Eventually meant to improve a Van Nuys wildlife
reserve, a federal plan first nearly leveled it
Some members of the San Fernando Valley Audubon
Society were so sickened by what they saw that they had to leave.
Bird-watcher Kris Ohlenkamp chokes up just
thinking about what happened to the Sepulveda
Basin Wildlife Reserve in Van Nuys.
He made himself enter the property after
learning it had been, to his mind, turned into a wasteland.
"I had a responsibility to go on,"
Ohlenkamp said.
More than 50 acres of habitat that harbored
migratory birds – and bird-lovers – were practically leveled this month as part
of a federal plan meant to eventually restore the area.
But the way the aggressive way the plan was
carried out came as a surprise to local environmentalists and bird-lovers who
frequent the area within the city of Los Angeles' Sepulveda Basin Recreation
Area.
The city's parks department boasts that the site is a
"haven of rest for wildlife and humans alike, a welcome oasis in an urban
setting."
Ohlenkamp called it "a premier birding site
in Southern California."
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