Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation


The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation is an agency of the County of Los Angeles which oversees parks and recreational facilities. It was created in 1944. It operates and maintains over of parks, gardens, lakes, trails, natural gardens, and golfing greens.
It maintains 180 parks and operates the world’s largest municipal golf course system with 20 courses. It owns the Hollywood Bowl and the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre.
Weddings can be held at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Gardens in Arcadia, Descanso Gardens in La Canada Flintridge and South Coast Botanic Garden on the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
It operates nature centers at:
It has fishing lakes at:
The Department hosts approximately 300 film projects a year, including feature films, television series, television commercials, and still photography shoots for various magazines and publications.
Safety and law enforcement services are provided on a contract basis from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department's Parks Bureau. Prior to 2010, the Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety and its predecessor agencies were responsible for law enforcement in the county parks.

Management and Commission

The director is John Wicker.
The department is governed by a five-member Park and Recreation Commission. Current members are Ed Reyes, Mayisha Akbar, I. Melissa Centeno, Sylia Obagi, and William J Korek.