New Ventura River Steelhead Preserve Announced

For Immediate Release

– June 21, 2011

Media Inquiries: Greg Gamble, Executive Director, (805) 649-6852 ext.1

New Ventura River Steelhead Preserve Announced

As part of its continuing efforts to preserve the entire Ventura River, the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy, on June 17th, successfully completed the purchase of a roughly 1 mile stretch of the Ventura River.  This section of the river near its confluence with San Antonio Creek has deep, cool, shaded pools that don’t dry up in the hot Ojai summers.  These pools provide a refuge for endangered southern California steelhead as they await flow conditions which allow them to continue their migration upstream.  In addition to steelhead, this new “Ventura River Steelhead Preserve” offers a home for 31 other “special status” species listed at the state or federal level.  This list includes the California red-legged frog, Least Bell’s vireo, great egret, white-faced ibis, and southwestern pond turtle.

With this purchase, the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy has taken a giant step toward reaching the goal of protecting, by the year 2020, an additional 2,020 acres of Ojai Valley’s best views, trails, water and wildlife.  Having changed hands only once in the last 100 years, opportunities to protect this important natural land may be rarer than the endangered wildlife it hosts.  After investing years building relationships with the former owners of the property and with $2 million in grants from the State Coastal Conservancy and the California Department of Fish & Game’s “Fisheries Restoration Grant Program,” the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy is proud to protect this open space for current and future generations.   Because the $2 million in grants were restricted to acquisition costs only, the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy has begun raising the funds necessary to prepare this new preserve for appropriate public access.  Ojai Valley Land Conservancy members and guests will be welcomed at a celebration at the new preserve in late July.  New members are welcome as well.

Executive Director, Greg Gamble in announcing the purchase to staff and Board members said, “There are a lot of things land trusts do which are good, and benefit the community.  But the best thing that land trusts do, the only thing that nearly all other entities and people cannot do, is protect special places in ways that cannot be undone.  Today is the day that all the other days lead to in the life of a land trust!”