Slice of Nature Preserved : Urban Oasis Serves as Sanctuary for Birds

It is an oasis, a thick, overgrown plot of land that is flanked by two freeways and a string of industrial parks.

It is also a refuge for thousands of birds that pause to feed, rest and nest on their migratory flights north and south.

And it is a reminder to all who walk in the Whittier Narrows Wildlife Sanctuary of a Southern California that long since has vanished in the blur of development.

Ten years ago, a coalition of environmental and nature groups successfully battled Los Angeles County to preserve a chunk of the Whittier Narrows wetlands and bush along the San Gabriel River.

Today, nearly 50,000 people, many of them schoolchildren, visit the 277-acre sanctuary and its nature center each year. What they discover is one of the last habitats of its kind in the region.

Plants, small animals and birds found only in low-lying river basins flourish in the sanctuary sandwiched between Pico Rivera and South El Monte in county territory.

It was common years ago to spot a herd of mule deer or a bobcat in the sanctuary. But no more.

Freeways, fences and flood control channels now prevent larger animals from reaching the preserve. These days, squirrels, rabbits and other small creatures have the run of the sanctuary.

Endangered Species

But they share it with the birds--tens of thousands of birds that flock to the sanctuary’s four lakes. About 270 species have been identified in the habitat, including several rare and endangered species.

Naturalists say the importance of Whittier Narrows is its location.

“Man needs some raw nature around to remind him of where he has come from,” said Jake Muller, president of the Whittier chapter of the National Audubon Society.

Bettie Pellett, treasurer of the Whittier Narrows Nature Center, believes that the sanctuary offers something else.

“Solitude, a chance to recharge yourself away from the telephone, the microwave oven and traffic,” said the retired education consultant. “Take a walk there, and you feel like you’re miles from civilization.”

Sort of.

In the distance, the steady hum of traffic on the Pomona and San Gabriel River freeways can be heard from almost every clearing. Against an often smoggy backdrop, dozens of high-voltage lines crisscross the fenced sanctuary.

Careless visitors leave their mark in the form of beverage cans and candy wrappers.

But Bill Burrall, chairman of a Whittier Narrows support group that leads nature walks for schoolchildren, believes that the wear and tear on the sanctuary is the trade-off for trying to maintain a wildlife habitat in a heavily urbanized region.

The alternative, he said, is to pave it over and “remember it all in pictures and books.”

To carve out a permanent niche for wildlife, the Audubon Society in 1939 purchased about 100 acres of land on the west bank of the San Gabriel River and established a sanctuary.

Rapid development downstream, however, prompted the Army Corps of Engineers in the 1950s to build the Whittier Narrows Dam, and the basin behind the dam became a 1,000-acre playground known today as the Whittier Narrows Recreation Area.

The federal government owned the land, but it was managed by the county’s Department of Parks and Recreation, which in 1970 also acquired control of the Audubon wildlife sanctuary.

Four years later, conservationists filed a lawsuit after the county announced plans to dredge one of the basin’s lakes. It was settled out of court when the county and the Corps of Engineers agreed to double the size of the wildlife sanctuary south of Durfee and add to it three lakes in exchange for the new fishing hole near Legg Lake.

Short of Funds

Today, the county spends nearly $300,000 a year to operate Whittier Narrows.

Whittier Narrows’ annual share from the county is about $73,200, enough to employ a full-time county ranger and a maintenance man and to make minor repairs to the nature center, said Joe Prather, chief planner for the county’s Parks and Recreation Department.

Beyond that, Ranger Dean Harvey, a 14-year veteran of Whittier Narrows, must make do with volunteers and private donations.

Still, it’s not enough, Harvey said. What is needed, he said, is a new nature center, which would cost about $1 million.

Harvey’s office is dark and musty. He said he would gladly swap his cozy confines for a shiny new nature center. But there’s a hitch--money.

The sanctuary’s support group, Whittier Narrows Nature Center Associates, is strapped for funds, and state and federal budget cuts have made other assistance hard to obtain.

It is in the schoolchildren’s eyes that Harvey sees the value of his work.

They come by the busloads, many from the inner city where the great outdoors is a patch of grass next to an asphalt playground.

“To them, this place is a jungle,” said Harvey, standing near one of the trail heads leading into the sanctuary.

“This should always remain,” he said, “so our kids and our kids’ kids will have a place to walk in the wilds.”