California’s Santa Monica Mountains | Wikimedia Commons
In 1961, Martin was among the organizers of the first Southern California chapter of the California Native Plant Society, and later became a director of the Nature Conservancy and joined the board of the Topanga-Las Virgenes Resource Conservation District. The Los Angeles Times reported that in 1972, Martin helped create a network of state and federal park sites covering 56,000 acres, which stretched from the Hollywood Bowl west toward Ventura County and Mugu Rock. Martin had moved to Agoura’s Malibu Lake in 1966 after marrying actor Strother Martin.
The Times reported that she became increasingly involved in environmental meetings and parkland studies while her husband was working in the film industry. Her work also brought her into the process of establishing protected land in the Santa Monica Mountains. Her work was not limited to simply opposing development, as the wider conservation system involved state and federal agencies that were acquiring land and managing it as parks and recreation areas. By the late 1980s, the Santa Monica Mountains already contained a patchwork of protected sites under different jurisdictions.
The overlook dedication was not the creation of the 56,000-acre park network, since that work had already begun years earlier. The Times reported that officials credited Martin with having information about the Santa Monica Mountains and the people connected to them when the federal recreation area was being established.
One official called her the “John Muir of the Santa Monicas,” while another said her work had helped preserve open hillsides that otherwise might have been developed. Instead, the ceremony recognized Martin’s contribution to the conservation movement and her knowledge of the mountains.