page_title: Sepulveda Dam
section_title: Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve
hierarchical_section_title: Sepulveda Dam / Sepulveda Basin Recreation Area / Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve
caption_attribution_description: English: An excursion on the Los Angeles River begins with equal parts portage and paddle. Participants navigate the Cattail Chute and an area called Lake Balboa Ledge July 28, 2012.
context_page_description: The Sepulveda Dam is a project of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers designed to withhold winter flood waters along the Los Angeles River. Completed in 1941, at a cost of $6,650,561, it is located south of center in the San Fernando Valley, approximately eight miles east of the river's source in the western end of the Valley, in Los Angeles, California.
  Sepulveda Dam, along with Hansen Dam located in the north San Fernando Valley, was constructed in response to the historic 1938 floods which killed 144 people. Sepulveda Dam was placed at what was at the time, the current edge of the city. East of the dam the river was crowded into a narrow bottom by the city's growth. One legacy of Sepulveda Dam is its flood control basin, a large and undeveloped area in the center of the Valley, used mostly for wildlife refuge and recreation. But another legacy of the 1938 Los Angeles River flood was the post-World War II channelization of all the Valley's dry washes, which along with the post-World War II rapid suburbanization left the Valley with hot, dry, concrete-lined river bottoms instead of greenbelts. Although now, in part, these are being devolved as interconnecting bike paths.
context_section_description: The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve is at the southeast end of the Sepulveda Flood Control Basin and Recreation Area. It has two sections, the North Reserve and South Reserve, located north and south of Burbank Boulevard.  Both have nature paths and hiking trails. Access and parking are in eastern Woodley Park near to the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, or from Burbank Boulevard east of Woodley Avenue.
  Haskell Creek flows through the nature preserve, and there are several wildlife ponds. Over 200 species of birds have been seen in the basin. Many, attracted by the water, gather here during fall and spring migrations. The Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve is an ongoing habitat restoration project, with locally native California plants. Native trees include Fremont's cottonwood (Populus fremontii), Coast live oak (Quercus agrifolia ), Valley oak, California Black Walnut (Juglans californica), and California sycamore (Platanus racemosa).
caption: Sepulveda Basin River Recreation Zone.
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