All Is Not Well With Valley Geese

Despite the rosy conclusions of T. W. McGarry’s article of Jan. 20, all is not well with the geese of the San Fernando Valley.

There are few sites within the Valley for the geese.

Encino Reservoir provides a suitable area for nighttime, but geese do not eat there. The Pierce College site is under intense threat of development, and its future is by no means certain. An area near Lake Los Angeles is also probably to be developed, but the party there has expressed a concern for the loss of habitat. Chatsworth Reservoir is capable of supporting a large number of geese, but no one is certain of its future either.

Finally, there is the Sepulveda Basin, which has had intense coverage.

Geese at the Sepulveda Basin were down 25% at this year’s Christmas count.

The issue has never been how many geese were present this year but what steps were being taken to ensure the continued presence of the geese in the Valley for all time to come. It is quite wrong to assume that the future is assured because the present count of geese is adequate. The arts park site is not to be 60 acres, as called for in the master plan, but 164 acres as signed by lease. The total unsuitability of this site for an arts park has led to opposition by many of the homeowner groups of the Valley, the Sierra Club and the Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley Audubon societies.

Even assuming that the geese are assured of suitable land elsewhere in perpetuity, many of the other birds that depend on the arts park and Lake Balboa sites will not be so fortunate. Up to 12 red-tailed hawks, two kestrels, 12 great blue herons, four great egrets, eight black-crowned night herons, two red-shouldered hawks and several species of duck make use of either the fields or Bull Creek. These birds, almost all federally protected, will certainly be chased away. Most of the recommendations of the state Department of Fish and Game with regard to mitigation, development of the wildlife area, and loss of Bull Creek riparian habitat have been ignored. The future of wildlife, in fact the future of open parkland, does not look good. The people of the San Fernando Valley are about to lose their last remaining open space to a special-interest group subsidized by the City of Los Angeles. This is nothing to cheer about.

STEPHEN H. DUCATMAN, M.D.

Woodland Hills