Public Preserve a Private Place

A year and a half after the city of Los Angeles approved a plan to turn Chatsworth Reservoir into a nature preserve, the grassy, hilly site remains fenced and off-limits to the public.

Birding groups have keys to the grounds, where they conduct tours and bird counts, but few others pass through the gates of San Fernando Valley’s largest parcel of undeveloped land.

Officials with the Department of Water and Power, which owns the 1,300 acres, say the park will be opened as soon as they can find a well-heeled partner to help run it. But changes in city administration have delayed any deals.

In the meantime, the DWP has closed the preserve as a security measure intended to protect all water sources from potential terrorist attacks. The problem is, Chatsworth Reservoir has not been a public water source for more than 30 years.

“I don’t know what there is to terrorize there,” said Carolyn Oppenheimer of the San Fernando Valley Audubon Society. “There are no buildings to blow up, no waters to poison. The council designated this a public nature preserve, and it needs to be opened to the public.”

Would-be visitors are locked out of a park where fossils can be found and deer and bobcats live. A visitor to the reservoir does not see any trace of the Ronald Reagan Freeway, office parks or the suburbs. Rocks where Chumash and Gabrielino tribes once ground acorns and traded goods remain. An ancient kiln and other artifacts found attest to the land’s historic significance.

Since 1969, the shallow pool has been a reservoir in name only. It was condemned by federal regulators and finally closed after the 1971 Sylmar earthquake.

Conservationists, who have wanted the reservoir set aside as open space since the 1970s, won a battle in 1997 when the council approved a resolution to create the preserve. The DWP followed suit in 1999 but left the decision of which activities would be offered to another agency yet to be named.

Preservationists say the DWP has been too slow to reach an agreement with one of several suitors, including the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, the Los Angeles Zoo, the Canada Goose Project and the Audubon Society.

“We know no one is going to come in and give us millions,” said Eric Tharp, the DWP’s director of governmental and public affairs. “But maybe they could help out with a nature education curriculum, some buses [to bring visitors] or handle maintenance.”

Tharp estimated that the DWP spends about $250,000 annually on the reservoir, including pay for a full-time caretaker. A partner agency would have to pay that salary and additional costs that might include nature classes, educational programs and construction of a history museum, he said.

Plans for the nature preserve were dealt a setback when the DWP’s point man for the preserve, Tom Labonge, took a leave of office to run a successful bid for City Council. He has since shifted his focus to saving the reservoir in Silver Lake, the district he represents. His replacement at DWP left after having a baby. Three of the DWP’s five commissioners are newly appointed.

Francine Oschin, field representative for City Councilman Hal Bernson, said each time a new face represents the DWP, negotiations start over. At this rate, Oschin said, the preserve may never open to the public.

Oschin said the DWP is stalling. [It’s] a treasure in the Valley that should be preserved for our children and posterity,” she said. “As long as we’re here, I will not let this go.”

Oschin said the new overseers should be more sensitive to the land than the city has been. Twice, she said, Bernson’s office called police about film production crews who made duplicate keys and returned to the site to hunt deer after filming there. Some of the ideas the department has entertained, such as a go-cart park, were too commercial, she said.

“We want to be sure no one looks at this as a profit source,” Oschin said.

The question remains how many visitors should be allowed to the site. Everyone agrees a park with heavy public use, such as Hansen Dam Recreation Area, would jeopardize the pastoral nature of the preserve, but the restricted bird-watching tours, officials say, offer too little access.

Oschin would like to cut out filming altogether. A Chumash organization wants the property donated to its Wishtoyo Foundation to ensure that Native American history is emphasized.

Since the terrorist attacks Sept. 11, the city’s eight reservoirs have been closed. A security survey due in the next few weeks could determine whether they will be reopened soon.

Oschin said she expects proposals from the nature groups to be reviewed by the end of the year.