The Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation is an agency of the

County of Los Angeles Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles, and sometimes abbreviated as L.A. County, is the most populous county in the United States and in the U.S. state of California, with 9,861,224 residents estimated as of 2022. It is th ...

which oversees its parks and recreational facilities. It was created in 1944. It operates and maintains over of parks, gardens, lakes, natural gardens, and golfing greens, and of trails. It maintains 183 parks and operates the world’s largest municipal golf course system with 20 courses. It also owns the

Hollywood Bowl The Hollywood Bowl is an amphitheatre in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. It was named one of the 10 best live music venues in America by ''Rolling Stone'' magazine in 2018. The Hollywood Bowl is known for its distin ...

and the

John Anson Ford Amphitheatre The John Anson Ford Theatre is a music venue in the Hollywood Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The 1,200-seat outdoor amphitheater is situated within the Cahuenga Pass within the Santa Monica Mountains. Located in a County regional pa ...

. Weddings can be held at the

Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden The Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, 127 acres (51.4 ha), is an arboretum, botanical garden, and historical site nestled into hills near the San Gabriel Mountains in Arcadia, California, United States. Open daily, it only close ...

in Arcadia,

Descanso Gardens Descanso Gardens is a botanical garden located in La Cañada Flintridge, Los Angeles County, California. Descanso gardens features a wide area, mostly forested, with artificial streams, ponds, and lawns. Descanso Gardens has a wide collectio ...

in La Canada Flintridge,

South Coast Botanic Garden The South Coast Botanic Garden is a botanical garden in the Palos Verdes Hills, in an unincorporated area of Los Angeles County, California, United States, about south of Los Angeles International Airport. It has over 150,000 landscaped plants ...

on the Palos Verdes Peninsula, and Magic Johnson Park in Willowbrook.

Virginia Robinson Gardens The Virginia Robinson Gardens are the period landscape, historic mansion, and botanical gardens located at the Virginia Robinson Estate () in Beverly Hills, California, United States. History The Virginia Robinson Gardens is the earliest estate i ...

is open for tours. It operates nature centers at: * Deane Dana Friendship Park and Nature Center * Devil's Punchbowl Natural Area * Eaton Canyon Park & Nature Center * Placerita Canyon Nature Center * San Dimas Canyon Nature Center * Santa Catalina Island Interpretive Center *

Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area The Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area is a county park located in Irwindale, California, USA, in the San Gabriel Valley, inside the Santa Fe Dam. The park and dam are nestled among gravel quarries in the area, many of which are currently inactive. The ...

Stoneview Nature Center Stoneview Nature Center is a Los Angeles County, California, county-operated garden and educational facility in Culver City, California along the Park to Playa Trail. The nature center building and gardens are part of a “transformation of a fi ...

, Baldwin Hills *

Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park Vasquez Rocks Natural Area Park is a park located in the Sierra Pelona in northern Los Angeles County, California. It is known for its rock formations, the result of sedimentary layering and later seismic uplift. It is located near the town of ...

* Whittier Narrows Nature Center It has fishing lakes at: * Alondra Community Regional Park * Apollo Community Regional Park * Belvedere Community Regional Park * Frank G. Bonelli Regional Park *

Castaic Lake State Recreation Area Castaic Lake (Chumash: ''Kaštiq'') is a reservoir formed by Castaic Dam on Castaic Creek, in the Sierra Pelona Mountains of northwestern Los Angeles County, California, United States, near the town of Castaic. The California Office of Enviro ...

* Cerritos Community Regional Park *

Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area, or Kenneth Hahn Park, is a state park unit of California in the Baldwin Hills Mountains of Los Angeles. The park is managed by the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. As one of the largest ...

* Earvin "Magic" Johnson Park * La Mirada Community Regional Park *

Whittier Narrows Recreation Area The Whittier Narrows is a narrows or water gap in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles County, California, United States, between the Puente Hills to the east and the Montebello Hills to the west. The gap is located at the southern boundary of t ...

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 The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD), officially the County of Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, is a law enforcement agency serving Los Angeles County, California. LASD is the largest sheriff's department in the United States a ...

's Parks Bureau. Prior to 2010, the

Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety The Los Angeles County Office of Public Safety (LACOPS), less formally known as the Los Angeles County police, County Police, was a police agency for the Los Angeles County, California, County of Los Angeles. It was formed in 1998 by consolidatin ...

(County Police) and its predecessor agencies were responsible for law enforcement in the county parks.

Management and Commission

Since 2020, the director is Norma Edith García-Gonzalez. The department is governed by a five member commission, appointed by the

Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors (LACBOS) is the five-member governing body of Los Angeles County, California, United States. History On April 1, 1850 the citizens of Los Angeles elected a three-man Court of Sessions as their firs ...

References

External links

* {{Authority control Parks County government agencies in California County parks departments in the United States Organizations based in Los Angeles County, California