Reservoir Designated as Nature Preserve

Ending a long battle over the fate of Chatsworth Reservoir, the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners voted Tuesday to safeguard the entire 1,300-acre site as a nature preserve.

The unanimous decision was a victory for City Councilman Hal Bernson, who has long pushed for preservation. The outcome left Bernson’s deputy, Francine Oschin, dancing for joy outside the meeting, singing “Yes, yes, yes!” as she jabbed the air with her fist.

“I must tell you that we are absolutely jubilant,” she said. “It has been many years. We are as happy as we can be.”

Commission President Rick Caruso, a prominent developer who held up the vote for more than a year with an eye to building sports fields or housing on the Department of Water and Power-owned land, backed down in the face of strong opposition.

As the commission moved to vote, Caruso couldn’t help teasing the preservationists in the audience with: “So the addendum for the high-rise condos isn’t a problem?”

The move preserves the reservoir, a grassy oasis flecked with oak trees and seasonal ponds, as open space with limited public access.

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Opened in 1919, the facility once stored water for the western San Fernando Valley, but it was drained for enlargement in 1969. Two years later, the Sylmar earthquake put it out of commission for good, leaving the land to the great horned owls, Canada geese, foxes and bobcats that make it their home.

Under the plan adopted by the commission, the DWP will seek state and federal funds to offset the $250,000 in yearly maintenance costs and set up an educational program to encourage more people, especially children, to visit the reservoir.

“I’m very proud of the commission and what we’ve done, which is to save a piece of L. A. that still looks the way it did 100 years ago,” said S. David Freeman, DWP general manager.

“I think it’s finally recognized that this department is a good preservation agency,” he said. “People remember ‘Chinatown,’ the movie, but they don’t remember our pretty little secret, that we’ve preserved 450 square miles up around Owens Lake, as well as the Chatsworth Reservoir area. We are thought of as butchers in the night, but we are really quite good at preserving land.”

For now, the site will remain the province of the department, but the DWP plans to seek a partner agency to help manage the property. Several agencies have voiced interest in the land, including the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Los Angeles Zoo, Audubon Society and the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks.

“I’m very happy,” Bernson said.

But the 70-year-old councilman, now serving his final term, said he was concerned about what would become of the reservoir after he leaves office, and he pledged to push on until the land is acquired by a conservation agency.

“We have no guarantee for the future,” he said. “To really ensure that this will be preserved, and not have future boards, future mayors and future city councils make a run at it . . . we need to actually put it in the hands of some conservation group. We want to make sure that it stays in its current natural state forever.”

In 1997, the City Council designated the reservoir as a wildlife refuge at the behest of Bernson. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service toured the property in August and is considering the possibility of making it the first national wildlife refuge in Los Angeles County.

The DWP commission agreed to set up an advisory committee of educators, environmentalists, wildlife experts, homeowners and others to review the department’s stewardship of the reservoir.

Preservationists--many of them regulars at City Hall each time the reservoir appears on the council agenda--rejoiced after the vote.

“This is a grand and glorious day,” said Rosemarie White, director of the Canada Goose Project, a Valley-based habitat conservation group.

A few conservationists said they wanted to make sure that wildlife corridors surrounding the reservoir would also be preserved, but Oschin urged them to savor their triumph and worry about hashing out the details later.

“This is a huge victory,” she said, “and we should celebrate it.”