Summer is in full swing, and that means two things in Malibu:

1. Lawyers!! They're battling against the opening of a new accessway on Carbon Beach, a new one on Malibu Rd., and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy's newly-approved plan to create public campsites. (Just my top three litigation highlights.)

Print out the news coverage for a terrific beach read--with all the pettiness of a Gossip Girl novel and the procedural detail of a Bob Woodward exposé. Here's a sample nugget: the Carbon accessway can't be opened to the public just yet, since the homeowner who dedicated the easement 25 years ago has since built a fence, a generator, a 9-ft. wall, and a lighting system inside its boundaries.

2. The return of the Los Angeles Urban Rangers' Malibu Public Beaches Safaris!!--if you'd like to know how to find and use a public beach in Malibu legally and safely. Skills-enhancing activities include sign watching, trailblazing the public-private boundary, a no-kill hunt for accessways, and a public easement potluck. (Full disclosure: I have a doppelganger called Ranger Jenny).

2009 summer safari dates:

SUN Aug 2, 11:00am-2:30pm (east Malibu)
SUN Aug 16, 9:00am-12:30pm (east)
SAT Aug 22, 3:00pm-6:30pm (east)
SUN Aug 23, 4:00pm-7:30pm (west)

To sign up, e-mail info@laurbanrangers.org w/name, # of people, and preferred date.

Or for the do-it-yourselfers among you, download the "Malibu Public Beaches" guide here. And click here for the CA Coastal Commission maps of the dry-sand easements on Carbon and Broad Beaches. (Beware of Broad, however, where four years of erosion has all but erased the public tidelands and has thrown the dry-sand easements into the adjacent gardens and yards.)