In 1998, Jeopardy! host Alex Trebek donated 74 Hollywood Hills acres worth $2 million, nearly doubling local parkland and protecting trails and a wildlife corridor for deer and coyotes

Alex Trebek is a game show host, most commonly known for Jeopardy!. In 1998, he donated 74 acres of open land in the Hollywood Hills to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, with the property valued at $2 million at the time. The donation nearly doubled the public parkland in the area and protected land that officials wanted to preserve as a wildlife corridor.Land next to Runyon CanyonThe property sits north of Hollywood Boulevard and east of Nichols Canyon Road, next to Wattles Park and Runyon Canyon Park. The land already had trails used by hikers and cyclists when Trebek made the donation, according to the Los Angeles Times.John Diaz was the acquisitions director for the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy at that time, who said that the agency planned to improve those trails after acquiring the property. The land had been sought for more than recreation, however since the conservancy wanted it as a wildlife corridor where deer, coyotes and other animals could move between the Hollywood and San Diego freeways.The property is now Trebek Open SpaceThe land is now known as Trebek Open Space and is managed by the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority. The agency currently describes it as a 62-acre open space in the Hollywood Hills that adjoins Los Angeles' Runyon Canyon Park. Its existing network of fire roads is used as trails by hikers, mountain bikers and equestrians. The MRCA also identifies the property as land donated by Trebek.The difference between the original 74-acre figure and the current 62-acre description is a reflection of the way the property is documented today. The 1998 newspaper report described the entire parcel donated to the conservancy, while the MRCA's current park listing gives the size of the Trebek Open Space itself as 62 acres.Part of a wider conservation networkThe MRCA manages parks and open-space areas that preserve hillsides, canyons and wildlife habitat within the Los Angeles region. Trebek's property connects with other protected land around Runyon Canyon and Nichols Canyon, which gives hikers access to a landscape that is largely free of buildings despite its location near some of the city's busiest neighborhoods.Instead of treating the 74-acre donation as an isolated park, conservation officials incorporated it into the surrounding open-space network. Today, visitors can use the fire-road trails to move through the hills, while the undeveloped terrain provides cover and movement routes for wildlife living in the Santa Monica Mountains.A break from developmentThe donation came at a time when undeveloped land in the Hollywood Hills was under pressure from development. Trebek transferred the property to the conservancy rather than retaining it, so it could remain open space.Trebek Open Space now sits beside Runyon Canyon Park, while its trails and surrounding hills form part of the network of open spaces across the Santa Monica Mountains. The MRCA has continued to maintain the property, and agency records show work at Trebek Open Space over the years, including hillside stabilization and vegetation management. For visitors, the property remains a trail area in the Hollywood Hills, and for the wildlife that moves through the surrounding mountains, the land remains undeveloped space between heavily built parts of Los Angeles.Catch the latest World News and Live updates. Download the TOI app.