The San Fernando valley gets a bad rap. It’s all just sprawl and one strip mall after another. It’s a blight and should be ignored.
Except it isn’t, like anywhere else on earth, spend some time, scratch the surface and be surprised.
A hidden lake?
A large serene expanse of water? Ok, I admit, the camera has distorted the perspective, this is not as large as it look. If you look closely at the upper lefthand corner you will see some of the office buildings on Ventura blvd with the lovely homes of Encino hills beyond them.
We are standing in Woodley Park, on the other side of the berm is the 405 freeway. One of the busiest in the nation.
We are in the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve, this is one of the sections of the LA River that the Army corps of engineers left in it’s natural state. They built a large dam to hold back the flooding waters of the river in periods of torrential rains. Last time this happened was in the 1990’s. Today there is a large park, golf course and even a lake – Balboa Lake. My guess is that when this draught ends, it will be used again. People tend to forget history, Southern California has a cycle of draught and then torrential rains.
One reason the is so much water here now is the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant. 25 million gallons of sewage water are recycled here every day. Although all water is recycled, people are very squeamish about returning this water directly to our taps – even though it is probably cleaner than what is actually there. So most of this water is used for other purposes, Lake Balboa, irrigation and to release back to the river. If you ever see purple irrigation pipes on city golf course or along the freeway – they are using this reclaimed water. So the myth that all California can do is just waste water is just that, a myth. Sure we need to do more, but it’s just sensationalist hype to pretend that all we do is waste.
I’m not good at identifying birds, although I do know that the local birding society spends time here. I think this is a cormorant or an egret, what is cool is that I spotted the nest.
Ducks are plentiful here, better here than in peoples swimming pools.
Goose and turtle. I think this turtle is one of those carnival turtles that came home in a plastic bag. After a while he was thrown out into a body of water, and guess what these turtles thrive even if they aren’t native.
We saw a few of these, which means the coyotes are around as well.
Park rangers on horses, great way to patrol the area.
Since it’s spring, there are flowers, once again, not native, but well worth having by the lake.
I think I have this rose bush in my garden.
And finally, the kind of graffiti I am beginning to hate. There is a walkway under Burbank Blvd that leads to the southern section of this reserve. Why is it that people feel they can take the loudest brashest cans of paint to everything??? These days so many building owners are hiring people to paint wild murals on the sides of their buildings. Kudos to them, but this is public land and I have no doubt this is not condoned. Oh well urban blight, it is everywhere.