Panel OKs Enhancement of Wildlife Habitat

After months of haggling with environmentalists, the Los Angeles Recreation and Parks Commission on Friday approved a plan to improve the wildlife area in the Sepulveda Basin with thousands of trees and a man-made lake.

The five-member commission unanimously approved the enhancement of a 60-acre plot of undeveloped land, which has been used for some years as a wildlife haven, north of Burbank Boulevard and west of the San Diego Freeway.

Environmentlists hope to lure more birds to the wildlife area by planting 7,500 trees and shrubs, and digging an 11-acre pond, which will have a one-acre island. Undeveloped natural grasslands would be replaced with sage and oak trees to create a wetlands habitat bordered by a hiking path.

The commission also agreed to construct a landscaped buffer area between the wildlife zone and the developed area of the basin, which includes golf courses and the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant.

Compensation for Loss

Improvement of the wildlife area is intended to compensate for the loss of 160 acres of basin land being developed into the new Bull Creek Park, with a lake, theater and parking lots.

In a related action, the commission delayed consideration of a report on development of Bull Creek Park until Nov. 13. Sierra Club leaders have argued that park visitors would be endangered by airplanes from nearby Van Nuys Airport. A flight path heavily used by planes from the airport passes above the basin.

Much of the area in which the park is planned has been leased to corn farmers by the Army Corps of Engineers, which owns the basin and leases most of it to the city for parkland. The cornfields provided forage for an estimated 800 to 1,000 Canada geese that spend the winter in the Valley, said Jill Swift of the Sierra Club.

With that land lost to agriculture, the corps sought to find another place for the birds to eat.

Members of the Sierra Club had urged the city and the Corps of Engineers to set aside 120 acres as a foraging site for the geese, but their request was denied, at least for the time being.

The commission approved the 60-acre plan only hours after the Corps of Engineers said it would look for another 60 acres in the basin to serve as a foraging site for geese.

Endangering Aircraft

Finding more land will be complicated, the corps said, because Van Nuys Airport officials and the Federal Aviation Administration are worried about increasing the number of geese, which are large enough to endanger aircraft, in the airport’s flight path.

Sierra Club attorney Ken Adler called the commission’s action “incomplete,” because the club believes the geese need 120 acres of forage.

Discussions over the land-use plan began in July, Adler said, and the city had earlier agreed to provide the added 60 acres. “However, Army Corps of Engineers regulations prevented firm commitment language in the final plan,” Adler said, and the city had to settle for a promise instead of a guarantee.

“We wanted a firm commitment and not a commitment to seek,” he said.

The plan must be approved by the Corps of Engineers and the California Department of Fish and Game before state funds are released to construct the wildlife habitat.

The agencies’ approval is expected to be routine, said Adler, who estimated the cost of the project at about $500,000.

Work could begin on the project sometime this fall or winter, said Sheila Murphy, a landscape architect for the corps. Completion is expected by 1989.