The Old Santa Monica Forestry Station is the nation's first experimental forestry station, built in 1887. The Old Santa Monica Forestry Station was designated a

California Historic Landmark A California Historical Landmark (CHL) is a building, structure, site, or place in California that has been determined to have statewide historical landmark significance. Criteria Historical significance is determined by meeting at least one of ...

(No.840) on March 20, 1970. Old Santa Monica Forestry Station is located at Rustic Canyon in Los Angeles in the

Santa Monica Mountains The Santa Monica Mountains is a coastal mountain range in Southern California, next to 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 ...

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

Los Angeles County Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is the ...

. The site is south of what is now called

Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area The Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area is a United States national recreation area containing many individual parks and open space preserves, located primarily in the Santa Monica Mountains of Southern California. The SMMNRA is in t ...

. In 1971 the state placed a marker near the entrance of the Rustic Canyon Recreation Center at the NW corner of Latimer and Hilltree Roads, at 601 Latimer Road, Los Angeles, CA 90402. This location is in what is now called Pacific Palisades. The hills and canyons around the Santa Monica Canyon were a land boom in the late 1880s.

Abbot Kinney Abbot Kinney (November 16, 1850 in New Brunswick, New Jersey – November 4, 1920 in Santa Monica, California) was an American developer, conservationist, water supply expert and tree expert. Kinney is best known for his " Venice of America" de ...

(1850-1920), from New Jersey, was a

land developer Land development is the alteration of landscape in any number of ways such as: * Changing landforms from a natural or semi-natural state for a purpose such as agriculture or housing * Subdividing real estate into lots, typically for the purpose ...

and a conservationist. Kinney is best known for his " Venice of America" development in Los Angeles. Kinney was appointed to a three-year position as chairman of the California Board of Forestry. Kinney established the nation's first forestry station in Rustic Canyon on of land donated by Santa Monica co-founder John P. Jones (also a U.S. Senator from Nevada), and

Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker Arcadia Bandini de Stearns Baker (1827–1912) was a wealthy Californio landowner and socialite of Los Angeles. She played an important role in the elite society of Los Angeles and, later, Santa Monica. She was married to two wealthy Anglo-Amer ...

. One of the station's projects was a study of the newly introduced

eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of over seven hundred species of flowering trees, shrubs or mallees in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalypteae, including '' Corymbia'', they are commonly known as euca ...

trees. Located one mile inland from

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

Santa Monica Bay Santa Monica Bay is a bight (geography), bight of the Pacific Ocean in Southern California, United States. Its boundaries are slightly ambiguous, but it is generally considered to be the part of the Pacific within an imaginary line drawn betwe ...

, Rustic Canyon was a good place for the new experimental forestry station. The station tested exotic trees to see if they were good for planting in California. The station started plantations, management studies, and grew plants for scientific and conservation studies. In 1893 the station turned over operation to the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

, which ran the station till 1923. Abbot Kinney published two books from the work done at the Old Santa Monica Forestry Station: a 1895 book tilted ''Eucalyptus'', B.R. Baumgardt & Co., , 334 pages, 2008) and in 1900 the book titled ''Forest and Water'', The Post publishing Company. The eucalyptus groves in Rustic Canyon, the site of the Old Santa Monica Forestry Station, still stand today. A state plaque was dedicated on August 18, 1971 next to the eucalyptus groves.

Marker

Marker on the site reads:californiahistoricallandmarks.com 'Old Santa Monica Forestry Station 840
/ref> *''In 1887, the State Board of Forestry established the nation's first experimental forestry station. Located in Rustic Canyon, the station tested exotic trees for planting in California, established plantations for management studies, and produced planting stock for scientific and conservation purposes. The station was operated by the Board of Forestry until 1893 and by the University of California until 1923.''

References

{{Los Angeles Pacific Palisades, Los Angeles California Historical Landmarks 1887 establishments in California

Marker

See also

References