Forty-three acres at the Sepulveda Basin were reduced to piles
of broken… (Mel Melcon, Los Angeles…) An area that just a week
ago was lush habitat on the Sepulveda Basin's wild side, home to
one of the most diverse bird populations in Southern California,
has been reduced to dirt and broken limbs — by the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers. Audubon Society members stumbled upon the
barren landscape last weekend during their annual Christmas bird
count. Now, they are calling for an investigation into the loss
of about 43 acres of cottonwood and willow groves, undergrowth
and marshes that had maintained a rich inventory of mammals,
reptiles and 250 species of birds. Much of the area's vegetation
had been planted in the 1980s, part of an Army Corps project
that turned that portion of the Los Angeles River flood plain
into a designated wildlife preserve. Tramping through the mud
Friday, botanist Ellen Zunino — who was among hundreds of
volunteers who planted willows, coyote brush, mule fat and
elderberry trees in the a