SECOND OPINIONS : Some Rare Good News for Urban Wilderness : State parks purchase of 3,000 acres in the Santa Susanas is a welcome surprise. The proposed Santa Clarita Woodlands Park will be a rich enclave of natural beauty.

These are trying times for the environment. In California, the cities, the counties and the state are struggling with budgetary shortfalls and are reluctant to spend any money on “frivolities” such as parks. For the first time ever, the House of Representatives has refused to fund further expansion of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. But we are mighty park-poor: We have fewer parks per person in the Los Angeles area than any large city in the country. There is a crying need for parks--refuges from the cold geometry of office buildings and the screech of traffic. Neighborhood parks are fine up to a point: We can lie on the lawn, feed the ducks or watch a Little League game. But to really escape the city we need a touch of wildness, a sense of space, a walk with nature. The state parks in the Santa Monica Mountains fill this need to a large extent, though Point Mugu State Park is near Oxnard--a long jump away.

So there was surprise and elation when it was learned in April that the California Parks and Recreation Department, with the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy as intermediary, was buying 3,000 acres in the Santa Susana Mountains from Chevron Corp. Surprise because a state parks study five years ago had recommended acquisition, but nothing seemed to be happening. Elation because this was the grand prize. Together with land already set aside, this would make up more than half of the projected 6,000-acre Santa Clarita Woodlands Park. And what land! A genuine wilderness with incredible diversity. It includes mixed evergreen and hardwood forests, year-round creeks, 25-foot waterfalls, coastal sage scrub, grasslands. In the upper reaches of the canyons are big-cone Douglas fir and canyon oaks, surprising at this low 3,000-foot altitude. There are stands of big-leaf maple, flowering ash and California bay. California walnut, ordinarily seen as scattered individuals, occurs as dense forests. The mixture of vegetation types is unusual, blending Northern and Southern California woodlands.

The Santa Susana Mountains are taller than the Santa Monicas and are farther inland so they are considerably cooler. Above 2,500 feet, a light snow falls several times each winter and never fails to astonish a viewer looking north from the San Fernando Valley. One year, some of us were lucky enough to walk a trail through the woods when snow covered the ground and shrubs. It was a wild, magical day; we felt as if we were in Yosemite in early spring.

The woodlands are at the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley west of the Golden State freeway, just north of the interchange with the Antelope Valley freeway and are part of the city of Santa Clarita. Chevron owned the land for many years and most of the oil has been recovered. The fire problem so common to Southern California is less serious here. There is almost no chaparral, an intensely hot-burning fuel, so the comparatively cool-burning understory will not kill the trees. The state parks study says most of these forests “are practically fireproof.” The high ridges--over 3,000 feet--present spectacular vistas. On a clear day a full-circle view will include Mt. Pinos, Mt. Baldy, skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles, the western Santa Monica Mountains, the Pacific Ocean and the Channel Islands.

In spring and early summer, wildflowers brighten the canyons. Deer, bobcats, long-tailed weasels, gray foxes and raccoons are fairly common. Chipmunks, absent from our familiar Santa Monicas, indicate a strong relationship to the San Gabriels. Birds are abundant, from hummingbirds to owls and hawks. Golden eagles are seen on occasion.

The existence, at this late date, of so rich an enclave of natural beauty close to a sprawling metropolis is hard to believe. It could easily have become a vast real estate development. We are grateful to those who had the vision to see the surpassing value of this place as a public woodland refuge and worked so hard for many years to make it a reality. We look forward to the time when the balance of this urban wilderness northwest of the Chevron land can be acquired to complete the unique Santa Clarita Woodlands State Park.