With Latest Land Donation, County Open Space Grows To 60,000 Acres In Past Five Years

Known for tract homes and urban sprawl, Orange County is also home to vast, public-owned wildlands.

View of Black Star Canyon looking west toward Irvine Lake on Thursday. The area was part of a 2010 land gift from the Irvine Company.
View of Black Star Canyon looking west toward Irvine Lake on Thursday. The area was part of a 2010 land gift from the Irvine Company.

A drone buzzes overhead, photographing a jutting limestone ridge that sits near the juncture of two massive gifts of undeveloped land by Orange County’s largest landowner.

“One side of that ridge is old and one is new,” says John Gump, a county park ranger, standing on a hill that offers sweeping views of craggy bluffs, sage-strewn canyons and a glimmer of blue – Irvine Lake.

The “new” that Gump mentions is a gift made this month by the Irvine Company of nearly 2,500 acres of open space. This month’s gift follows the developer’s gift a few years ago of 20,000 acres.

Orange County is nationally known for well-heeled housewives and rows of tract homes, but the reputation for endless urban sprawl is misplaced. In the last five years, the swaths of open space and parklands owned by the county have grown by 50 percent – to nearly 60,000 acres.

And that doesn’t include the massive Santa Ana Mountain Range operated by the U.S. Forest Service that lines much of the county’s northern border.

With the latest additions, the trove that Gump surveys now stretches from Silverado Canyon to Anaheim – part of the tangible and growing legacy of Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Company. Bren, in return, will enjoy some sizable tax write-offs.

Earlier, some questioned whether OC Parks was equipped to steward such an expanse of open space. The county, however, promises to protect and preserve these lands for generations to come.

What can you find? A deer skeleton, for starters.

Irvine Ranch Conservancy docent Michael Dresser and Jenn Starnes look out over the Sinks from a platform built by the Conservancy.
Irvine Ranch Conservancy docent Michael Dresser and Jenn Starnes look out over the Sinks from a platform built by the Conservancy.

STEWARDSHIP

From behind the wheel of his pickup, Gump points to trails that wind through Black Star Canyon.

Exploring this land has never been easier.

Today, there are 9.5 miles of new trails in this area and elsewhere. A new audio tour guides hikers along six or so points of interest.

Much of the county’s open space lies under a conservation easement, meaning access is limited to protect native habitats and wildlife. But for the last four years, OC Parks has opened more than 90 miles of trails to the public through monthly self-guided Wilderness Access Days and daily docent-led activities.

These public programs, along with land management and wildlife monitoring, are handled by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. The nonprofit has a $3 million annual contract with the county.

Gump points to a line of sycamore saplings in 5-gallon buckets.

He stands in the Baker Staging Area, an area with new picnic tables, portable restrooms and a shade canopy. On access days, this is open to the public. Gump says a youth group is coming to plant the saplings, an activity that wasn’t possible before the county took over.

“I think this is a good case study,” says Gump, who has patrolled these county lands and others for seven years. “There was very little access to this area, and now it has been expanded greatly.”

But in years past, some conservationists worried about the parks department’s stewardship of public lands. After the 1994 county bankruptcy, OC Parks’ budget was cut, along with those of other county departments.

It wasn’t until nearly 2010, according to reports, that parks officials felt confident that they could handle the financial burden of managing more land.

Theresa Sears sits on the board of Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, a conservation group based in Newport Beach. She served on the Environmental Coalition Land Transfer Steering Committee, a task force that four years ago assessed the county’s potential stewardship of Irvine Company lands.

Sears likened the county’s growing open space to an art collection. “You start collecting and sometimes you don’t know if you can deal with it all,” Sears explained. “Can you afford it?

“Acquisition is one thing, but proper protection is another.”

But times have changed, and so has the department, according to Stacy Blackwood, who took over OC Parks’ leadership last year.

“That was a valid concern at that point,” Blackwood granted. “I think from the Irvine Company perspective, the reason they’re confident in giving the county this additional 2,500 (acres) is the success they’ve seen …with the previous gift.”

Two weeks ago, the county Board of Supervisors agreed and voted unanimously to accept the latest donation.

Even so, questions have surfaced.

As recently as September, county auditors alleged that OC Parks executives, including former parks chief Mark Denny (now the county’s chief operating officer) had a hand in granting no-bid contracts from 2009 to 2014. The contracts, auditors said, went to a friend of one of the parks executives.

The remains of a deer lie on a road in the hills above Black Star Canyon on Thursday. The area was part of a 2010 land gift from the Irvine Company. OC Parks improved the area with trails and amenities at the staging areas.
The remains of a deer lie on a road in the hills above Black Star Canyon on Thursday. The area was part of a 2010 land gift from the Irvine Company. OC Parks improved the area with trails and amenities at the staging areas.

LOVE FOR THE WILD

Back in Black Star Canyon, Gump encounters a partial deer skeleton in the middle of a dirt road. He stops his truck to take a closer look. The deer’s skull is still covered in gray fur.

It’s a rare sighting, Gump says. He talks about the wildlife in this canyon: bobcats, foxes, red-tailed hawks, great horned owls, even the occasional coyote and mountain lion.

“They’re not just passing through, they live here,” he says.

Gump doesn’t believe the deer fell victim to a mountain lion, which usually bury their kill. Taking a closer look, he says he isn’t sure how it died. “It’s the circle of life, I guess.”

Beyond the question of past financial strains and possible misdeeds at the highest levels of OC Parks, Gump sees a more fundamental issue: love of wildlands.

He explains the need this way: “People need to understand and experience and appreciate the land if they’re going to want to protect it.”

John Gump, operations manager of the Irvine Ranch Open Space, opens a gate on Red Rock Ridge Road in Black Star Canyon. The area was part of a 2010 land gift from the Irvine Company.
John Gump, operations manager of the Irvine Ranch Open Space, opens a gate on Red Rock Ridge Road in Black Star Canyon. The area was part of a 2010 land gift from the Irvine Company.

 

IRVINE COMPANY LAND GIFT MILESTONES

1897: Irvine Company makes first public land donation of 160 acres for what today is Irvine Regional Park.

1982: More than 7,300 acres of coastal canyon.

1988: 10,000 acres of open space in Irvine.

2001: 11,000 acres of open space; Donald Bren Stewardship Fund of $50 million created for long-term open space management, preservation, restoration and to enhance public access.

2010: 20,000 acres to county.

2014: 2,500 acres of land near Anaheim Hills, East Orange and Irvine Regional Park to county.

Source: Irvine Company

PRESERVING OPEN SPACE

The county Board of Supervisors this month accepted an additional 2,500 acres of open land and approved spending $300,000 a year on land management and public programs. Here is the breakdown of the latest gifts:

Mountain Park

1,073.9 acres; near the 91 and 241 toll road in Anaheim; previously entitled for development of 2,500 homes.

Santiago Hills II

16.2 acres; adjacent to Irvine Regional Park in Orange.

East Orange Area I

469.2 acres; west of Irvine Lake along Santiago Canyon Road and the 241 toll road in Orange; previously entitled to develop 2,200 homes.

East Orange Area II

936.5 acres; southeast of Irvine Lake in the city of Orange; adjacent to Black Star Canyon.

Source: OC Parks

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Nicole Shine

Irvine Company Completes Open Space Master Plan with Gift of Additional 2,500 Acres, Brings Preserved Irvine Ranch Lands to 55,000 Acres

Irvine Company Completes Open Space Master Plan with Gift of Additional 2,500 Acres, Brings Preserved Irvine Ranch Lands to 55,000 Acres

  • Gift Culminates 50 Years of Open Space Master Planning
  • Nearly 60% of Historic 93,000-Acre Irvine Ranch Preserved
  • Lands Connect to 22-Mile Mountains to Sea Trail

NEWPORT BEACH, Calif., Aug. 12, 2014 — Culminating more than 50 years of open space master planning on the historic Irvine Ranch, the Irvine Company today announced a major land gift of 2,500 acres near Orange and Anaheim Hills now approved for 5,500 homes that instead will be donated as open space.

The gift builds on previous donations to create one of the largest urban land preserves in the nation, stretching from the coastal mountains to the sea. In all, the lands that will be gifted bring the grand total of parklands and open space donated by the Irvine Company to nearly 55,000 acres, or approximately 60% of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch.

The gift comes as the Irvine Company celebrates its 150th anniversary in 2014. The Irvine Company has long treasured land as a precious resource to be used for the benefit of the public. In 1897, the founding Irvine family donated more than 300 acres to the people of Orange County for what today is Irvine Regional Park.

150th Anniversary

“As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of the Irvine Company, this is a perfect opportunity to add to our open space and parklands legacy,” Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren said. “With this gift, we complete our open space vision.”

“The lands represented by this new gift are last pieces of a spectacular open space puzzle that has been assembled on The Irvine Ranch,” said Michael O’Connell, executive director of the nonprofit Irvine Ranch Conservancy, which works with the County of Orange to manage natural lands while providing public volunteer and recreational opportunities. “Preserving these areas protects the balance of stewardship and recreation that ensures the long-term health of this tremendous natural resource.”

In recognition of the biological and geological significance of the open spaces of The Irvine Ranch, thousands of acres of preserved lands were designated as a National Natural Landmark in 2006 and as a California Natural Landmark in 2008.

Enjoyed by Millions

Prized for their beauty and public accessibility, the preserved lands of The Irvine Ranch are visited by more than 2 million outdoor enthusiasts annually. The lands’ trails, parks and open spaces are enjoyed for hiking, biking, running, riding horseback, camping, picnicking at Irvine Regional Park or connecting with nature on guided tours of the diverse geography and unique habits.

The northern and southern open spaces of The Irvine Ranch are linked by the Mountains to Sea Trail, which stretches 22 miles from oak-filled Weir Canyon to Upper Newport Bay. The Mountains to Sea Trail makes exploring the diverse open spaces of The Irvine Ranch easy and accessible.

Gifted Lands

The newly gifted lands span an area equal to the size of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and San Diego’s Balboa Park combined. In Anaheim Hills, the donation covers 1,100 acres bordered to the north by the Riverside (91) Freeway, alongside the Eastern (241) Toll Road and adjacent to previously preserved open spaces including Gypsum and Weir canyons, which were donated by the Irvine Company to the County of Orange in 2010. In East Orange, the land includes 1,400 acres east of the 241 and alongside the southeastern shore of Irvine Lake, next to open space given by the Irvine Company to the County of Orange in 2010.

“Part of the great quality of life we enjoy here in Orange County stems from those who had the foresight to value open space as much as development,” said Supervisor Todd Spitzer, who represents the Third District where the land is located. “I want to thank the Irvine Company for foregoing their development approvals and providing this land gift for the public’s access and enjoyment.”

Adding to Canyons, Irvine Regional Park

The land gift will combine to create a contiguous area of canyon open space on the northern reaches of The Irvine Ranch, joining with Weir Canyon, Fremont Canyon, Black Star Canyon Limestone Canyon, Irvine Lake, and Irvine Regional Park, which will see an additional 16 acres of added parklands with the donation.

The 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch stretches nine miles along the Pacific coast, 22 miles inland and encompasses more than one-fifth of Orange County’s total 798 square miles. Within its boundaries lie the city of Irvine and parts of Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Tustin, Orange and Anaheim, plus unincorporated county land and portions of Santa Ana and Costa Mesa.

The Irvine Ranch is considered one of the largest and most successful master-planned communities in the United States with award-winning residential villages, nationally recognized schools and public safety and abundant parks, trails and open space. For more, visit Forever, a website dedicated to the open spaces of the Irvine Ranch.

Donald Bren’s gift to establish 2,500 acres of open space

Among Donald Bren’s fondest childhood memories are the weekends on Lido Isle, a man-made jewel on the Orange County coast. He’d trek down from the Westside with his best friend’s family and spend long hours rowing in Newport Harbor.

As Bren reminisced nearly seven decades later, he turned to the floor-to-ceiling view from his ninth-floor conference room, taking in Fashion Island, Newport Harbor, Lido Island and the shimmering blue Pacific.

“Long story short,” he said, smiling, “I didn’t go very far.”

Today, Bren is the sole shareholder of Irvine Co., one of the most successful real estate firms in U.S. history, owner of the Irvine Ranch and more than 600 premium office buildings, shopping centers, apartment communities and resort properties. He’s also Southern California’s wealthiest man and America’s richest land developer, with a net worth Forbes estimates at $12 billion, twice that of Eli Broad.

At age 78, he has begun to talk openly about a reality with far-reaching implications: that, one day, all of this will be owned and run by someone else.

In a series of recent conversations, Bren said he has made plans for Irvine Co. to continue as a private company controlled by its independent board of directors, which will choose a new chairman. The beneficiaries, he says, will be a combination of public and private entities, which he declined to specify.

“This is a private company that is set up to operate in perpetuity,” he said.

Bren has been more than just the owner; for more than three decades, he’s been its entrepreneurial heart.

“Clearly, Donald Bren is the Irvine Co. and the Irvine Co. is Donald Bren,” said John Cushman, chairman of the commercial real estate brokerage Cushman & Wakefield. Imagining the firm without Bren, he added, is akin to pondering what Berkshire Hathaway will be without Warren Buffett.

Over the years, Bren has sculpted the look of modern suburbia in California and, in the process, become one of the country’s largest and most-copied developers of planned communities.

He’s also preserved and donated to the public more acres of California’s open spaces than he has developed, including 20,000 acres of pristine wilderness that he gave to Orange County last year, asking only that it remain open space forever. (“It’s all yours,” he told the parks chief at the ceremony, where he also donated money to help manage it.)

Along the way, Bren has given away $1.3 billion of his fortune, much of it to bolster education, including millions to public school arts and science programs and $200 million to the University of California.

“In terms of great visionaries who have influenced Southern California, I’d put him up there with Walt Disney,” said Rick Caruso, who owns the Grove and other shopping meccas and is a member of the Irvine Co. board.

These days, Bren remains focused on running his company. He dresses in a suit and tie and drives himself to work for a full day of meetings with colleagues, and leaves each evening with a briefcase stuffed full of what he calls “my homework,” articles on history or science that have caught his eye as well as drawings and plans for Irvine Co. properties.

Sometimes, he’ll sit at his home drafting table at night, studying designs for houses, office buildings, shopping centers or resorts.

“He’ll blow in the next morning with a whole wad of tracing paper and overlap drawings for all of our projects,” said Robert Elliott, senior vice president in charge of the 23-person design team. “It’s amazing, because hardly anybody draws anymore. But he draws very well.”

The corporate ethos reflects Bren’s personality, a mix of self-discipline, creativity and entrepreneurship salted with an abiding thirst for knowledge.

But the man who runs this influential company is something of a mystery. He doesn’t like to talk about himself and limits his outside engagements. Those kinds of things, he said, “take focus and energy away from the challenges required to build a new city. I do limit my exposure to the public. You only have so much time.”

Bren looks years younger than his age, with a ruggedly handsome face and the sturdy frame of an athlete. He was a top-flight downhill skier as a young man, and attended the University of Washington on an athletic scholarship. He missed a chance to make the 1956 Olympic team when he broke his ankle in a fall on the slopes.

Bren, his wife, Brigitte, a 45-year-old lawyer, and their 7-year-old son spend many weekends at their ranch in Sun Valley, Idaho, where Bren still tackles the black diamond runs.

Former Baseball Commissioner Peter Ueberroth and his wife, Ginny, have joined the family for sailing vacations on the Mediterranean, but they draw the line at the winter slopes. “We don’t ski well enough to keep up with Don and Brigitte,” he said with a laugh.

The Brens, who’ve been married for 12 years, have a home in West Los Angeles, where they enjoy dining with close friends, including former Gov. Pete Wilson and his wife, Gayle. But the Brens spend most of their time at their waterfront villa on tiny Harbor Island, an exclusive neighborhood just a seven-minute drive from corporate headquarters.

Bren’s home is designed in the style of Andrea Palladio, the 16th-century Renaissance architect whose influence is evident in the Pelican Hill Resort and other Irvine Co. properties. A student of architecture and history, Bren was inspired by Palladio’s famous treatise, “The Four Books of Architecture.”

“He’s probably the most influential architect in the history of the modern world,” Bren said. “I’m just in love with his designs.”

Bren and his wife are Republicans, and he describes himself as “a fiscal conservative and social moderate.” He backed Wilson’s Senate campaign and contributed to Meg Whitman’s gubernatorial bid. But he’s also long supported Democrat Dianne Feinstein, whom he calls “a great senator for California.”

Bren has worked diligently to keep his personal life private. He has six children, including one with Brigitte and three from his first two marriages.

The two other children, now 18 and 22, were with a former girlfriend. They battled Bren in court last year seeking $130 million in retroactive child support. Bren testified during the trial, and his attorneys noted that he had given the children more than $9 million since their birth and, although he rarely saw them, had already promised to pay their education expenses until the age of 25. The jury sided with Bren.

His two oldest sons are in the real estate business, though neither works for Irvine Co. “The best way for a young person to grow and prosper is on his own, as I did,” Bren said.

Bren grew up in Bel-Air and later Beverly Hills, and graduated with the Beverly Hills High class of 1950. His father, Milton Bren, was a real estate investor and Hollywood film producer best known for the “Topper” screwball comedies of the 1930s and ’40s.

His parents divorced when Donald and his brother were young, and their father married the film noir actress Claire Trevor in 1948, the year of her Oscar-winning turnin “Key Largo.”

Trevor earned fame playing tough dames, though off-screen she was an intellectual, an accomplished painter and sculptor, and a friend of artists, particularly the 1950s-era abstract expressionists known as the New York School. She introduced Bren to many of those artists, and her appreciation for art had a profound effect on her stepson.

“That was such an exciting period,” Bren recalled. “What I learned from Claire was to see a different dimension, the depth, the symmetry, the relationships, the color. That carried over to architecture for me.”

Bren, who sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, describes himself as a modest collector. Paintings by the late Richard Diebenkorn, a California artist and one of Bren’s favorites, hang in the Bren home and at Irvine Co. headquarters.

Bren earned a degree in business and economics at UW, then entered the Marines as an infantry officer after the Korean War, leaving with the rank of first lieutenant. The discipline “was a rude awakening after college life,” he recalled with a laugh. But it’s something he still values, and he regularly attends the Marines’ birthday celebration in Orange County.

After his discharge, Bren considered law school. But on a return visit to Newport Beach he spotted a waterfront lot for sale on Lido Isle, the same place he’d played as a youngster. He borrowed $10,000 from a friend at a bank, a little more from an acquaintance at a savings and loan, and became a home builder.

Bren Co. grew quickly in the post-World War II boom, developing a reputation for attractive designs and quality construction. He developed the first master plan for 10,000 acres in Mission Viejo, building homes, a shopping center and a golf course, and was erecting thousands of homes a year across California.

In 1977 he took the fateful gamble of buying a controlling interest in Irvine Co. with two other investors.

The company’s signature property was the Irvine Ranch, 93,000 acres that stretched from Newport Beach to the Cleveland National Forest, five times the size of Manhattan and one-fifth of Orange County. The ranch was named for James Irvine, an Irish immigrant who pieced together Spanish and Mexican land grants during the Lincoln presidency.

When the housing market stalled in the early 1980s, Bren made a move that touched off one of the biggest legal battles in the history of Orange County.

It began when Bren borrowed $560 million and bought out his partners. Then he moved to acquire the final shares from Irvine family members, including James Irvine’s great-granddaughter Joan Irvine Smith. She contended that Bren had grossly underpaid for the company, and their years-long legal fight ultimately cost more than $30 million. In the end, a court mediator settled the case and Bren paid Smith $240 million, or less than half what she had sought.

By 1991, he was the sole owner of a stunning property that lay squarely in the path of an explosion of suburban growth south of Los Angeles.

Irvine Co. had taken initial steps to create the master plan for the city of Irvine and set aside land for public spaces, but after Bren took over, he greatly expanded those efforts.

Bren’s swift moves and his company’s growing power spawned enemies in those years. Environmentalists were suspicious of his promises to leave large parts of the ranch untouched. Others accused the company of transforming vast swaths of the ranch into bland suburban developments.

But, today, Bren has won over many of his critics. When he donated the wilderness acres to Orange County last year, environmentalists praised him. Jean Watt, president of the nonprofit Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, hailed it as “a new era of cooperation.”

Even Larry Agran, the former mayor of the city of Irvine who for years was a Bren critic, has come around. “What the pioneers of the Irvine Co. understood, and what Bren and the company have come to realize, is that planning really works,” he said.

The city of Irvine, population 217,000, is about 85% developed, with a 20-year supply of residential lots remaining. It has a median home value of $600,000 and acres of space devoted to parks, community buildings, sports fields and green belts.

The Irvine Co. vision, that a community with plenty of open spaces would make the private development all the more profitable, has paid off. Last year, while builders everywhere struggled to get off the mat, Irvine Co. restarted its dormant home-construction division and has since sold 1,200 homes there.

Today, Irvine Co.’s suburban juggernaut covers 44,000 acres of the ranch, and nearly half the rest is a natural habitat with a National Natural Landmark designation, home to mountain lions, golden eagles and dozens of species of rare and endangered plants and animals.

“I’ve heard people say he only protected it because it couldn’t be developed. But they either haven’t seen it or haven’t seen what developers can do in Southern California,” said Michael O’Connell, a conservation biologist who heads the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. “He could have developed it all.”

The company’s reach now extends well beyond the ranch. It has commercial, retail, residential and resort holdings in Los Angeles, San Diego and Silicon Valley, 95 million square feet of investment property in all. A few months ago, it bought the 5-year-old Hyatt Center, an elliptical 48-story office tower in Chicago.

Irvine Co. doesn’t release financial details, but it holds the highest credit rating, with a debt load about half of its competitors’; most of its office and retail properties, and all of its land, are debt-free.

For more than a quarter-century, the key to Irvine Co.’s success has been Bren. He plans to lead the company as long as he’s able.

But, when the time comes, Bren says, the company board, which now includes Caruso, Ueberroth and Wilson, will select a new leader, most likely from Bren’s four-member “office of the chairman,” the top lieutenants who work with him to chart the company’s future.

“No one lives forever,” said Daniel Young, a five-term Santa Ana mayor who heads the company’s community planning and development division and is one of those top executives. “But there’s a system in place and a great board in place.”

Bren carefully chose his words when speaking about that future.

“The Irvine Co. doesn’t end with me,” he said. “I’m just here for a period. The company goes on.”

Los Angeles Times

Scott Kraft
Los Angeles Times

“It’s All Yours,” Bren Tells O.C.

Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren signed over 20,000 acres of rugged, dramatic landscape to OC Parks on Tuesday amid windblown grasses and hulking oaks.

“That was painless,” he said after signing a ceremonial deed created for the occasion, while Orange County supervisors, Irvine city officials, park rangers, naturalists and open-space advocates looked on.

Then, before turning away from both the microphone and his role as landowner for some of the county’s most untrammeled wild spaces, Bren, 78, shook the hand of OC Parks director Mark Denny.

“It’s all yours,” he said.

“Yours,” in this case, means all of Orange County. The four major canyons that make up the gift include Black Star, expected to become the 2,000-acre “Black Star Canyon Wilderness Park” within three to four years.

It is the largest gift of land in county history.

Orange County supervisors accepted the 20,000 acres in June, though Bren’s proposal had been announced the year before – and anticipated for 20 years. It increased OC Parks’ landholdings by 50 percent in a single stroke, and caps Irvine Co. land donations over the past century that amount to more than half of the historic Irvine Ranch that stretched across the county’s midsection.

Public access to what was once the domain of cattle and cowboys will gradually increase in coming years.

Hikers, bicyclists and horseback riders already have free access once a month to the Limestone Canyon section, spanning more than 5,000 acres adjacent to Whiting Ranch and home to “The Sinks” – a “breathtaking geological formation” that is “one of the wonders of Orange County, and should be seen by all,” Orange County supervisor Bill Campbell told the group.

And there are other programs and outings on the property led by docents.

Bren’s gift also includes Fremont Canyon, full of poppies in spring, Weir Canyon, full of oak woodlands and mule deer, and Loma Ridge, from which the ocean and downtown Los Angeles were visible Tuesday, with skies blown clear by wind.

Mountain lions frequent the property, raptors hunt rodents in the scrub, owls hoot at night.

“It’s almost like having an entire national park, as a centerpiece, located right here in the middle of Orange County,” Bren told the group. “What’s more, it’s the largest urban open space in the United States. In fact, more than 30 million people live less than 30 minutes from this pristine natural treasure.”

Much of the land is protected under Orange County’s Natural Communities Conservation Plan, an umbrella of land management meant to preserve suitable habitat for a variety of native species.

So OC Parks must balance public access with habitat protection – perhaps keeping some sections closed even as more of the land is opened to the public in the years to come.

For the next three years, the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, created by the Irvine Co. to manage wild lands, will continue conducting research, education and restoration on the property.

Environmental groups, including some that questioned the land transfer and the county’s ability to manage and fund it, studied the proposal carefully before lending their support.

Pat Brennan
Orange County Register

Irvine Co. Gives 20,000 Acres Of Open Space To Orange County

A rugged, 20,000-acre parcel of the original Irvine Ranch a pristine landscape of steep canyons, native grassland and sycamore woodland that is home to golden eagles, mountain lions and dozens of rare and endangered species of plants and animals became public property Tuesday in a historic deal with the developer who has sculpted the look of modern suburbia in Southern California.

The open-space land, a gift from Donald Bren and the Irvine Co., was unanimously accepted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, which also approved a long-term plan to manage the natural habitat, designated a National Natural Landmark four years ago. In one swoop, the size of parkland owned by the county grew by more than half.

The transfer of a large part of the historic ranch was an important milestone, placing the last major chunk of open private land in public hands and signaling the end of an era of enormous growth for Orange County.

It also was the culmination of an effort that Bren, a 78-year-old multibillionaire, launched more than three decades ago when he took control of the 94,000-acre Irvine Ranch, about a fifth of Orange County.

“It’s been a long trail, these last 30 years, and this is a very significant event for us,” Bren said in a rare interview after the handover.

He called the private-public partnership on open spaces a rare example of “social entrepreneurship,” adding that “I’m proud of the people in the company who spent so much time with these community partnerships. I couldn’t be more pleased. This is an investment in the future. It lives forever, and that is in fact a legacy.”

Over the years, Bren’s vision as a developer has transformed the Orange County landscape. His Irvine Co. created a retail, commercial and suburban juggernaut on 44,000 acres of the ranch, from the Newport coast to the city of Irvine, becoming, in the process, one of the world’s largest and most-copied developers of planned communities.

But he also set aside 50,000 acres for parks, greenways, and a recreational and wilderness preserve. More than half of that was previously donated to the public; the land given to the county Tuesday completes the transfer.

“I can’t even begin to guess what the value of this property is. But in terms of its biological and geologic value, it is truly priceless,” said Michael O’Connell, executive director of the Irvine Ranch Conservancy. “It’s a world-class piece of land.”

The conservancy, a nonprofit entity created by the Donald Bren Foundation, will continue to manage the land, under contract to the county’s parks department.

The new county wilderness area extends from near the 91 Freeway south to the hills above Irvine, and parts of it are visible from both sides of the 241 toll road in eastern Orange County. It includes Loma Ridge, Laguna Laurel and Limestone Canyon, and plans are under way to create a new, 2,000-acre nature park, Black Star Canyon Regional Park, adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest.

Nearly five times the size of Griffith Park, the land is essentially one large tract, which makes it important ecologically. It is part of what scientists call a Mediterranean climate zone, an area characterized by dry, mild weather and coastal fog that covers just 2% of the planet but contains 20% of all known plant species.

The land is a “truly magnificent, a globally important ‘hotspot’ of biological diversity,” said Albert Bennett, dean of the School of Biological Sciences at UC Irvine. He said students and faculty travel the world to study similarly endowed open spaces “and these local lands rival many of those places in their diversity and biological importance.”

Scientists also regard the tract as a geological treasure, and parts of it preserve an intact record of the last 80 million years of Earth history.

The parkland is rare among similarly sized natural habitats in the United States because it is so close to a highly urbanized area the land is within a half-hour drive of nearly 3 million people.

Much of the parkland is remote and untouched, though part of it has been accessible to the public in the past, mostly through naturalist-led hikes and recreation days when visitors can go mountain biking and horseback riding. But access to the sensitive habitat is limited, and the county says that is likely to continue as the county develops long-term preservation plans.

“We want to create as many opportunities as possible for people to connect to the land and care about it,” O’Connell said. “But not so much that they love it too much and threaten the values that make it so special.”

When the Irvine Co. announced the wilderness gift last year, some environmentalists raised questions about whether the county had the financial resources to protect it.

The funding plan presented Tuesday by Mark Denny, director of Orange County Parks, includes $4 million from the Irvine Co. for management and capital improvements as well as a $1-million endowment for a scientific research center at UC Irvine. In addition, the Nature Conservancy is contributing $2 million.

A hiker explores rugged Fremont Canyon in Orange County's Irvine Ranch.
A hiker explores rugged Fremont Canyon in Orange County’s Irvine Ranch.

Environmentalists welcomed the plan Tuesday. Penny Elia, of the Sierra Club told the supervisors that it marked a “historic day.” Jean Watt, president of Friends of Harbors, Beaches and Parks, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting natural habitats, said the gift “lays the groundwork for a new era of cooperation” among the county, environmental advocates and private organizations.

The donation was the largest single transfer of private property to public ownership in Orange County history, increasing the county’s parks and open-space protected land from 39,000 acres to more than 59,000 acres.

The Irvine Ranch got its name from its original owner, James Irvine, an Irish immigrant who started a produce and grocery business in San Francisco during the Gold Rush and, with his partners, assembled the ranch from Spanish and Mexican land grants. His son, James Jr., inherited the ranch in 1892 and launched one of the state’s earliest large-scale agricultural enterprises.

In 1897, the Irvine Co. made its first public land donation: 304 acres near the city of Orange that is today known as Irvine Regional Park.

Bren, one of the last California land barons, took over the company with two partners in 1977 and, two years later, they sold a discounted tract of land to the state to create Crystal Cove State Park.

After Bren bought out his partners, he began a more aggressive move to develop the ranch and, at the same time, began a process of large-scale land preservation aimed at creating wildlife corridors and protecting the natural habitat.

Growing up in Los Angeles, Bren frequently took advantage of California’s open spaces, hiking and camping in the mountains. As an outdoorsman, he said, “I really appreciated nature.”

His family had a beach home in Orange County, and since he moved there 50 years ago, he said, “I’ve seen Orange County grow and I’ve grown with it. And one of the great opportunities was to be part of this open-space preservation partnership with the ranch. I think it’s really the monumental legacy for this company.”

Los Angeles Times

Scott Kraft
Los Angeles Times

Orange County Land Designated As First California Natural Landmark

Los Angeles Times

Tony Barboza
Los Angeles Times

April 23, 2008

Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., left, leads Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others through Bommer Canyon, part of a nearly 40,000-acre swath of Orange County open space that has been designated as the first California Natural Landmark.
Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., left, leads Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and others through Bommer Canyon, part of a nearly 40,000-acre swath of Orange County open space that has been designated as the first California Natural Landmark.

Nearly 40,000 acres of Orange County parkland stretching from the coast to the foothills — once part of the historic Irvine Ranch — has been deemed so ecologically valuable by state officials that on Tuesday they designated it the first California Natural Landmark.
The program is designed to recognize significant open space areas by placing them in a statewide registry.

Although the designation is only a title — it does not require the land to be permanently protected or opened to the public — officials hope the attention it brings will encourage long-term preservation.

“It definitely doesn’t have any regulatory teeth,” said Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California, which co-sponsored the bill to create the program last year. “But it’s an incremental step that hopefully softens up landowners and moves them toward permanent protection.”

The announcement, timed to coincide with Earth Day, took place in a wooded area of historic buildings and picnic tables in Bommer Canyon — city-owned open space west of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park near the 73 toll road — which is included in the landmark.

Elementary school students and Scouts attended, along with a smattering of local and state officials, including Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.

“Only in California can you see a 40,000-acre natural landmark right in the middle of one of the nation’s most vibrant and economically important urban areas,” Schwarzenegger said before unveiling a map of the land, which mostly surrounds Irvine.

"Only in California can you see a 40,000-acre natural landmark right in the middle of one of the nation’s most vibrant and economically important urban areas," Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says of the land, which mostly surrounds Irvine. The governor was accompanied by a smattering of state and local officials, along with Scouts and elementary school students.
“Only in California can you see a 40,000-acre natural landmark right in the middle of one of the nation’s most vibrant and economically important urban areas,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says of the land, which mostly surrounds Irvine. The governor was accompanied by a smattering of state and local officials, along with Scouts and elementary school students.

The rolling landscape features canyons filled with coastal sage-scrub, grasslands and oak woodlands. One expanse is near the coast, including Crystal Cove State Park and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; the other is in the lower reaches of the Santa Ana Mountains, including the Limestone Canyon and Weir Canyon wilderness areas.
To make the state list, land must be mostly in its natural state and have the biological and geological significance of a state or national park. Each proposal, which may include any combination of public and private land, is put through a peer-reviewed scientific analysis. Landowners must pay for state parks workers to review their application.

“Orange County has what’s equivalent to a national park right here, but very few people are aware of it,” said Dave Raetz, director of public programs for the Irvine Ranch Conservancy, which operates 50,000 acres of protected parks and wilderness on what once was the Irvine Ranch. “You have millions of people who live within 10 or 20 minutes of here. We’d like them to appreciate the land and get involved.”

Starting in the 1960s, the Irvine Co. began building master-planned communities on its land, but also set aside portions to be kept clear of development. About half of the 93,000-acre Irvine Ranch has been preserved and is owned by eight public and private entities, including cities, state agencies and the Irvine Co.

“I’m hoping that this program will inspire other landowners to do the same,” said California State Parks Director Ruth Coleman.

The state program is based on a similar program the National Park Service administers. Most of the Irvine Ranch open space in 2006 joined the national list, which also includes locales such as Mt. Shasta and Anza-Borrego Desert State Park.

Next up for inclusion on the statewide list probably is land near Carmel, said Rick Rayburn, California State Parks natural resources director. Officials are eyeing other acreage, such as the Hearst Ranch on the Central Coast.
Topher Lambert, 15, who often goes camping and biking with his Boy Scout troop in the shrub-covered hills above his Irvine neighborhood, said the area was lucky to receive the statewide attention. But it is hardly too soon; one canyon he used to bike up and down now has housing developments.

“So it’s pretty cool that they’re paying attention to the environment,” he said. “This is all that’s left.”

Children from Bonita Canyon Elementary School in Irvine walk through Bommer Canyon to attend the announcement ceremony — timed to coincide with Earth Day — designating the historic Irvine Ranch land as the first California Natural Landmark. To make the statewide list, land must be mostly undisturbed and have such biological and geological significance that it could have been preserved as a state or national park.
Children from Bonita Canyon Elementary School in Irvine walk through Bommer Canyon to attend the announcement ceremony — timed to coincide with Earth Day — designating the historic Irvine Ranch land as the first California Natural Landmark. To make the statewide list, land must be mostly undisturbed and have such biological and geological significance that it could have been preserved as a state or national park.
Bommer Canyon, city-owned open space west of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park near the 73 toll road, is part of the acreage deemed so ecologically valuable by state officials that it has been designated a California Natural Landmark. The rolling landscape features canyons filled with coastal sage scrub, grasslands and oak woodlands. One expanse is near the coast, including Crystal Cove State Park and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; the other is in the lower reaches of the Santa Ana Mountains, including the Limestone Canyon and Weir Canyon wilderness areas.
Bommer Canyon, city-owned open space west of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park near the 73 toll road, is part of the acreage deemed so ecologically valuable by state officials that it has been designated a California Natural Landmark. The rolling landscape features canyons filled with coastal sage scrub, grasslands and oak woodlands. One expanse is near the coast, including Crystal Cove State Park and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park; the other is in the lower reaches of the Santa Ana Mountains, including the Limestone Canyon and Weir Canyon wilderness areas.
A cyclist pedals up Bommer Canyon Road. The designation of the Orange County acreage as a California Natural Landmark does not require that it be permanently protected or open to the public, but officials hope the attention it brings will encourage long-term preservation. "It’s an incremental step that hopefully softens up landowners and moves them toward permanent protection," says Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California, which co-sponsored the bill to create the program.
A cyclist pedals up Bommer Canyon Road. The designation of the Orange County acreage as a California Natural Landmark does not require that it be permanently protected or open to the public, but officials hope the attention it brings will encourage long-term preservation. “It’s an incremental step that hopefully softens up landowners and moves them toward permanent protection,” says Glenn Olson, executive director of Audubon California, which co-sponsored the bill to create the program.

Irvine Ranch Gains State Landmark Status

Most of the remaining Irvine Ranch became California’s first Natural Landmark on Tuesday, a new designation announced by the governor during an Earth Day celebration amid the ranch’s rolling, brush-covered hills.

“This is wonderful and I can guarantee you, this is something that would not happen anywhere else,” Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told the group of students, scientists, land managers and wildlife agency officials.

The nearly 40,000-acre designation, he said, is “right here in the middle of one of the nation’s most vibrant and economically important urban areas.”

The state landmark status, dreamed up by Assemblyman George A. Plescia, R-San Diego, after a similar expanse of the ranch was declared a National Natural Landmark in 2006, is meant to recognize the state’s most spectacular habitat and geology – and encourage other landowners to preserve wild land.

Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren told the group that 50,000 acres, more than half of the historic Irvine Ranch, has been set aside for preservation.

“One of my dreams has been for the Irvine Ranch to be known and celebrated for what’s been preserved and protected here, as well as for its outstanding communities that have been created here,” Bren told the group.

Under the state’s criteria, which target biological richness and unusual geologic formations, about 39,000 acres qualified for landmark status.

The ranch is home to scrubland, oak woodlands and streamside corridors lined with massive sycamores. A variety of rare and endangered species inhabit the ranch land, managed by the Irvine Ranch Conservancy.

Some of the land, though once owned by the Irvine Co., is now owned by a variety of agencies, including Orange County, Irvine, Laguna Beach and state parks.

Governor’s remarks:

It is wonderful to be here today and I want to thank Donald Bren for inviting me to come here today, especially to be here today on Earth Day.  Earth Day is a very special day.  What makes this day special is because all of a sudden the spotlight goes on that issue of the environment.  And not just in this state or in this country, but I checked it out last night at 12 o’clock, at midnight.  I wanted to know how many countries are really celebrating Earth Day — it’s 185 countries around the globe.

So it just shows you, the whole world is celebrating this special day and putting the spotlight on that issue of fighting global warming, cleaning up our environment, cleaning our water, our air and conservation — if it is conservation of energy and water and all of those kinds of issues.  And children are learning how they can participate, so I think it is really terrific.  And it gives us also an opportunity here to shine the spotlight on the great accomplishments and the great achievements that we have made here in California.

So today I’m very proud to announce the first-ever California natural landmark here at Irvine Ranch.  This is wonderful news and I can guarantee you, this is something that would not happen anywhere else.  Only in California can you see a 40,000 acre — now, when I walked up this road here and through the flowers, Donald corrected me and said, “It’s 50,000 acres; don’t say 40.”  So I want you to know, you will hear these various different numbers; but I stick with what Donald says since it’s his place.  (Laughter)  So, it’s 50,000 acres of natural landmark right here in the middle of one of the nation’s most vibrant and economically important urban areas.

Now, it is the latest, I would say, accomplishment in the Irvine Company’s proud history of preserving land for future generations.  Today’s action just shows what can be accomplished when individuals that are visionaries, that are generous and that are passionate and all levels of government cooperate and work together.  This is exactly why Earth Day is so very special here in California.  Our level of commitment, of course, for preservation and innovation is unmatched.

And when I think back just to 2003 when I talked about that we can preserve both the economy and the environment, there were people that didn’t believe that we can do that.  But I think we have proven to them that we can do it, because in these last four years alone California has accomplished a lot.

We have put aside 25 million acres of pristine land for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy.  We passed the Ocean Action Plan, the Marine Life Protection Act, the Million Solar Roof Initiative, the Green Building Initiative to make our government buildings more energy efficient by the year 2015.  And, of course, our historic law, AB 32, to make a commitment to roll back our greenhouse gases to the 1990 level by the year 2020 and then an additional 80 percent by the year 2050.  And then a year later we created the world’s first Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

But as we all know, the reality is that Earth Day is not just about what we have accomplished and what we are accomplishing right now, but it’s also about the future.  And big things are happening that will make that future brighter for all of us.  Last Friday, for instance, I spoke at the Governors Conference on Climate Change at Yale University.

This event was inspired by the 100th anniversary of a historic meeting called by President Teddy Roosevelt that gave birth to the modern conservation movement.  The president was alarmed then already at the country’s rapid and reckless depletion of natural resources, so he summoned a group of governors to the White House.  The meeting also led to the creation of our national parks system.

At Yale I joined 17 other states in signing a declaration calling on the next president and the next Congress to make the environment and climate change the top of their priorities.  But it’s not just states that are taking action.  There’s great action all over the country; more than 700 U.S. mayors have joined together in a climate protection agreement and 32 of the largest and most influential companies in America and environmental groups have formed an alliance to call for greenhouse gas reductions and oil companies are now pouring billions and billions of dollars into renewable energy.

And a big boost of course will be coming after the election, no matter whether it’s McCain, Obama, or Clinton.  They all are good when it comes to the environment.  The environmental movement is sweeping the nation from Main Street to Wall Street and I know for sure it will make its way to Pennsylvania Avenue.

So, our work is paying off and I’m confident that our momentum will grow stronger and stronger with every passing day because we are more committed than ever before.  So thank you very much and now let’s create some action with California’s new natural landmark.  Thank you very much.  Thank you.

Pat Brennan, Orange County Register

Irvine Ranch Acreage Gets Landmark Status

Irvine Ranch acreage gets landmark status
The governor is among those at a ceremony to announce the national designation, shared by Diamond Head and the La Brea Tar Pits.

David Reyes
Los Angeles Times

October 11, 2006

From left: Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren; National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger walk through Crystal Cove State Park.
From left: Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren; National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger walk through Crystal Cove State Park.

A 37,000-acre swath of Orange County that stretches from the ocean to the foothills — property that once was part of historic Irvine Ranch — was designated Tuesday a national landmark.

National Park Service Director Fran P. Mainella said the designation was in recognition of one of the best examples of preserved habitats and biological and geological characteristics in the country.

The landmark designation was part of a brief ceremony held at Crystal Cove State Park and attended by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, U.S. Rep. John Campbell (R-Irvine), State Parks Director Ruth Coleman, Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren, Mainella and others.

Other areas similarly designated include Diamond Head in Hawaii, the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and Torrey Pines State Reserve in San Diego County.

At 37,000 acres, the Irvine Ranch National Natural Landmark is one of the largest areas to earn the designation.

The rolling land includes canyons filled with coastal sage scrub, grasslands, and oak woodlands that naturalists say emphasize Southern California’s subtle, natural beauty.

During the evaluation leading to the designation, scientists noted that the area’s natural resources included nearly 80 million years of geologic history “preserved, uninterrupted like a virtual encyclopedia of stratigraphy,” according to Michael Soukup with the National Park Service.

Stratigraphy is the study of rock layers and layering.

The land has many owners, including the state, the county, Irvine, the Irvine Co. and the Nature Conservancy.

To qualify under the landmark criteria, a proposed site must contain some of the best examples of a natural region’s biological and geological features, said Stephen Gibbons, the park service natural landmarks coordinator.

Although national parks are the country’s most treasured assets, there are many other places with unique resources of national significance that won’t ever be protected as parks, Gibbons said.

“I see areas that may not be national-park caliber,” he said. “Nevertheless, they’re great examples of our national heritage. This natural landmark is one of them.”

In his remarks, Schwarzenegger said that Tuesday’s event “celebrates another area of our state that can be enjoyed for generations.”

He also singled Bren out for his “conservation efforts & and generosity.”

The new landmark boundaries are part of the 50,000 acre Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, a nonprofit organization that Bren formed last year to help protect and restore natural resources.

At the time, Bren donated $20 million to support the trust.

Bren said that walking and hiking the ranch’s wilderness lands had made him reemphasize “my dream” that Irvine Ranch would be known “for what has been preserved and protected here.”

The land included in the new designation has been preserved as parks and open space by the various landowners.

It includes Limestone and Fremont canyons, Peters Canyon Regional Park near Orange, Crystal Cove State Park and Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Bommer Canyon in Irvine.

Area Set Aside as Landmark

From shining sea at Crystal Cove to majestic Saddleback Mountain, 37,000 acres given national designation.

From left: Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren; National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger walk through Crystal Cove State Park.
From left: Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren; National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger walk through Crystal Cove State Park.

CRYSTAL COVE — About 37,000 acres of Irvine Ranch land, extending from Crystal Cove to the foothills of Saddleback Mountain, was recognized Tuesday as the country’s newest National Natural Landmark.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, National Park Service Director Fran Mainella, Rep. John Campbell — who gave Schwarzenegger the new title of “conservationator” — and others gathered Tuesday morning in a parking lot on a bluff in Crystal Cove State Park, thanking Irvine Co. Chairman Don Bren for his help facilitating the process.

“We’re celebrating more than protecting the environment; we’re also celebrating generosity,” Schwarzenegger said.

The land, which is owned by Orange County, the city of Irvine, the Irvine Co., California State Parks and the Nature Conservancy, was subject to scientific evaluation by 10 geology and biology experts to assess its physical and geological significance. The area received the natural landmark designation because of the presence of fossils — which date back 80 million years — and a diverse animal and plant population that includes some endangered species and others unique to the area.

“My dream is that the Irvine Ranch will be known and celebrated just for what has been preserved and protected here & as the Irvine Ranch is known for the outstanding quality of life communities that have been built here,” said Don Bren in a prepared statement to a crowd of supporters and media.

Bren said Tuesday’s announcement marked his dreams of conserving the land coming true.

The maintenance of the land continues to be the responsibility of the land owners and paid for through the Irvine Co.’s $50-million Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust.

“The $50-million trust is for stewardship and educational programs and things of that nature,” said Dan Young, executive vice president of the Irvine Co.

Not since 1987 has land owned by a public-private partnership been given the designation.

“We hope with this kind of leadership happening, maybe others in our country will be so inspired to nominate land,” Mainella said after the formal ceremony.

Fewer than 600 sites are designated as a National Natural Landmark and the Irvine Ranch land joins places such as Oahu’s Diamond Head, and California’s Torrey Pines State Park, Anza Borrego Desert and Mt. Shasta in its designation.

Along with Crystal Cove, other areas recognized by the designation include Limestone and Fremont canyons, Peters Canyon Regional Park, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, the open space between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach, and Bommer Canyon.

The program was started to encourage land owners to protect natural areas to promote scientific advancement and education in the areas. Nominated sites must undergo an independent scientific evaluation.

Amanda Pennington
Daily Pilot

Latest Gift Brings Bren’s Donations to Reserve to $50 Million

Big Swath Gets a Big Gift

The foundation of the Irvine Co.’s chairman gives $20 million to increase access to 50,000 acres of open space.

Standing in a small clearing amid giant sycamores in Irvine Regional Park on Thursday, Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren pledged $20 million to expand the public’s access to 50,000 acres of the former Irvine Ranch set aside as open space.

The gift brings to $50 million the amount donated by the Donald Bren Foundation to make sure the land is protected and remains in its rugged state.

Bren, making a rare public appearance before 200 invited guests, including U.S. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton, also announced the creation of the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve Trust, a nonprofit he said guaranteed that the acreage would be permanently preserved.

The old ranch land stretches from the Anaheim hills to the ocean and includes Limestone Canyon and Crystal Cove. Three mountains-to-sea bike paths are included in the public access plan, with one of them recently opened. The Irvine Ranch Land Reserve covers more than 145 square miles, about half of it urbanized.

Trish Smith, a senior project ecologist with the Nature Conservancy, which manages 34,000 acres of the reserve, applauded the creation of the trust.

“It’s hard for me to imagine it’s really happening. We’ve been thinking about it for a long time, noodling and wishing for it, but we never thought it would actually happen,” Smith said.

The benefit of the trust, she said, is the consistent management it should provide. If the land were managed by the government, it would be subject to political whim and the government’s own economic restraints, she said.

The skies were overcast and a light fog clung to the hills as Norton and Bren took a short walk before the festivities began. But the clouds burned off and the sun came through as Bren spoke.

“My vision,” Bren told those assembled, “is that the reserve will set a new standard for conservation stewardship and recreation that will be understood and appreciated, not just in Orange County, but throughout the United States.

CHANGE IN THE AIR: Donald Bren, chairman of the Irvine Co., chats with U.S. Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton at Irvine Regional Park, where Bren announced his foundation’s donation. One of three trails from the mountains to the sea has been opened.

“I believe we can create a world-renowned park … a place where the people from Orange County can enjoy nature close to their homes,” he said.

The $20-million gift will be used to enhance public access to areas of the reserve that now are off-limits, including the opening of 30 new trails in the next three to five years, company officials said.

The money will also support management and restoration of natural habitats.

Norton praised the plans for the reserve.

“The Irvine Ranch illustrates what cooperative conservation is all about,” she said. “A conservation-minded corporate citizen is working hand-in-hand with federal and state agencies, the Nature Conservancy, local communities, private citizens and other partners to thoughtfully and purposefully create an environment where both people and wildlife can thrive.”

Times staff photographer Don Kelsen contributed to this report.

By Sara Lin, Times Staff Writer

Los Angeles Times
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