SepulvedaBasinWildlife.org

Clean Up of Haskell Creek in the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve
Saturday June 19, 2021 8:30AM – Noon

San Fernando Valley Audubon Society is partnering with Friends of the Los Angeles River and the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains for a greatly needed cleanup.

Please register soon to volunteer to help Haskell Creek at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-great-la-river-cleanup-haskell-creek-registration-151737560127.

As FoLAR’s announcement says, The River needs YOU! This summer, join FoLAR and our partners for a series of small, in-person cleanups to collect trash and prevent waste from polluting our watershed and urban waterways. Together, we’ll make a collective impact and do our part to tend to the vibrant urban ecosystems that thrive throughout Los Angeles.

All registered volunteers will receive a CleanUp Starter Kit, available for pickup at a local REI or mailed to your provided address, with the essentials to participate, including trash bags and a pair of plant-based disposable gloves. Bring your own gardening gloves and tools like old pool nets and grabbers if you have them. SFVAS will have on hand a limited supply of tools and laundered gardening gloves, as well as trash bags provided by the Department of Recreation and Parks.

Haskell Creek, a stream located in the Sepulveda Basin, links up with the LA River just before Sepulveda Dam. Haskell Creek flows through one of the rare wildlife reserves in the City of LA, the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve. It's also a great location for bird and River enthusiasts. You're likely to even spot a fish or two swimming in the Creek!

The Resource Conservation District will offer small group educational walking tours for volunteers after they have finished cleaning.

To sign up for additional FoLAR cleanups, the link is https://folar.org/cleanup/.

Tuesday, June 22, 2021, 5:30pm
Steering Commitee Walk Through at the Wildlife Reserve
Everyone Welcome.
We will meet at 5:30pm June 22nd, at the amphitheater parking lot. Anyone is welcome to join.
This walk through replaces the regularly scheduled meeting of the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Areas Steering Committee.

Saturday, June 26, 2021
Sepulveda Basin South Reserve CLEANUP

sponsored by Friends of the LA River
Click HERE to Register

Sunday, July 3, 2021, 8am
First Sunday Monthly Bird Walk

Sponsored by San Fernando Valley Audubon Society, led by Kris Ohlenkamp

Meet in the reserve's paved parking lot at the end of the park road. Bird walk lasts 3+ hours.
Information: Kris Ohlenkamp, 818.521-8799.

Saturday, July 24, 2021, 8am-11am
FOURTH SATURDAY CNPS
SEPULVEDA BASIN WILDLIFE AREA HABITAT RESTORATION WORK SESSION
To help me keep organized contact me at moira@earthlink.net
You will receive an invitation with instructions as to where and when to meet etc.
The email will contain a link to an automated activity liability waiver form which our State level CNPS organization is asking that we use. Looking forward to working with you George Waddell.
310 490 7970

Tuesday, July 27, 2021, 6:30pm by Zoom
Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Areas Steering Committee
Agenda TBA

Change to Beginning Birds-and-Nature Walks at the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve:
Now Available for Groups by Reservation Only

To better match community interest, San Fernando Valley Audubon’s Birds-and-Nature Walks for families and beginners are changing format. They had been offered on second Saturday mornings October through March, as well as by reservation for groups. They are NOW available ONLY BY RESERVATION for groups. Reservations will be available for flexible days and times, including school mornings, weekend mornings, and after school. For the most part we will avoid scheduling walks in the summer months. Groups should be a minimum of 10–12 people. Partcipants will stroll through the lovely Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve with a guide, enjoying its trails and wildlife lake. Many kinds of birds are found there, along with lizards, cottontail rabbits, butterflies, fish and more. Partcipants will learn about the plants and birds and see them up close and discover why this is such a special place. We have binoculars to loan or you can use your own. These walks are for groups such as school classes not eligible for our SBEEP program, scouting and other youth groups, community centers, religious centers, environmental groups, and clubs. For reservations contact Muriel Kotin at (310) 457-5796 or muriel.kotin@sfvaudubon.org. For information only, contact Diana Keeney at (818) 998-3216.

	In March of 1981, a revised Master Plan for the area was adopted. At the time, of the 2,150 acres in the Sepulveda Basin, approximately 1,060 acres were committed to recreational uses. The updated Master Plan designated an additional 540 acres for future recreational uses. Included in the plan are provisions for the commitment of approximately 220 acres of land to informal park space, 120 acres for development of a recreational lake, 108 acres for a wildlife management area, and 60 acres for an “arts park” that has been subsequently redesignated for a “sports complex” (the area west of Balboa Blvd. just north of the Los Angeles River.

	The Master Plan also tried to minimize adverse environmental effects and recommended “designing reaches of newly-formed lakes and ponds to emulate existing wetland conditions on the site and by replanting existing riparian plant species” and to “accompany new park developments with the introduction of native plant species to create new habitats in the basin.”

	In 1979 the Corp of Engineers developed the first area of the Wildlife Reserve (formerly called the South Reserve), an approximate 48 acre parcel located south of Burbank Blvd and bordered by the Los Angeles River and the Sepulveda Dam on the east and south. A “pothole” pond (fed with piped-in fresh water) was created, and vegetation representing coastal sage scrub and riparian woodlands were planted. This area was drastically altered in December 2012 and as of January 2013 there were ongoing negotiations between environmental groups and the Army Corps of Engineers (see section above below upcoming events).

	South Reserve, Feb. 2008

	The approximate 60-acre North Reserve (north of Burbank Blvd., east of Haskell Creek, west of the Dam) was developed in 1988, featuring an 11-acre lake with an island and wildlife viewing stations. Various revegetation projects have been undertaken since then.

SFV Audubon	California Native Plant Society	L.A. Audubon	Sierra Club, San Fernando Valley Group

	Other Affiliated Organizations Friends of the Los Angeles River (FOLAR) The River Project Southwestern Herpetologists Society TreePeople Other Relevant Links Friends of Lake Balboa L.A. Creek Freak Blog Urban Wildlands Group City of Los Angeles River Website Los Angeles River Revitalization Corporation FoLAR LA River Facebook Page


	Web page and design by Justin Baker. Text and captions by Steven L. Hartman. All photographs taken in the Sepulveda Basin by Steven L. Hartman unless otherwise noted.
	Last Updated 6/8/2021

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			About the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin
	Sepulveda Basin, 1953 (photo courtesy of Gus Harris)		All property within the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin is owned by the Los Angeles District Corps of Engineers, but more than 80% of the land is leased out for recreational and agricultural uses. Sepulveda Dam, completed in 1941, is a dry-land reservoir, with the purpose of controlling runoff from nearby San Gabriel, Santa Monica, and Santa Susana Mountains. Besides the Encino and Balboa golf courses, the Balboa Sports Complex, and the model airplane field, most of the Basin was devoted to agriculture (corn and then sod farms). In the mid-1960’s, Burbank Blvd. was extended across the Basin. In the 1970’s the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation built the Donald Tillman Water Reclamation Plant within the Basin (over the objections of the Corp of Engineers).


	above, the stone monuments we call "stonehenge."		the reserve entrance and restrooms.

	In 1991 the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant Flood Protection Project was finalized, and subsequently a berm was built around the Water Reclamation Plant to protect it from flooding, compensating excavation was performed in various places, and the outflow from the Water Reclamation Plant was rerouted under the dam so the outflow was outside (to the south) of the Dam. The 7-acre berm was planted with California native plants and is the largest native landscaping project developed by the City of Los Angeles.
			above, the berm surrounding the Water Reclamation Plant.

	In 1994, the City and Federal governments agreed to sharing the costs on $11 million in improvements in the Sepulveda Basin. The wildlife are was expanded 110 acres to the west of Haskell Creek (on either side of Woodley Avenue). Additional facilities in the wildlife area included trails, restrooms and staging area, signs, benches, viewing blinds and parking. This project was completed in 1999.



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