Nature Preserves

Beginning one of its most ambitious undertakings, the Nature Conservancy said Monday it has agreed to buy eight ranches as the nucleus of a preserve to protect Central Valley ecosystems threatened with extinction. "This is a genetic rescue effort," attorney Russ Van Herik said from the San Francisco headquarters of the nonprofit group, which uses private contributions to purchase and set aside land.

It is an oasis, a thick, overgrown plot of land that is flanked by two freeways and a string of industrial parks. It is also a refuge for thousands of birds that pause to feed, rest and nest on their migratory flights north and south. And it is a reminder to all who walk in the Whittier Narrows Wildlife Sanctuary of a Southern California that long since has vanished in the blur of development.

Nearly 1,300 acres of South County land will officially be set aside for an ecological preserve next week, the result of a Board of Supervisors vote Wednesday that cleared the way for creation of the county's largest private nature conservancy. The land is owned by members of the Richard O'Neill family, whose holdings include huge areas of South Orange County.

Caretakers of a 13-acre nature preserve in Big Tujunga Wash are trying to find out who drove a bulldozer through the delicate parkland recently, killing rare plants and uprooting dozens of 40-foot willow trees. "Someone just went on a rampage and bulldozed everything in its path," said Judy Howard, member of a volunteer group that maintains the park in Sunland. "Plants were destroyed, trees were uprooted. We've got to find out how this happened."

A $475,000 nature center at the Aliso greenbelt is part of Gov. George Deukmejian's proposed budget for 1985-86. The county applied last summer for the grant. If approved, the money would come from the environmental license plate fund, said Grace Secketa, a planner with the Orange County Environmental Management Agency. The greenbelt is untouched ranch land along Aliso Creek near South Laguna and Laguna Niguel, which the Mission Viejo Co.

Parks administrators in the Santa Monica Mountains are doing a slow burn over the destruction of nature preserves south of Agoura Hills and Thousand Oaks by firefighters who used bulldozers to carve firebreaks during recent brush fires. The Los Angeles County Fire Department bulldozed freeway-width swaths across pristine meadows and cut narrower firebreaks through scenic, hilly rock outcroppings when October brush fires burned into three parks.

On the slope above the tree line the reindeer stood still, as if etched upon the white, shifting backdrop. Suddenly sensing our presence, they bounded away through the snow and disappeared into the forest. "Beautiful," I said. "Well," replied Volodya Zolotukin, director of the Biosphere Preserve of Laplandsky, when we reached the summit, "make sure you have a good look around because one of Russia's last environmental jewels may disappear as quickly as those reindeer."

Officials have created a nearly 190,000-acre preserve to protect tree kangaroos and other endangered species, after years of criticism for ignoring environmental issues, a conservation group says. The plan for a conservation area stemmed from an unusual agreement between the government and 35 indigenous communities to protect remote tropical forest, coastal reefs and mountains on the island of New Guinea. Leaders representing the 10,000 villagers have agreed to prohibit hunting and development such as logging and mining.

Ringed by suburbia, the Chatsworth preserve was the setting Sunday for the opening of Earth Month, the annual spring paean to the planet. Sunday was the second annual celebration--after Earth Day (April 22) was expanded into Earth Month--for the consortium of local environmentalists that manages the preserve. Members of groups dedicated to protecting geese, reptiles, birds and plants led tours around the reservoir, and the Chumash danced, sang and told stories for more than 100 visitors.

Bordered by tract housing and commercial strips, the Chatsworth Reservoir at the base of the Santa Susana Mountains is a hidden nature preserve, stocked with Chumash ruins and a menagerie of wildlife. But this 1,300-acre wildlife haven is enjoyed by only a select few who have the contacts to get past the surrounding chain-link fence. That may change soon.