Parma Park, almost 200 acres of open space in Santa Barbara’s foothills, is open again after an extensive renovation project for its existing trails, and is now home to three new ones. 

The new Historic Olive Grove Loop and Plateau Trail and renovated Coyote Creek Trail add 3 miles to the trail network. The Plateau Trail is easily accessible through the El Cielito or South Mountain Drive entrances, while the other two can be found deeper into the park.

In addition to improving trails, the Parma Park Sustainable Trails Project aimed to restore the natural habitat by removing non-native plants in favor of native grass and scrubland. 

“You can really get a good look at what our natural communities and ecosystems and frontcountry have to offer all within this park,” said Monique O’Conner, the city’s open space planner. “Parma Park has a lot of offer in a small space and you can really make of it what you want.”

Parma Park as we know it dates back to 1973, when John and Harold Parma donated the land their father Giovanni Parma used to raise cattle and grow olives to the city. 

Prior to these renovations, many of the trails existing in the park were old cattle or maintenance roads.

Significant amounts of work went into planning upgrades to those old trails that would be sustainable, keeping in mind drainage and erosion concerns that would increase need for future repairs, according to the city.

Trail Talk

“The Sustainable Trails Project was a full makeover of the Parma Park trails system,” O’Conner said. 

The basic footprint of each trail hasn’t really changed, but all previously existing trails were revived with minor re-routing and some decommissioned areas. 

However, one trail needed more than a minor makeover. 

The Coyote Creek Trail made up 0.7 miles of the trail system before the Tea Fire in 2008. According to O’Conner, as the park started to regrow after the damage, the trail became overgrown and was inaccessible due to lack of maintenance. It is now reopened for visitors.

To honor the history of the park, the Parks Department also added the Historic Olive Grove Loop. 

“It’s a little callout to what the land was used for before it was deeded over to the city,” O’Conner said. 

Another more subtle callout are the directional signs, now with mileage included, that mark trail routes throughout the park. 

“Those are all made from olive wood that was recycled from the site that burned during the Tea Fire,” O’Conner said. 

Finally, the Plateau Trail was added in a space that, while not a burn scar, needed plenty of restoration.

Habitat Restoration

O’Conner described native restoration efforts in the park as twofold. They started with the trails themselves, then moved on to the land. 

“In spaces where we decommissioned old trails or did realignment, we…. tried to undo the compaction that was there from the existing trail and seeded with native species that were either collected from Parma Park itself or from within the Sycamore Canyon watershed,” she said. 

O’Conner told Noozhawk that the next level of active restoration specifically took place in the area around the Plateau Trail, by the previously underutilized El Cielito entrance. 

“That part of the park before this restoration site was really just non-native grassland,” O’Conner said. “It wasn’t an exciting part of the park to walk through – not really a great habitat for the wildlife that utilize Parma – so that was a good spot for us to take those efforts a little bit further.”

With funding from the Coastal Conservancy and the Parma Park Trust, the Parks Department was able to plant about 4 acres of native grasses around the Plateau Trail, creating a beautiful open space in the most accessible area of the park.

O’Conner told Noozhawk that part of her goal was to make more of the trail system useable to folks with less mobility. It was an added bonus to be able to showcase native plant species in that area. 

“I know its a bit of a spaghetti bowl of trails out there, but it’s a fun one,” she. “I’m really excited for folks to get out there and explore these new trails.”

The project started in April 2023 and the city hosted a reopening celebration and guided hike last week.