New 101-405 freeway interchange could reduce traffic -- and wildlife -- in the area

A new ramp proposed for the 101-405 interchange in Sherman Oaks would destroy part of a wildlife reserve in the Sepulveda Basin that provides a rare resting place for migrating Canada geese, environmentalists say.

"We've trained the geese to come here for 20 years and forage in grasses we planted," said Steve Hartman, a volunteer with the California Native Plant Society. "Are they going to come one year and it will be a dirt construction site?"

The project pits one of the San Fernando Valley's last swaths of undisturbed open space against traffic improvements designed to ease congestion on one of the most crowded freeway interchanges in the nation.

The connector is ranked among the state's most dangerous and delay-prone interchanges, routinely carrying more vehicles than it was designed to handle and often causing bottlenecks on the southbound San Diego Freeway. The exit from the southbound San Diego Freeway to the northbound Ventura Freeway (which actually runs west) is used by about 25,000 vehicles each day.

But several multimillion-dollar proposals to redesign the interchange call for building a new ramp in the southeast corner of a 225-acre wildlife reserve that Los Angeles city officials and environmentalists have spent decades turning into a haven for native plants and more than 200 varieties of birds.

The area, bisected by a creek lined with large cottonwoods, contains a small lake and grasslands, considered some of the Valley's best hunting grounds for birds of prey. Oaks, fruit-bearing bushes and other plant life are just now maturing, attracting birds that haven't visited the region in years, ornithologists say.

"We've put 30 years of work and sweat into it," said Kris Ohlenkamp, who has spent decades rehabilitating the reserve and estimates he has taken thousands of children on walks there. "This wildlife area is part of the San Fernando Valley's culture. It's part of everyone's lives here."

But transportation experts argue that the connector must be reworked to ease traffic headaches and to ensure that the interchange can handle future increases.

"This is one of the busier connectors we have in the entire country," said Aziz Elattar, office chief of Caltrans' environmental planning division. "Everyone involved in transportation agrees it's an important project."