Small Parcel Conservation
In our highly urbanized region, there aren’t many large areas of open space left to save. We protect large properties (like our Preserves) whenever we can. But we also strategically purchase small parcels that help stitch wildlife connectivity back together across our region.
Thousands of undeveloped slivers of land — often less than one acre — sit between or behind homes, alongside roads, or subdivided across hillsides, waiting to be developed. These small parcels play a vital role in how wildlife move between large areas of natural habitat, acting as stepping stones between the Verdugo Mountains, San Rafael Hills, Griffith Park, and the San Gabriel Mountains.
AFC maps how wildlife move using GIS analysis and camera-trap data, then pinpoints which small parcels matter most for wildlife traveling through our region. We then use a range of strategies — from direct purchases to tax-default auctions, and conservation easements — to protect that passage, so every parcel holds a strategic place in the landscape.
The map below shows how these small parcels fit into our larger conservation region.
Glendale
GLENOAKS
We know that Glenoaks, a canyon wedged between the 2 and 134 freeways, is important to wildlife. A decade ago, the National Park Service tracked P-41, a collared mountain lion, entering the San Rafael Hills through this ridge to hunt and seek refuge in the surrounding area. Today, much of the north-facing slope is still rich, healthy, and, most importantly, undeveloped habitat.
In 2023, we purchased a 0.12-acre property there. In 2025, we pinpointed another 0.11-acre parcel nearby that could have provided development access to many of the surrounding parcels. We tracked it and seized the opportunity to buy it at a tax-default auction. With both parcels now permanently protected, we’re saving the habitat on them directly — and helping keep the land beyond them undeveloped.
Pasa Glen
The National Park Service also tracked P-41 through Pasa Glen, a development along the 2 freeway near the Glendale Sports Complex. And through AFC’s own wildlife research, we learned that a tagged California black bear — Red Bear #2 — likely passed through Pasa Glen while moving through the San Rafael Hills to the Verdugo Mountains. We’ve been tracking parcels along wildlife passage routes in the area and buying them whenever they become available at LA County tax-default auctions. So far, we’ve purchased five parcels totaling 3.9 acres.
Chevy Chase crossings: Sycamore East & Saint Andrews
AFC studies identified four areas wildlife are actively using to cross Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale. We began our work here at the Sycamore Canyon Crossing, purchasing our 10-acre Preserve on the west side of Chevy Chase Drive there in 2024. We then purchased four small parcels across the street from the Preserve, to further secure that crossing, giving wildlife more safe habitat to use as they pass through.
About a mile down the road from Sycamore is another apparent wildlife crossing, which we call Saint Andrews. In 2026, we made our first small-parcel acquisition at this crossing. The parcel is only 0.269 acres, but it lies within a larger Critical Wildlife Passage Area (CWPA) we’re working to protect. We’ve identified other parcels in the area that would help fortify this crossing, and we’re actively pursuing them.
Protecting these parcels along Chevy Chase ensures no homes can be built on them — homes that would block passage routes, make crossing this busy thoroughfare even harder for wildlife.
Altadena
Chaney trail-Andrea wilson triangle
The Chaney Trail Corridor encompasses more than 185 acres of open space, 16.5 acres of which AFC has preserved. Bounded by the La Viña development to the west, the Angeles National Forest to the north and east, and housing to the south, the Corridor serves as a gateway to the front range of the San Gabriel Mountains.
The Corridor’s landscape includes flat bottomlands, steep ridges, and deep canyons, with six significant ridgelines and two mapped blue-line streams. Named canyons include Alzada (developed) and Chiquita Canyon. The Corridor drains to the Arroyo Seco, part of the Los Angeles River Watershed.
In 2000, we identified two adjacent parcels totaling 15 acres as a high priority for protection. Working with Trust for Public Land, we protected them in 2001 (read the story in our December 2001 newsletter) and then transferred the property to the Angeles National Forest. In 2002, we closed escrow on the adjacent 1.5-acre parcel on Chaney Trail that we call the Andrea Wilson Triangle, shown in the map above.