Restored to Wild

For years the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve has been a great bird hangout, a retreat of sorts for the winged creatures.

On any given day the area swarms with turkey vultures, mallards, double-crested cormorants and song sparrows.

Even golden eagles, rarely spotted in these parts, have been known to cruise the basin’s wildlife reserve.

Thing is, this bird-watcher’s haven wasn’t all that great for humans until the reserve’s space more than doubled--to 225 acres--and got a $3.6-million face lift that took about a year to complete.

Just this week, the new and improved Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve officially opened to the public, and officials in the city Department of Recreation and Parks are celebrating.

“This is very exciting, it took about four years of planning,” said Steve Moe of the parks department. “The wildlife area really needed this.”

Half of the project’s funding came from Proposition A, a 1992 voter-approved bond measure to develop parks and open space. The rest was provided by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The expansion includes formal viewing areas with informational signs, three pedestrian bridges, a network of neatly maintained pathways and a fence around the entire area.

A new 100-seat amphitheater--surrounded by grass, large white rocks, sycamore trees and lots of chirping birds--will provide space for seminars and orientations for kids on field trips.

Adjacent to the theater are new restrooms, an educational building and glass-encased maps of the area to help bird-watchers and other visitors chart their trip.

The rough dirt road that leads to the reserve was paved and lined with large signs directing motorists to the wildlife area.

It was difficult to find before the renovation, park officials said, because it’s tucked between the white Sepulveda Dam wall and the Japanese Gardens off Woodley Avenue.

Now it’s hard to miss because the main entrance features a newly installed marker--a thick concrete structure, about 8 feet tall, that reads “Sepulveda Wildlife Area.”

Officials with the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society say the improvements were long overdue.

“We’ve been working since the early 1990s to make this a real nature area, with real viewing points to see the wildlife,” said Audubon Society member Muriel Kotin. “Essentially, what we’ve done is greatly expand it for the wildlife and for people to enjoy it.”

Kotin, who served on a citizens advisory committee that helped oversee the basin project, regularly conducts free bird-watching tours for the public and schoolchildren.

Equipped with binoculars, a book that identifies the species with color photos and a spotting scope, Kotin points out some of the 200 birds that frequent the area.

She estimates that more than 1,800 kids visit the site yearly on organized school field trips. Children are also taught about plant communities, the flood control basin and reclaimed water.

Before the grounds were remodeled, showing the children around was trying at times, Kotin said, because the area was basically a 108-acre dirt field sprinkled with trees, a hidden lake and, of course, the birds.

Barbara Ward, a fourth-grade Balboa Magnet School teacher who has been bringing her students to the basin for five years, said the improvements will make it easier for her classes to visit.

“Everything is so nice and so beautiful now,” she said. “The trails aren’t muddy anymore, and there’s a good area for microscopes now.”

Ward’s favorite part is the amphitheater, she said, because it makes it easier for the kids to listen to lectures and orientations.

“Before they would just stand in a group on the grass or dirt and the guide would yell,” she said. “Now it’s more like a classroom.”

She also likes the two new parking lots near the amphitheater and the dozens of plants, including five new species, that have been added to the grounds.

And all this, she said, is surrounded by mountains, two busy freeways and large buildings on nearby Ventura Boulevard.

“It’s truly an urban wildlife oasis in the middle of the city,” Kotin said.