valley, the county is divided west-to-east by the San Gabriel Mountains, which are part of the Transverse Ranges of southern California, and are contained mostly within the Angeles National Forest. Los Angeles County includes San Clemente Island and Santa Catalina Island, non-Hispanic whites numbered 2,728,321, or 28% of the population. Hispanic or Latino residents of any race numbered 4,687,889, 36% of Los Angeles Countys population was of Mexican ancestry,3. 7% Salvadoran, and 2. 2% Guatemalan heritage. The largest Asian groups of the 1,346,865 Asians in Los Angeles County are 4. 0% Chinese,3. 3% Filipino,2. 2% Korean,1. 0% Japanese,0. 9% Vietnamese,0. 8% Indian, and 0. 3% Cambodian. The racial makeup of the county is 48. 7% White,11. 0% African American,0. 8% Native American,10. 0% Asian,0. 3% Pacific Islander,23. 5% from other races, and 4. 9% from two or more races. 44. 6% of the population are Hispanic or Latino of any race, the largest European-American ancestry groups are German, Irish, English and Italian. 45. 9% of the population reported speaking only English at home,37. 9% spoke Spanish,2. 22% Tagalog,2. 0% Chinese,1. 9% Korean,1. 87% Armenian,0. 5% Arabic, and 0. 2% Hindi. At the census of 2000, there were 9,519,338 people,3,133,774 households, the population density was 2,344 people per square mile. There were 3,270,909 housing units at a density of 806 per square mile. 25% of all households were made up of individuals and 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older, the average household size was 2.98 and the average family size was 3.61. In the county, the population was out with 28% under the age of 18, 10% from 18 to 24, 33% from 25 to 44, 19% from 45 to 64
3.
California
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California is the most populous state in the United States and the third most extensive by area. Located on the western coast of the U. S, California is bordered by the other U. S. states of Oregon, Nevada, and Arizona and shares an international border with the Mexican state of Baja California. Los Angeles is Californias most populous city, and the second largest after New York City. The Los Angeles Area and the San Francisco Bay Area are the nations second- and fifth-most populous urban regions, California also has the nations most populous county, Los Angeles County, and its largest county by area, San Bernardino County. The Central Valley, an agricultural area, dominates the states center. What is now California was first settled by various Native American tribes before being explored by a number of European expeditions during the 16th and 17th centuries, the Spanish Empire then claimed it as part of Alta California in their New Spain colony. The area became a part of Mexico in 1821 following its war for independence. The western portion of Alta California then was organized as the State of California, the California Gold Rush starting in 1848 led to dramatic social and demographic changes, with large-scale emigration from the east and abroad with an accompanying economic boom. If it were a country, California would be the 6th largest economy in the world, fifty-eight percent of the states economy is centered on finance, government, real estate services, technology, and professional, scientific and technical business services. Although it accounts for only 1.5 percent of the states economy, the story of Calafia is recorded in a 1510 work The Adventures of Esplandián, written as a sequel to Amadis de Gaula by Spanish adventure writer Garci Rodríguez de Montalvo. The kingdom of Queen Calafia, according to Montalvo, was said to be a land inhabited by griffins and other strange beasts. This conventional wisdom that California was an island, with maps drawn to reflect this belief, shortened forms of the states name include CA, Cal. Calif. and US-CA. Settled by successive waves of arrivals during the last 10,000 years, various estimates of the native population range from 100,000 to 300,000. The Indigenous peoples of California included more than 70 distinct groups of Native Americans, ranging from large, settled populations living on the coast to groups in the interior. California groups also were diverse in their organization with bands, tribes, villages. Trade, intermarriage and military alliances fostered many social and economic relationships among the diverse groups, the first European effort to explore the coast as far north as the Russian River was a Spanish sailing expedition, led by Portuguese captain Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo, in 1542. Some 37 years later English explorer Francis Drake also explored and claimed a portion of the California coast in 1579. Spanish traders made unintended visits with the Manila galleons on their trips from the Philippines beginning in 1565
4.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
5.
ZIP Code
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ZIP Codes are a system of postal codes used by the United States Postal Service since 1963. The term ZIP, an acronym for Zone Improvement Plan, was chosen to suggest that the travels more efficiently, and therefore more quickly. The basic format consists of five numerical digits, an extended ZIP+4 code, introduced in 1983, includes the five digits of the ZIP Code, a hyphen, and four additional digits that determine a more specific location within a given ZIP Code. The term ZIP Code was originally registered as a servicemark by the U. S. Postal Service, USPS style for ZIP is all caps and the c in code is also capitalized, although style sheets for some publications use sentence case or lowercase. The early history and context of postal codes began with postal district/zone numbers, the United States Post Office Department implemented postal zones for numerous large cities in 1943. For example, Mr. John Smith 3256 Epiphenomenal Avenue Minneapolis 16, by the early 1960s a more organized system was needed, and on July 1,1963, non-mandatory five-digit ZIP Codes were introduced nationwide. Three months later, on October 1,1963, the U. S, an earlier list in June had proposed capitalized abbreviations ranging from two to five letters. The abbreviations have remained unchanged, with one exception, according to the historian of the U. S. Robert Moon, an employee of the post office, is considered the father of the ZIP Code, he submitted his proposal in 1944 while working as a postal inspector. The post office gives credit to Moon only for the first three digits of the ZIP Code, which describe the sectional center facility or sec center, an SCF is a central mail processing facility with those three digits. The SCF sorts mail to all post offices with those first three digits in their ZIP Codes, the mail is sorted according to the final two digits of the ZIP Code and sent to the corresponding post offices in the early morning. Sectional centers do not deliver mail and are not open to the public, Mail picked up at post offices is sent to their own SCF in the afternoon, where the mail is sorted overnight. The United States Post Office used a character, which it called Mr. ZIP. He was often depicted with a such as USE ZIP CODE in the selvage of panes of stamps or on labels contained in, or the covers of. In 1983, the U. S. Postal Service introduced an expanded ZIP Code system that it called ZIP+4, often called plus-four codes, add-on codes, or add ons. But initial attempts to promote use of the new format met with public resistance. For Post Office Boxes, the rule is that each box has its own ZIP+4 code. However, there is no rule, so the ZIP+4 Code must be looked up individually for each box. It is common to use add-on code 9998 for mail addressed to the postmaster,9999 for general delivery, for a unique ZIP Code, the add-on code is typically 0001
6.
Gated community
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Gated communities usually consist of small residential streets and include various shared amenities. For smaller communities, this may be only a park or other common area, for larger communities, it may be possible for residents to stay within the community for most daily activities. Gated communities are a type of common interest development, but are distinct from intentional communities, some gated communities, usually called guard-gated communities, are staffed by private security guards and are often home to high-value properties, and/or are set up as retirement villages. Some gated communities are secure enough to resemble fortresses and are intended as such, amenities available in a gated community depend on a number of factors including geographical location, demographic composition, community structure, and community fees collected. When there are subassociations that belong to associations, the master association may provide many of the amenities. In general, the larger the association the more amenities that can be provided, amenities also depend on the type of housing. For example, single-family-home communities may not have a swimming pool. A condominium, on the hand, may offer a community pool. Such a place is a town with its own infrastructure. The purpose of such a community is to protect its residents from exterior violence, the same philosophy is seen on closed buildings and most shopping centres. In Pakistan, gated communities are located in big as well as cities and are considered standard of high quality living. Defence Housing Authority and Bahria Town are major private gated community developers and administrators, the assets of Bahria Town itself are worth $30 billion. Most gated communities in Pakistan have public parks, schools, hospitals, shopping malls, gymnasiums, in Argentina, they are called barrios privados or just countries and are often seen as a symbol of wealth. However, gated communities enjoy dubious social prestige, while most gated communities have only houses, some bigger ones, such as Nordelta, have their own hospital, school, shopping mall, and more. In post-segregation South Africa, gated communities have mushroomed in response to levels of violent crime. They are broadly classified as security villages or enclosed neighborhoods, some of the newest neighborhoods being developed are almost entirely composed of security villages, some with malls and few other essential services. In part, property developers have adopted this response to counter squatting, which local residents due to associated crime. They are popular in southern China, namely the Pearl River Delta Region, in Saudi Arabia, gated communities have existed since the discovery of oil, mainly to accommodate families from Europe or North America
7.
Calabasas, California
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As of the 2010 census, the citys population was 23,058, up from 20,033 at the 2000 census. The city was incorporated in 1991. It is noted for its residents and gated neighborhoods. The Leonis Adobe, a structure in Old Town Calabasas. It is generally accepted that the name of Calabasas is derived from the Spanish calabaza meaning pumpkin, squash, some historians hold the theory that Calabasas is derived from the Chumash word calahoosa which is said to mean where the wild geese fly. Owing to vast presence of wild plants in the area. The following spring, hundreds of pumpkin seeds sprouted alongside the road, the area was named Las Calabasas - the place where the pumpkins fell. The festival has evolved from a fair to a significant annual event. The citys official logo, depicting a red-tailed hawk flying over the Santa Monica Mountains, symbolizes a commitment to preserving the natural beauty. This logo is featured on the Calabasas city flag which is flown in front of City Hall, the city is located in the southwest corner of the San Fernando Valley and comprises a portion of the Santa Monica Mountains. It is 22 miles away from downtown Los Angeles and it is bordered by the Woodland Hills area of Los Angeles to the northeast, Topanga to the east, Malibu to the south, Agoura Hills to the west, and Hidden Hills to the north. The historic El Camino Real runs east–west through Calabasas as the Ventura Freeway 101, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 13.0 square miles. 12.9 square miles of it is land and 0.1 square miles of it is covered by water, in a part of the city near Calabasas High School and A. C. Stelle Middle School, all of the public streets are named patriotically. These include Declaration Ave. America Way, Liberty Bell Rd. Paul Revere Dr. Founders Dr. Bon Homme Rd. one of the oldest neighborhoods in Calabasas is Park Moderne, or the Bird Streets. From Parkway Calabasas, Hidden Hills West, Calabasas Hills, Calabasas Park Estates, from Las Virgenes, Mountain View Estates, Monte Nido, Deer Springs, Stone Creek, El Encanto, Mont Calabasas, Malibu Canyon Park, The Colony at Calabasas, and Avalon Calabasas. Mont Calabasas, a community on Las Virgenes Road, was annexed into the city of Calabasas in 2011, prior to annexation, the neighborhood was located in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County. From Lost Hills Road, Calabasas View, Saratoga Hills, Saratoga Ranch, Deer Springs, the 2010 United States Census reported Calabasas to have a population of 23,058. The population density was 1,780.4 people per square mile
8.
San Fernando Valley
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The San Fernando Valley is an urbanized valley located in Los Angeles County, California, defined by the mountains of the Transverse Ranges circling it. Home to 1.8 million people, it lies north of the larger, nearly two thirds of the valleys land area is part of the city of Los Angeles. The other incorporated cities in the valley are Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, Hidden Hills, the Los Angeles River begins at the confluence of Calabasas Creek and Bell Creek, between Canoga Park High School and Owensmouth Ave. in Canoga Park. These creeks headwaters are in the Santa Monica Calabasas foothills, the Simi Hills Hidden Hills, Santa Susana Field Laboratory, the river flows eastward along the southern regions of the Valley. One of the rivers two unpaved sections can be found at the Sepulveda Basin, a seasonal river, the Tujunga Wash, drains much of the western facing San Gabriel Mountains and passes into and then through the Hansen Dam Recreation Center in Lake View Terrace. It flows south along the Verdugo Mountains through the communities of the valley to join the Los Angeles River in Studio City. Other notable tributaries of the river include Dayton Creek, Caballero Creek, Bull Creek, Pacoima Wash, the elevation of the floor of the valley varies from about 600 ft to 1,200 ft above sea level. Universal City, an enclave in the part of the valley, is unincorporated land housing the Universal Studios filming lot. Mulholland Drive, which runs along the ridgeline of the Santa Monica Mountains, in this Mediterranean climate, post-1790s European agriculture for the missions support consisted of grapes, figs, olives, and general garden crops. The San Fernando Valley contains five incorporated cities—Glendale, Burbank, San Fernando, Hidden Hills and Calabasas—and part of a sixth, Los Angeles, the unincorporated communities are governed by the County of Los Angeles. The Los Angeles city section of the valley is divided into seven city districts,2,3,4,5,6,7 and 12. Of the 95 neighborhood councils in the city,34 are in the valley, the valley is represented in the California State Legislature by seven members of the State Assembly and five members of the State Senate. The valley is divided into five congressional districts, the San Fernando Valley, for the most part, tends to support Democrats in state and national elections. This is especially true in the areas which include Sherman Oaks. The Los Angeles satellite administrative center for the valley, The Civic Center Van Nuys, is in Van Nuys. The area in and around the Van Nuys branch of Los Angeles City Hall is home to a station, municipal and superior courts. Northridge is home to California State University, Northridge, many branches of the Los Angeles Public Library are located in the valley. For independent libraries see Incorporated Cities in the Municipalities and districts list below, Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department, and independent valley city departments
9.
Transverse Ranges
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The Transverse Ranges are a group of mountain ranges of southern California, in the Pacific Coast Ranges physiographic region in North America. The Transverse Ranges begin at the end of the California Coast Ranges. They derive the name Transverse Ranges due to their east–west orientation, most of the system lies in the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion. Lower elevations are dominated by chaparral and scrubland, while higher elevations support large conifer forests, most of the ranges in the system are fault blocks, and were uplifted by tectonic movements during the Cenozoic Era. Most of the Transverse Ranges are bounded to the north and east by the San Andreas Fault, which separates the ranges from the California Coast Ranges, notable passes along the fault include Tejon Pass, Cajon Pass, and San Gorgonio Pass. Components of Transverse Ranges to the north of the include the Tehachapi Mountains. The western and southern boundaries are generally acknowledged to be the Pacific Ocean and various alluvial valleys, major passes not along the San Andreas Fault include Gaviota Pass, San Marcos Pass, the Conejo Grade, Newhall Pass, and Cahuenga Pass. The mountains are notable for being steep and difficult to traverse across, on its northern end, there are few passes that are sufficiently low or wide enough to accommodate significant volumes of traffic. This results in significant traffic issues throughout Southern California when a pass has to be shut due to heavy snow or construction. Occasionally, such as Santa Barbara during the 2005 La Conchita landslide, the Transverse Ranges manifest themselves as a series of roughly parallel ridges with an average height of 3, 000–8,000 feet. They begin at Point Conception in Santa Barbara County, and include the Santa Ynez Mountains that run parallel to the coast behind Santa Barbara. Also in Santa Barbara County, they include the San Rafael Mountains, the Ranges include the steep San Gabriel Mountains northeast of Los Angeles, the San Rafael Hills, Puente Hills, San Jose Hills, and Chino Hills, and the San Bernardino Mountains. The Mojave Desert and Californias low desert, including the Coachella Valley, are at the end of the ranges. The northern Channel Islands of California are also part of the Transverse Ranges, San Miguel, Santa Rosa, Santa Cruz, snow falls above 6,000 feet most winters, and above 3,000 feet every few years. It is rare for elevations above 8,000 feet to go multiple winters without snow, the tree line lies at about 11,000 feet, San Gorgonio Mountain is the only peak with an alpine environment. The Transverse Ranges have a geological history, and the rock composition of the ranges are varied. The Transverse Ranges represent a complex of tectonic forces and faulting stemming from the interaction of the Pacific Plate, the San Andreas Fault is a dextral strike-slip fault with a right step, causing the mountains. Their elevation is somewhat better understood as a consequence of this step, the crust atop the Pacific Plate south of the ranges does not easily make the turn westward as the entire plate moves northwestward, forcing pieces of the crust to compress and lift
10.
Santa Monica Mountains
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The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, paralleling the Pacific Ocean. It is part of the Transverse Ranges, because of its proximity to densely populated regions, it is one of the most visited natural areas in California. Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is located in this mountain range, the range extends approximately 40 miles east-west from the Hollywood Hills in Los Angeles to Point Mugu in Ventura County. The mountain range contributed to the isolation of this vast coastal plain before regular transportation routes reached western Ventura County, the eastern mountains form a barrier between the San Fernando Valley and the Los Angeles Basin, separating the Valley on the north and west-central Los Angeles on the south. The Santa Monica Mountains are parallel to Santa Susana Mountains, which are located north of the mountains across the San Fernando Valley. The range is of height, with no particularly craggy or prominent peaks outside the Sandstone Peak. While often rugged and wild, the hosts a substantial amount of human activity. Houses, roads, businesses, and recreational centers are dotted throughout the Santa Monica Mountains, a number of creeks in the Santa Monica Mountains are part of the Los Angeles River watershed. Beginning at the end of the San Fernando Valley the river runs to the north of the mountains. After passing between the range and the Verdugo Mountains it flows south around Elysian Park defining the easternmost extent of the mountains, the Santa Monica Mountains have more than 1,000 archeology sites of significance, primarily from the Californian Native American cultures of the Tongva and Chumash people. The mountains were part of their homelands for over eight thousand years before the arrival of the Spanish. The Spanish mission system had a impact on their culture and by 1831. Geologists consider the northern Channel Islands to be an extension of the Santa Monicas into the Pacific Ocean. The range was created by repeated episodes of uplifting and submergence by the Raymond Fault that created complex layers of sedimentary rock, volcanic intrusions have been exposed, including the poorly named, andesitic, Sandstone Peak the highest in the range at 3,111 feet. Malibu Creek, which eroded its own channel while the mountains were slowly uplifted, the Santa Monica Mountains have dry summers with frequent coastal fog on the ocean side of the range and wet, cooler winters. In the summer, the climate is dry, which makes the range prone to wildfires. Snow is unusual in the Santa Monica Mountains, since they are not as high as the nearby San Gabriel Mountains. The highest slopes of the central and western Santa Monica Mountains average as much as 27 inches of rain per year, the bulk of the rain falls between November and March
11.
Nature reserve
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Nature reserves may be designated by government institutions in some countries, or by private landowners, such as charities and research institutions, regardless of nationality. Nature reserves fall into different IUCN categories depending on the level of protection afforded by local laws, early reservations often had a religious underpinning, such as the evil forest areas of West Africa which were forbidden to humans, who were threatened with spiritual attack if they went there. Sacred areas taboo from human entry to fishing and hunting are known by ancient cultures worldwide. The worlds first modern nature reserve was established in 1821 by the naturalist and explorer Charles Waterton around his estate in Walton Hall and he spent £9000 on the construction of a 3 mile long,9 ft tall wall to enclose his park from poachers. He tried to encourage birdlife by planting trees and hollowing out trunks for owls to nest in and he also invented artificial nest boxes to house starlings, jackdaws and sand martins and unsuccessfully attempted to introduce little owls from Italy. Drachenfels was protected as the first state-designated nature reserve in modern-day Germany, in Australia, a nature reserve is the title of a type of protected area used in the jurisdictions of the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales, Tasmania and Western Australia. The term “nature reserve” is defined in the relevant statutes used in those states and territories rather than by a national statute. As of 2014,1767 out of a total of 10339 protected areas listed within the Australian National Reserve System used the term “nature reserve in their names, in Brazil, nature reserves are classified as ecological stations or biological reserves by the National System of Conservation Units. Their main objectives are preserving fauna and flora and other natural attributes, visits are allowed only with permission, and only for educational or scientific purposes. Changes to the ecosystems in both types of reserve are allowed to restore and preserve the balance, biological diversity. Ecological stations are allowed to change the environment within strictly defined limits for the purpose of scientific research. A wildlife reserve in Brazil is also protected, and hunting is not allowed, there are 30 nature reserves in Egypt which cover 12% of Egyptian land. Those nature reserves were built according to the laws no, 102/1983 and 4/1994 for protection of the Egyptian nature reserve. Egypt announced a plan from to build 40 nature reserves from 1997 to 2017, to protect the natural resources. The largest nature reserve in Egypt is Gebel Elba in the southeast, denmark has three national parks and several nature reserves, some of them inside the national park areas. The largest single reserve is Hanstholm Nature Reserve, which covers 40 km2 and is part of Thy National Park, in Sweden there are 29 national parks. The first of them were established in 1909, in fact, Sweden was the first European country that established 9 national parks. There are almost 4,000 nature reserves in Sweden and they comprise about 85% of the surface that is protected by the Swedish Enironmental Code
12.
Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve
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It was previously called Ahmanson Ranch Park. For thousands of years the Chumash Native American tribe lived in the current Preserves area, the Chumash had, prior to European involvement, at least one village on the land, Huwam, a multi-cultural village where Chumash, Tongva, and Tataviam peoples lived. On Bell Creek beside Escorpión Peak a large mountain on the property of El Escorpion Park, is the reported site of this village. The peak is one of nine alignment points in Chumash territory and is essential to maintaining the balance of the natural world, a cave known as The Cave of Munits exists just inside the property. This is the cave of a mythical Chumash shaman who was killed after murdering the son of a Chumash chief. The 1769 Juan Bautista de Anza expedition, the first European exploration by land of Las Californias, the U. S. National Park services Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail goes through the Preserve, entering in Moore Canyon from El Escorpion Park and Vanowen Street. The Rancho El Escorpión was an 1845 Mexican land grant named after the Peak, from the 1920s to the 1950s many Westerns and other types of motion pictures were filmed here at the Laskey Mesa movie ranch area. In 1963, Home Savings of America obtained the property that was then called Ahmanson Ranch and it sat unused, with no plans for development, until 1989 when Home Savings of America announced their plans for the 5,400 acres property. The plans included over 3,000 homes, two courses, and 400,000 square feet of commercial and residential space. However, in 1998, Home Savings of America was bought by Washington Mutual for $6.4 billion, in 2003 the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy purchased the land from WAMU for an open space preserve and nature reserve Park. On September 28,2005, the Topanga Canyon Fire broke out between the west-bound State Route 118 and Topanga Canyon Boulevard, by September 29, the fire had reached the Preserve, and burned a large portion of the park near, and including, El Escorpion Park. By October 3,2005, the fire had been contained, a total of 24,175 acres were burned, and it cost over $8 million to contain and extinguish the fire. The effects of the fire were visible in the park, as much of the chaparral and grasslands were burned away, there are two preserve trailheads at which people can access the park. Located at the end of Victory Blvd. in West Hills. It features a gravel parking lot with a Portable Toilet that is cleaned at least weekly. The parking lot has room for buses and equestrian trailers, parking is $3 for the day. Parking passes are available through The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy website, multi-park 5- and 7-day and single park 7-day passes are available. Parking is also available outside the gates on Victory Blvd
United States of America
California
Los Angeles
Hidden Hills
