Save Elephant Hill is deeply committed to land justice and conservation. We work with residents, organizational allies and government agencies at all levels to acquire and permanently protect additional lands on Elephant Hill, restore its critical habitat, make essential conservation-focused improvements, and ensure public access for respite, relaxation and outdoor recreation.
Here's a look at our current focus areas and opportunities:
El Sereno has suffered the consequences of ‘redlining’ and a legacy of biased planning decisions by government and civil society, dating back to the early 20th century. Save Elephant Hill works proactively to raise awareness and organize residents, nonprofits, agencies and elected officials to reverse the decades of neglect and lack of investment in Elephant Hill. Our work involves a range of strategies to bring equitable investments and environmental protections to Elephant Hill. We also rely on strategic partnerships to advance policy solutions and leverage resources to address pervasive problems such as unauthorized off roading, removal of protected trees and shrubs, unpermitted development and construction.
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In late 2025, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy funded Save Elephant Hill to advance community-centered conservation and ensure readiness for additional land acquisitions on Elephant Hill. The centerpiece of this project is development of a toolkit that describes and illustrates the local community’s aspirations for the future of Elephant Hill, conveying a shared vision for expanding and activating its public lands. The toolkit will feature an acquisition strategy and phased implementation plan, and include typical conservation planning components such as public access, trails, programming areas, habitat restoration and stormwater management. In order to assemble and illustrate the community’s vision, we will connect and dialogue with residents and organizational stakeholders. In elevating outreach, engagement and communications, we will also determine the most effective means to convey the community’s vision to diverse private property owners on Elephant Hill as well as information about conservation-focused real estate practices and opportunities for willing sellers. Please check back for opportunities to participate in this project in person and via this website.
Unauthorized off-roading used to be an occasional problem on Elephant Hill. However, after the COVID lockdowns went into effect, off-roading exploded into a 24/7 crisis. Off-roaders began using social media to promote Elephant Hill as a local, no-cost space to drive their vehicles. Off-roading now endangers this iconic and biologically sensitive green space. Trucks, 4x4s, ATVs, motorcycles, and other motorized vehicles threaten Elephant Hill’s environment, community health, and safety. Save Elephant Hill has partnered with MRCA on off-roading education and other efforts to mitigate this destructive activity on Elephant Hill.
Much of LA County is also covered in impermeable surfaces, such as rooftops and roads, where water cannot soak into the ground. These surfaces are disproportionately located in neighborhoods that have not historically received their fair share of investment and lack greenery. When water hits these surfaces, it runs off, often collecting trash and pollutants that flow, untreated, into the region’s rivers, lakes, streams, and the Pacific Ocean.
Residents living in the neighborhoods surrounding Elephant Hill are all too familiar with the muddy impact of the stormwater runoff that brings water, soil, and debris onto nearby backyards and streets, picking up toxins and pollutants along the way, then entering into storm drains. The Elephant Hill Stormwater Initiative seeks to identify solutions to capture this precious rainwater that falls onto the open space area during the rainy season and activates Elephant Hill’s intermittent, natural spring.
Save Elephant Hill and North East Trees have partnered to explore the stormwater situation on MRCA’s Elephant Hill Open Space Area and ensure community representation and input into a stormwater improvement feasibility study underway by engineers at Paradigm Environmental, funded by the LA County Safe Clean Water Program (SCWP).
"Save Elephant Hill has been a powerful ally in protecting open space and ensuring communities in Northeast Los Angeles have access to nature. Pacoima Beautiful deeply values their leadership in expanding conservation efforts that center both people and habitat. Their work reminds us that environmental justice and land conservation go hand in hand"
— Veronica Padilla-Campos, Executive Director, Pacoima Beautiful
