Preserve Named After Antonovich

Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich dedicated 500 acres of open space on Monday in the Santa Susana Mountains, an addition that will provide continuous wilderness trails in the Rim of the Valley corridor of the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park.

“It’s a marvelous destination for people that want to hike, ride a bike or ride a horse in one of the truly botanical areas in California,” said Rorie Skei, chief deputy executive officer for the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, the agency that owns and manages the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park.

Located on the northern border of Los Angeles, northwest of O’Melveny Park, the acquired property offers sweeping views of the Santa Clarita and San Fernando valleys as well a diversity of flora and fauna--everything from big cone Douglas fir, California walnut and oak trees to black bears, deer and mountain lions.

“When you’re up there, you don’t even realize there’s a city,” Santa Clarita City Councilwoman Laurene Weste said.

Antonovich first introduced a motion to acquire the property, and an adjacent 520-acre parcel in Bee Canyon, in 1992.

The county then required the property’s owner, Browning-Ferris Industries, to hand the deed over to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. In exchange, the county granted BFI a permit to expand the Sunshine Canyon Landfill, which it operates.

Transfer of the parkland was stalled by environmental reviews, litigation and the cleanup of oil wells on the site, officials said.

“It’s taken about a decade,” Skei said. “But here we go.”

With this acquisition, the Santa Clarita Woodlands Park will expand to 4,000 acres.

The land is named the Michael D. Antonovich Open Space Preserve. Antonovich has “been there since the beginning and saw it through,” said Jim Park, an assistant director in the county Parks and Recreation Department.

“We’ve been working to extend the trail system throughout the county of Los Angeles, and this is another step forward,” Antonovich said.