Community Corner

One Day Only: Chatsworth Nature Preserve Opens to Public This Sunday

Visitors are invited to explore the wide expanse of flora and fauna.

The 1,300-acre Chatsworth Nature Preserve will once again open to the public for a single day on Sunday.

From 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., visitors can stop by and experience what the San Fernando Valley was like more than a century ago.

Enter at the Plummer Gate, one mile west of Topanga Canyon Boulevard.

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Chumash ceremonial elder Mati Waiya will lead the opening ceremony with greetings by Los Angeles Department of Water and Power Director Martin Adams and L.A. City Councilman Mitch Englander.

Docent-led hikes to and around the ecology are also planned.

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The event is organized by the Southwestern Herpetologist's Society.

Here's a few excerpts about the reserve from last year's article about the event.

Visitors can park along Valley Circle Boulevard near the Plummer Street gate, 23234 Valley Circle Blvd., West Hills. To see a map, click here.  No cars, bikes or pets are permitted into the Preserve. Wear good walking shoes when you hike in. Bring a sun hat, sunscreen, a camera, and your own water.  You can pack a picnic lunch and carry a blanket, but the Sierra Club cautions that everything brought in, must be carried out. And, of course, there is no smoking.

Dr. Rosemarie White of the Sierra Club says, "Take only memories, leave only footprints."

The reservoir opened in 1919 to provide irrigation water for what was then the largely agricultural West Valley. In 1969, DWP drained the reservoir for an enlargement project, but the basin was damaged in the 1971 Sylmar earthquake and never refilled.

Many people driving along Valley Circle Boulevard today don’t realize that the vast open property to the east behind a locked fence is a nature preserve. The large old dam remains in the southern portion. Last year, the Los Angeles City Fire Department installed an emergency landing area where their helicopters can refill water tanks to fight wild fires. The landing pad is on a flat area just north of an office complex at Roscoe Boulevard and Fallbrook Avenue in West Hills, near the city’s 911 call center.

According to the San Fernando Audubon Society, the Chatsworth Nature Preserve supports “a wealth of wildlife, including a number of species not seen elsewhere in the San Fernando Valley.  Among these are mule deer, bobcat, gray fox and mountain lion, as well as numerous species of birds, reptiles, amphibians, and plants for which it is better known.”

“The existing wildlife habitat functions include relatively open foraging area needed by many species of raptors, which are recognized as Species of Special Concern, by the California Department of Fish and Game.  These include Red-tailed Hawks, Ferruginous Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, White-tailed Kites, Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, and American Kestrels.  Owls undoubtedly use the area as well,” according to the Society's website.

The Audubon Society has conducted an annual Christmas bird count that has been used as a monitoring tool by scientists for many years. Other groups have monitored migration of Canada geese at the site, which is the only nature preserve in the City of Los Angeles.

The name was changed to Chatsworth Nature Preserve/Reservoir in early 1997 to emphasize the area’s value as a wildlife refuge, according to former City Councilman Hal Bernson.

But it was another two years before Bernson reached an agreement with then-DWP board President Rick Caruso to preserve the property as open space. In a March 1999 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Bernson recalled the modern concrete-lined basin as the spot where the Chumash long ago baked bricks in handmade kilns. "It is indeed what the city and the San Fernando Valley looked like 200 years ago," he said.

Over the years, there were many proposals to develop the site, including as a golf course, athletic fields, retail and a massive housing development. Bernson fought for two decades to preserve the property, which he said was the largest undeveloped tract remaining in the city.

According to City Council documents, the Army Corps of Engineers and state Fish and Game in 2006 approved the final wetland and riparian mitigation plan submitted by Republic Services. Those agencies had required the mitigation when they approved permits for expansion of the landfill. The plan will be implemented by Allied Remediation Services Inc., a subsidiary of Republic.

The Fiscal Impact Statement submitted to the City Council calls for Allied to pay the city $1 million, which will be divided between DWP as payment for the wetlands and Recreation and Parks as an endowment for ongoing maintenance. Interest from the $460,000 payment to Recreation and Parks will be used to pay the estimated $15,000 annual upkeep. The agreement also calls for a 5-year monitoring period and acceptance of the mitigation project.

-- Report written by Judith Daniels.


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