The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • 165

1 iflliF i.t lL. A.lf A LONELY LOOKOUT The U.S Forest Service Lookout Tower northeost of Costoic is 4,020 feet obove sea level and gives a fire observer a tremendous view of the Channel Islands and the Mojave Desert. Times Photos by Ken Lubas Political Pace Quickens for New IMIiiillpliipllirtiBiSp illlili Majority Floor Leader lcs3ngeksCimcS PART VII THURSDAY, AUGUST 1, 1974 November gubernatorial election. He said he envisions "an historic 'hundred days' in California politics during which Brown, Assembly Speaker Leo McCarthy and Democratic leaders in the Senate would enact an enormous amount of legislation to help the state recover from the years of stagnation under Ronald Reagan." Berman, appointed by newly elected Speaker McCarthy, is not only the first freshman to be named majority leader, but also is one of the youngest members to occupy the key post. In vm mwm Valley HER CATBIRD SEAT Mrs.

Mary Stahl takes a breather from her lookout duties, a seven-days-a-week job from May to November. i NON-PARENTS DAY Couple Intend to Cross-Mountain Road Link Will Be Argued Again Today State Recreation Official Expected to Back Opposition; Lorenzen and Traffic Chief to Explain Need of Project BY IRV BURLEIGH Times Staff Writer TOWER LIFE Fire Spotter Enjoys Room With a View BY KENNETH LUBAS Times StaH Writer On a clear morning Mrs. Mary Stahl can look out over the steam rising from her first cup of coffee and see the Channel Islands to the west and a thunderstorm over the Mojave to the east without leaving the table. She has a tremendous view by any standard but chances are she will give the spots only a passing glance unless something catches her eye. The something would be a puff of smoke.

Mrs. Stahl, 59, a widow, mans the Warm Springs Lookout Tower for the U.S. Forest Service northeast of Castaic. Mrs. Stahl, the daughter of a railroad man who quit his job in Kansas to look for gold in New Mexico, said it isn't at all odd that she would en-joy a life away from the rush of city living six months out of each year.

"As a child," she said, "I spent much of my time in areas where neighbors might not be seen for days. I enjoy being alone. One thing for sure, if you can't stand yourself, you couldn't live in one of these places." But, although geographically isolated, Mrs. Stahl isn't alone. She is in constant radio contact with other Forest Service personnel as well as with contractors who need to know brush fire conditions which might, curtail their operations.

From 9:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. seven days a week she scans the horizon, checks her( miniature weather station, catalogs information and exchanges data relative to fire conditions in the Angeles Forest with Forest Service personnel. Because of her vantage point at the elevation, she often alerts the county to fires within its boundaries. The tower, built in 1934, has been Mrs.

Stahl's second home for nine years. She spends May through November in her 15 15-foot wood, steel and glass perch and the rest of the year at her residence in Granada Hills. During her time away from the Flease Turn to Page 6, Col. 1 Old Train Depot lo Be Moved fo Santa Susana Park SIMI VALLEY The Santa Susana train depot, built 71 years ago by Southern Pacific Railroad and closed in June, will be moved from its site near Los Angeles Ave. to a new permanent home at Santa Susana Park, 6503 Katherine Road.

Simi Valley Recreation Park District manager Walt Rauhut announced the move, to take place before Sept. 1, following receipt of word this week that Southern Pacific Railroad would donate the depot to the district. Rauhut said the two-story structure will serve as a recreation center as well as historical landmark. Cost of moving the structure and preparing it for occupany was estimated at $25,000. In addition to serving recreation needs, Rauhut said thought is being given to use of an upstairs apartment, formerly used by station masters, as living quarters for a park caretaker.

"We felt that placement of the depot at Santa Susana Park would be appropriate," Rauhut said, "because we could locate the structure adjacent to Southern Pacific Railroad tracks. Another factor is the fact that the park is the oldest in the city." Please Turn to Tage 12, Col 1 Remain 'Childfree' Assembly BY MARTHA L. WILLMAN Times StaH Writer SHERMAN OAKS Life for 33-year-old Howard Berman has suddenly become a series of ringing telephones, quickly called meetings, political strategy conferences and across-state -plane trips. The pace of the freshman assemblyman's routine was increased four fold last month when he was appointed to the key post of Assembly majority floor leader. And he is attacking his new role with the gusto of his youth a liberal Democrat rallying his party's forces in an election year deeply enmeshed in Watergate.

Berman. slightly built and sandy haired, thrives on action. Even though he is facing his first campaign as an incumbent, he already is working to assist Democratic challengers in their campaigns and considers every Republican incumbent fair game. Berman said he will campaign for others "to insure the Democrats retain and increase the size of their majority in the Assembly." He considers the Valley, particularly, a prime target. "No Republican in the Valley has a safe seat," he declared.

And he views his role of party whip as the opportunity to initiate a liberal legislative program under the leadership of Edmund G. Brown Jr. who he confidently predicts will win the Stickleback: portation, have failed. State Department of Fish and Game personnel will check on the success of a third eradication effort this Friday, and at the same time they will investigate reports placing the frog in a stream above Castaic Lake. Why the big deal over the potential extinction of the stickleback? It certainly isn't because of its sensuality even though studies of its elaborate mating ritual have been made in European laboratories.

The reason, according to a marine biologist, is important. The fish is representative of the richness and diversity of a healthy, natural eco 'tvtwu j' 8 Already, he is used to success. He won his seat two years ago by a comfortable margin in a political upset over Charles Conrad, the 26-year Republican incumbent. Before election, he was a labor lawyer primarily serving union members and public employes, president of the California Federation of Young Democrats and, in 1968, co-chairman with Edmund G. Brown Jr.

of Young Citizens for Eugene McCarthy. During his first term in office, Berman championed the preservation of the Santa Monica Mountains and authored bills to reduce class size in public schools and eliminate the insurance company homeoffice tax deduction. He considers his appointment as an aid to further his goals in the Assembly. "I am in a better position now to help my constituents and to be successful on issues they care most about," he said. He said his main goal as party 'whip is to prove, through legislative action, that the California Legislature is not a group of crooked, self-seeking politicians who do nothing for the people.

I want to show that it is a responsive body and to further an image change based on action." At the top of Berman's list of legislative priorities is the reorganization of school financing which, he Please Turn to Page 9, Col. 1 there still has to be a way to get to them." Taylor backed Lorenzen when he told the city Traffic Commission recently that without the road the mountain park would become "an isolated island." "I can't understand a park being built without roads," said Taylor "From the Valley you have to go clear around the mountain and through the mountain passes to get there." City planner Frank Eberhard said the "primary reason" the Planning Department wants the road "is to provide access to the park. It would be a scenic controlled road." Councilman Marvin Braude, who represents the area involved, is opposed to a cross-mountain roadway but probably would not oppose extension of Reseda Blvd. from where it deadends in the Tarzana hillsides to Mulholland Drive. Miss Cindy Miscikowski, a Braude aide, said the cross-mountain road is no longer needed because housing subdivisions it was to serve will never be built.

Please Turn to Page 7, Col. 1 "If the stickleback is allowed to die out," Sasaki said, "it will be another organism allowed to disappear from earth which cannot be replaced. If we continue to lose species after species we don't know how long it will be before we ourselves will be affected." Sasaki said that since formatin of the recovery team in the spring of 1973, attempts to transplant the sticklebacks have been carried out without apparent success in three areas: San Felipe Creek in San Diego County, Piru Pond in the Angeles National Forest, and the West Fork of Please Turn to Page 8, Coll BY PAT B. ANDERSON Timet StaH Writer VAN NUYS Phyllis and Dave Nickel believe they would make pretty good parents. They enjoy having children around them as they teach during the day, visit with neighborhood youngsters and spend holidays and birthdays with nieces and nephews.

But they have chosen to be childless "child-free" is the term they prefer. And although they do not enjoy explaining why they have chosen not to have children to everyone they meet who thinks that having children is the primary purpose for marriage, the Nickels discussed the childless marriage during a living-room interview. All the upholstery in the room is white and a hand-carved chess set accents the glass-topped coffee table furniture that might not be appropriate in a home where toddlers play. As 'the Southern California Non-Parents of the Year, the Nickels will help begin a Valley chapter of the National Organization for Non-Parents (NON) on Saturday at 8 p.m. at 14600 Sati-coy St.

"Prospective members including parents and other Valley residents can come to the NON or-. ganization meeting to learn how we support child-free life-styles," Nickel said. NON also is sponsoring a Non-Parent's Day today to honor people who are not eligible for either The controversy over the cross-mountain highway to link Reseda Blvd. in Tarzana and Sunset Blvd. in Pacific Palisades is set for another verbal round today before the city Recreation and Park Commission.

Richard Felty, assistant deputy director of the state Department of Parks and Recreation, is expected to support the position of Brentwood-Pacific Palisades residents who oppose the roadway that would bisect the Santa Monica Mountains state park. Councilman Donald Lorenzen and S. S. Taylor, city traffic engineer, says they also will attend the 9:30 a.m. hearing to explain why the road is needed to provide Valley access to the park and beach areas.

Lorenzen argues that there is no cross-mountain road for nearly nine miles between the San Diego Freeway and Topanga Canyon Blvd. for a half-million West Valley residents when they need to travel to West Side areas. As for the large and developing mountain state park above Pacific Palisades, Lorenzen said, "We may buy a lot of mountain parks but HONORED PAIR Phyllis and Dave Nickel, Southern California Non-Parents of Year. Times photo Mother's Day or Father's Day celebrations. Nickel said that he and his wife, both teachers, were nominated for the title by NON because of their interest in the group's goals.

"We like children we really do but' we have chosen not to have children of our own." Mrs. Nickel said. She explained that working with children is a lifetime career for both herself and her husband and they feel their own lives and the Please Turn to Page 4, Col. 1 Unloved, but Wanted Unarmored It's one thing to set out to save an endangered species and another to accomplish it. Take the unarmored threespine stickleback which is making its last stand in, of all places, the Santa Clara River Basin.

Here's a fish that when full grown is two to three inches long, isn't fit to eat and is even shunned by other fish, unless it's another stickleback, of course. The river basin in which it survives is little more than a rivulet during the summer yet tan carry more than 15 million gallons of water a minute during heavy storms. Threespine Should what little water now in the basin become polluted, the stickleback will join the ranks of the dinosaur. While this threat spawned dramatic yet apparently unsuccessful efforts to preserve the life of the near extinct fish, in the spring of 1973 a new threat has emerged, the African clawed frog. The frog, first introduced into this country a3 a medium in testing pregnancies, preys on anything while nothing preys on it, possibly because of an obnoxious mucus on its skin.

Two attempts to wipe out the invader, now banned by law from im system. If the fish disappears its passing will go unnoticed by all but those immediately involved in its struggle for survival. However the biologist noted, at the present rate, one species of life a year is becoming extinct because of human activities. If nothing more the unarmored threespine stickleback focuses on the question of how long this trend can continue before man himself is threatened. Ken Sasaki, state Department of Fish and Game fishery biologist and member of Unarmored Threespine Stickleback Recovery Team, says essentially the same thing..