Parks Agency Gets 60-Acre Gift From a ‘Secret Donor’ : Santa Monicas: The mystery benefactor is believed to be film star Jack Nicholson. The undeveloped land is in the hills above Studio City.

The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy has received a gift of 60 acres of parkland in the hills above Studio City from a donor who agency officials refused to name, but who sources familiar with the transaction said was film star Jack Nicholson.

In an announcement late Wednesday, conservancy officials said an “anonymous donor” had made a gift of the land--which they described as “the most significant stretch of undeveloped ridgeline” between Mulholland Drive and Ventura Boulevard east of the San Diego Freeway.

Nicholson’s business manager declined comment when asked the source of the gift.

“All I can say is it was an anonymous donation by a generous benefactor,” conservancy Executive Director Joseph T. Edmiston said.

But Turnley Walker, chairman of the Longridge/Alomar Neighborhood Committee, which is active in preservation efforts in the area, said the mystery donor was Nicholson, as did a second source familiar with the deal.

Officials said the parcel, which includes frontage on the north side of Mulholland Drive and the west side of Coldwater Canyon Boulevard, features an extensive native oak woodland and is habitat for deer.

It borders other tracts the conservancy has purchased or is trying to acquire in a continuing effort to preserve a continuous swath of wild-land habitat linking Griffith Park on the east to Topanga State Park on the west.

John A. Diaz, land acquisition chief for the conservancy, said a four-lot subdivision had been approved for the property, but that it “will now be available for all of the public to enjoy for all time.”

“This is an extremely important piece of open space on Mulholland that the conservancy and all persons interested in preserving the still-remaining magnificent vistas from Mulholland have long sought,” said Jerome C. Daniel, chairman of the conservancy’s policy-making board.

In refusing to name the benefactor, conservancy officials released an attorney general’s opinion stating that they could treat the identity as “official information . . . acquired in confidence by a public employee.”

“However, we note that the privilege is not absolute and a court may well conclude that disclosure of such information is in the best interests of the public,” the opinion said.

Word of Nicholson’s involvement will only enhance the conservancy’s budding reputation as park agency to the stars. A state parks agency that acquires land in the Santa Monicas and neighboring ranges, including the Simi Hills and Santa Susana Mountains, the conservancy announced in November that entertainer Barbra Streisand was giving the agency her Malibu estate for use as an environmental research center.

Previously, actors Warren Beatty and Peter Strauss and singer-songwriter Don Henley, formerly of the Eagles, had aided conservancy acquisition projects. The agency last month even got a film star on its board, when Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan named Ed Begley Jr. to represent the city on the eight-member panel.