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"The standard breakdown of time in our 24-hour day is a third for work, a third for sleep, and a third for
play.
Recreation, defined as a means of refreshing or entertaining oneself after wrok by some pleasurable activity,
is also viewed by many Americans as a natural right, one cited in teh Declaration of Independence: 'life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.' That many choose to use their one-third play time for more work or activities that are far from pleasurable
does not negate the statement that much of our lifetime in America focuses on recreation..."
Getis, Arthur, et al. The United States and Canada: The Land and the People.
The San Fernando Valley is home to several large and many small parks. Griffith Park, the largest of Los Angeles' municipal parks, lies at the southeastern end of the valley, straddling the eastern end of the
Hollywood Hills. Two large recreation areas occupy the flood control basins behind Sepulveda Dam and Hansen Dam. O'Melveny
Park above Granada Hills protects the upper reaches of Bee Canyon, at the eastern end of the Santa Susana Mountains. There
is also a sizeable recreation area in the northwest valley, Chatsworth Park.
In the past decade, many large tracts of undeveloped or ranch lands in the mountains surrounding
the Valley have been acquired for parkland. The Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and its affiliated agencies have purchased or otherwise acquired many of these lands, which are maintained as parkland by
the Santa Monica Mountains National
Recreation Area, California state parks, or local parks districts. In 2003 the Ahmanson Ranch, a 2,983 acre (12 km˛) property in Ventura County at the west end of the Valley, was purchased by the State of California, and dedicated as the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open
Space Preserve on April 10, 2004.
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