Activists Persuade DWP to Open Chatsworth For Earth Day

Willis Simms, the talented artist who created the environmental cartoon published frequently in the Southern Sierran, must be very sad right now: the lessons of his wildlife art are no longer heeded by those in certain Los Angeles departments who claim the power to save our wild places and our threatened wildlife. Willis is no longer with us, but his wife Melba, has copies of tis work in a book, Bulldozer In Paradise; The Environmental Cartoons Of Willis Simms. Those of you who have been with the Angeles Chapter for a while will recognize the drawings.

Willis did a series entitled The Geese Of The San Fernando Valley. Melba and Willis lived just blocks from Pierce College, and he would walk the campus in the mornings and hear the migrating geese flying overhead to the Pierce cornfields to rest and forage. He became an unofficial research assistant to the Canada Goose Project, and turned in his count sheets on a regular basis throughout the Winter months, keeping tabs on the number of migrating birds as the years went by.

The Canada goose Project, Inc. was started in 1992 as a major research project to record the numbers of Canada Goose migrating from Alaska, Canada and the pacific northwest south to California, where they rested until spring when they flew north again to have their young. Five major open space areas in the San Fernando Valley were chosen as 'count sites' and each site had their own Volunteer research team counting the birds at dawn and dusk four times a week at each location, One location was Pierce College, another was Chatsworth Reservoir, which became, in 1996, recognized and renamed Chatsworth Nature Preserve by the Los Angeles City Council, through the then council member Hal Bemson. At both locations, stories were told of thousands of Canada Geese visiting every Winter, but that picture was not what the teams were seeing, and question was why?

Since it has been protected from development, the Chatsworth Nature Preserve has been one of the more important sites to monitor the migration of Canada's wild geese It remains the only large open space area in the San Fernando Valley, which welcomes wildlife and has large open-space areas for foraging migrating bird. It has served Los Angeles as an educational theatre for environmental groups such as Audubon and the Southwestern Herpo1ogists society and has for many years been the source of delightful educational tours through the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Northridge Archaeological Research Center. All were granted permission to enter the fenced and gated nature-preserve to learn about bird migration, wildlife food chains, Native American and mission history.

Additionally, since 2000, the Canada Goose Project in partnership with orher environmental groups, has held a celebration in honor of Earth Day at the Chatsworth Nature Preserve giving the community a chance to see a portion of the property (the lake and the oak grove where the Chumash ceremony is held.) This has provided an opportunity for the sponsoring agencies to educate the public and begin the process of engendering a respect for the home of wildlife and native plants and will promote a further plan to work in conjunction with city agendes to develop a functioning educational entity.

In mid-February the Los Angeles Department Of Water and Power (LADWP) informed the Canada Goose Project that after the last data collection at the end of March 2011, permission to enter the preserve was revoked. This decision also applied to all other entities including Audubon and and the Southwestern Herpetologist Society, and the Angeles Chapter Endangered Species and Wildlife Committee, which holds an annual Earth Day celebration in the preserve. According to LADWP property manager, Steven Cole, numerous citizens, claiming that the preserve was not open to the public, were complaining about these groups entering the preserve.

Several weeks and many meetings later, we have succeeded in re-establishing our right to hold our Earth Day celebration at Chatsworth Nature Preserve. Council members Greg Smith and Mitch Englander took up our cause. They have been marvelous advocates in the saving of this 1600-acre open space wildlife preserve.

Our annual event proceeded as planned on April 3, 2011. Thanks to our new city councilman Mitch Englander, CD12, for helping make the day possible, listen to a Chumash storyteller and hike around the lake.

Contact Rosemary White, PhD., chair person for the Angeles Chapter Endangered Species and Wildlife Committee for furher information regarding the Earth Day celebration, which has already been publicized at 818-383-7635(c).