PARK WATCH : Beauty and Bucks

Mounting evidence suggests a link between the lack of parkland and urban crime. Los Angeles remains one of the most “under-parked� urban areas in the nation. Thus the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreational Area is of even greater importance than its 66,000 acres of parkland might suggest.

Created by Congress in 1978, the park includes the Santa Monica Mountains and the Simi Hills, from Griffith Park in Los Angeles to Point Magu State Park in Ventura County. The area remains a patchwork of public and private parcels, wilderness and developed areas. The stunning mountains and meadows are home to a wealth of wildlife and flora and each year are visited by countless hikers and nature enthusiasts.

Backers intended the park to ultimately include key parcels, still in private hands, that would complete hiking trails and wildlife corridors linking public holdings. But after years of steady federal funding for park purchases, congressional interest appears to be flagging.

Declining property values mean that park officials can make do with less money than they once could. But less money is not no money. And no money was what the Clinton Administration had originally budgeted for the park last year; Congress eventually allocated $ 4 million.

Officials of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the state acquisition agency, have taken deserved heat lately for their interest in land far from the Santa Monicas. But for Congress to now turn a deaf ear to park officials punishes all who use and value this magnificent resource.