Earth Month Opens in Chatsworth

Ringed by suburbia, the Chatsworth preserve was the setting Sunday for the opening of Earth Month, the annual spring paean to the planet.

Sunday was the second annual celebration--after Earth Day (April 22) was expanded into Earth Month--for the consortium of local environmentalists that manages the preserve.

Members of groups dedicated to protecting geese, reptiles, birds and plants led tours around the reservoir, and the Chumash danced, sang and told stories for more than 100 visitors.

Designated in 1999 as a nature preserve, the former Chatsworth Reservoir, which is owned by the Department of Water and Power, is home to migrating Canada geese, blackbirds, foxes and a field guide’s worth of other flora and fauna. Humans are let in only rarely.

“The habitat really cannot take a lot of heavy usage,” said Bob Wood of the Canada Goose Project. “Even though it’s 1,300 acres, it’s not that much for all the animals that live here.”

For 50 years, until it was drained in 1969, the reservoir stored water for the western San Fernando Valley. The DWP and developers have proposed at times using the land--worth an estimated $50 million--for housing, sports fields and other projects.

Environmentalists have successfully fended off such development but have not succeeded in gaining federal protection for the land, which could secure its status as a wildlife refuge.

For now, renaming the area the Chatsworth Nature Preserve has offered some protection, said Francine Oschin, who worked as an aide to Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson to protect the land.

“People began to realize this is not an area that could be bought,” said Oschin, who is running for City Council.