The Santa Monica Mountains Task Force and Malibu environmentalists persuaded the Coastal Commission at their Aug. 9 meeting to override a staff recommendation for approval and, instead, vote unanimously to deny approval of the Forge Lodge Hotel adjacent to Solstice Creek in Malibu.

photo by Tom Politeo Solstice Creek in Malibu supports a well-developed riparian forest of White Alder, sycamore, and Coast Live Oak. Renovations to the creek, already underway, include the removal of a few small dams and a redesign of two culverts.

Solstice Creek is a year-round stream that drops 2,800 feet in three miles. The National Park Service owns about 90 percent of the creek.

The creek is being retrofitted so that it can once again accommodate a spawning run of the endangered southern steelhead, a fish that once spawned in the stream.

Southern steelhead stopped spawning in Solstice Creek when the Pacific Coast Highway was widened in 1947.

In spite of the $2-3 million being spent to restore steelhead to Solstice Creek and the fact that there was already a very successful restaurant on the property, the City of Malibu ignored the testimony of the National Park Service and the Sierra Club.

The Malibu Local Coastal Plan and the city's own General Plan require a 100-foot setback from the outer edge of the riparian woodland. The city exempted the hotel from this requirement.

Denial by the Coastal Commission effectively killed the approval, but the Sierra Club will still challenge the approval in court.

The southern steelhead is close to extinction because, time and again, decision-makers have prioritized the human need to fill, channelize, dam, and pollute our coastal streams, rather than recognizing the need of the steelhead for clear, unchannelized streams in which to spawn. Perhaps last week's Coastal Commission decision will be the beginning of the reversal of that trend.