CATFISH ARE JUMPIN'; HANSEN DAM REGAINS ITS RECREATION LAKE.Byline: Sherry Joe Crosby Staff Writer After 16 years of waiting, the new Hansen Dam Hansen Dam in Los Angeles County, California was built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Los Angeles District in 1939 and 1940. The project is located near the northern edge of the San Fernando Valley on Tujunga Wash, about one mile below the confluence of the Big Tujunga Wash Recreation Lake got catfish Monday and Congressman Howard Berman Howard Lawrence "Howie" Berman (born April 15 1941) has been a Democratic member of the United States House of Representatives since 1983, representing the 28th District of California (map). oversaw the release of a cascade of water into the fishing and boating lake. The 9-acre recreation lake and an adjacent 1.5-acre swimming lake will open to the public Aug. 28 during a grand-opening festival featuring music, arts and crafts arts and crafts, term for that general field of applied design in which hand fabrication is dominant. The term was coined in England in the late 19th cent. as a label for the then-current movement directed toward the revivifying of the decorative arts. and food. ``It's one of the most recreationally deprived areas of Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, and we're going to change that,'' said Berman, D-Mission Hills, who has made the twin-lakes project a priority since he was elected to Congress in 1982. ``It will give some life to a dead area that has been ignored for many years.'' The new lakes will replace Holiday Lake, a 130-acre inland center Inland Center is a shopping mall located in San Bernardino, California. The mall is anchored by Gottschalks, Macy's and Sears. In 2006, the original Macy's store which occupied a dated The Broadway location was closed and the more modern 165,000 sq. ft. of water-skiing, canoeing, sailing, fishing and swimming that had to close in the early 1980s when it became clogged with silt and vegetation. On Monday, Berman helped state Department of Fish and Game employees release 375 pounds of catfish into the lake. Last week, bluegill bluegill: see sunfish. bluegill Popular game fish (Lepomis macrochirus) and one of the best-known sunfishes throughout its original range, the freshwater habitats of the central and southern U.S. It has been introduced throughout the western U.S. , bass and mosquito-eating fish were added, said Diego Busatto, an associate fisheries biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game. Plants such as water lilies Water Lilies (or Nympheas) is a series of approximately 250 oil paintings by French Impressionist Claude Monet (1840-1926). The paintings depict Monet's flower garden at Giverny and were the main focus of Monet's artistic production during the last thirty years and cattails will be added later to provide beauty and a habitat for the lake's fish. Marie Harris, a Northeast Valley resident who is helping plan the lakes' grand-opening celebration, said the new recreation site will be a boon for the area. ``We will have our own Beverly Hills in the northeast San Fernando Valley San Fernando Valley Valley, southern California, U.S. Northwest of central Los Angeles, the valley is bounded by the San Gabriel, Santa Susana, and Santa Monica mountains and the Simi Hills. ,'' Harris said, likening lik·en tr.v. lik·ened, lik·en·ing, lik·ens To see, mention, or show as similar; compare. [Middle English liknen, from like, similar; see like2 the richness of the area's mountains, horse trails and lakes to the shopping mecca. ``It's really going to turn this Northeast Valley around. We've been so neglected and so underserved. We have a jewel up there in that lake.'' The lakes, near Foothill Boulevard and Osborne Street, will offer a sandy beach for swimmers, lifeguard stations, walking paths, picnic areas and restrooms equipped with showers. No motorboats or personal watercraft will be allowed on the fishing and boating lake, but visitors will be able to use paddle boats, canoes and other nonmotorized watercraft. Carol McClure, a Pacoima native who directs activities for the Pacoima Senior Center, said she is looking forward to the lakes' public opening. ``It will be a tad bit exciting. You won't have to go so far,'' said McClure, who grew up fishing at Hansen Dam but now travels out of town to pursue her hobby. ``If you want to fish, you have to leave your area,'' she said, noting Castaic Lake is the nearest place to fish. ``Not having to go out of town is a great convenience.'' Although McClure is looking forward to the return of a boating and fishing lake at Hansen Dam, she said she is disappointed by the two lakes' reduction in size. ``It's going to be terribly different,'' McClure said, ``People willbe pleased, but some will be disappointed because it will be much smaller than the old lake.'' The two lakes are considerably smaller than originally proposed in the master plan the Army Corps of Engineersprepared following the closure of Holiday Lake in 1984. Cost increases reduced the boating and fishing lake from 70 acres and the swimming lake from 15 acres. The $15.8 million project was financed by the city of Los Angeles
CAPTION(S): photo Photo: Mike Sanchez, of San Antonio Fish Stocking, stocks Hansen Dam Recreation Lake Monday. Restocking will be done twice a month. Michael Owen Baker/Staff Photographer |
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