Effort to Buy Parkland in Landfill Deal Criticized : Environment: Group has options to purchase 2,700 acres around the county that may be traded for Elsmere Canyon, where a huge dump is proposed.

A prominent conservation group has purchased options to buy 2,700 acres of private land for the Angeles National Forest, but some environmental advocates have attacked the effort, saying the group is helping create a huge trash dump in Elsmere Canyon east of Santa Clarita.

Acting for the U.S. Forest Service, the Trust for Public Land has optioned seven tracts in the San Gabriel Mountains and foothills that could be traded for Forest Service land in Elsmere Canyon, where Los Angeles city and county want to develop a landfill. The city and county ultimately would pay the trust for the 2,700 acres and trade the land to the Forest Service for the canyon site.

Dotting the forest from Agua Dulce on the west to Mt. Baldy on the east, the seven private parcels range in elevation from about 1,000 to 7,000 feet above sea level and include important habitat and watershed areas.

However, dump foes say the San Francisco-based trust has betrayed its principles by promoting a deal that would bury Elsmere Canyon under 190 million tons of trash.

“They’re definitely facilitating the county’s agenda to turn Elsmere into a landfill,” complained Jill Klajic, mayor of Santa Clarita, where the city government has committed $250,000 to fighting plans for the Elsmere dump.

“The Trust for Public Land has done a lot of great things in other parts of the country,” said Pat Saletore, another landfill opponent. “I don’t know why they’re trying to facilitate this trade.”

But trust and Forest Service officials said the seven tracts are valuable in their own right and that efforts to obtain them will continue even if the dump plans are killed.

“We would be working to acquire that and convey it into public ownership regardless of the existence of Elsmere,” said Scott Parker, project manager for the trust. “The point is: Get the property in public ownership.”

Situated about two miles northeast of the junction of the Golden State and Antelope Valley freeways, Elsmere is a scenic canyon with dense stands of oak trees and high, palisade walls. Opponents say the trash dump would destroy a beautiful swath of public land and pollute ground water that is tapped by nearby public wells. City and county officials say a new dump is needed to replace fast-dwindling landfill space.

In addition to these environmental concerns, for the project to go forward the Forest Service would have to receive lands at least equal in financial and natural resource value in exchange for the 1,600 acres of Elsmere it would give up.

The city and county have a deal with BKK Corp., a private waste disposal firm, to develop the landfill for them. Either BKK or the city and county would put up money to buy the exchange lands, although ultimately, the expense would be borne by the city and county.

Environmental impact studies on the proposal are scheduled to be issued by the Forest Service for public comment before the end of the year.

Meanwhile, the trust, on behalf of the Forest Service, has been assembling a package of lands for the possible exchange.

Although a full appraisal will be required, Parker said the Elsmere land’s worth has been roughly estimated at $12 million--which trust officials believe is the approximate value of the tracts the trust has optioned. Parker and Ed Medina, lands officer for the Angeles National Forest, said terms of a land swap would be subject to change if the appraisals require it.

The trust--a nonprofit group that employs real estate, tax and environmental specialists--helps parks agencies nationwide obtain land by saving them the time and cost of arranging deals themselves. Typically, the group buys from a private seller for a below-market price, providing tax benefits to the seller. The trust then conveys the land to the government for a higher--but no more than full market--price, keeping the difference to cover its costs.

Medina said the trust has been a land finder for the Angeles National Forest since 1987. When the Elsmere dump proposal surfaced a couple of years later, the trust assumed the added task of assembling a package of exchange lands.

Forest Service officials first gave the trust a list of 288 private tracts surrounded or bounded by forest land. From that, the trust created a shorter list of willing sellers. Ultimately, options were purchased on seven tracts, ranging in size from five to 1,200 acres.

Parker said the seven parcels include:

* The 150-acre Annan Ranch tract near Agua Dulce, which is crossed by the Pacific Crest Trail and may have been inhabited by American Indians.

* About 240 acres--including chaparral, big cone spruce and white alder forest--near Magic Mountain (the peak, not the amusement park) east of the Antelope Valley Freeway and south of Soledad Campground.

* About 118 acres that includes a trailhead and oak forest along Gold Creek off Little Tujunga Canyon Road northwest of Sunland.

* Five acres of Southern spotted owl habitat that includes a spring and historic mine site near Mt. Gleason north of La Canada Flintridge.

* About 120 acres of the Newcomb Ranch bordering the San Gabriel Wilderness near the Chilao Visitor Center on Angeles Crest Highway.

* About 1,200 acres of Sawpit Canyon north of Monrovia, including streamside habitat for rare and endangered plants.

* About 800 acres along San Antonio Creek in San Antonio Canyon near Mt. Baldy.