Seeking $$ for the Santa Monica Mountains...

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Will Obama complete the Santa Monica Mountains National Park?

Our Updated Santa Monica Mountains parks purchase map--includes 2008 purchase of 800 acre Corral Canyon and 2005 purchase of the 500+ acres Soka University site.
(Click on map to enlarge)

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excerpted from
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-land27-2009apr27,0,7967905.story

Making a case for more conservation funds, environmentalists say a down economy is a good time to buy land.

By Richard Simon

April 27, 2009

Reporting from Washington -- Conservationists who for years have struggled to win federal funding for new or expanded parks suddenly are seeing green, even in these lean budgetary times.

President Obama has proposed spending $420 million next year to buy land for national parks, forests and wildlife refuges, and to help states fund parks and recreation projects. That is more than double the amount Congress provided for 2009...

(click on map to enlarge)

For the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, Reps. Howard L. Berman (D-Valley Village) and Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks) seek $10 million to buy 655 acres in Malibu.

Since the recreation area was created in 1978, the National Park Service has spent $165 million to preserve about 23,000 acres.

But the park has received no money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund since fiscal 2001, even though Bush visited the area in 2003. Some 13,000 acres have been purchased since 2000, with $380 million in state and local funds.

But there remain 25,700 acres to be acquired to complete the land protection plan, officials said...