WHAT MAKES OJAI HOME?
I am an Ojaian, born and raised. Summertime always makes me particularly nostalgic, since I grew up swimming in the pools of the Ventura River, driving to Bates Beach when it was too hot to do anything else, and picking fruit from friends’ trees.
As a teenager, the closeness of Ojai felt claustrophobic. I couldn’t wait to see the world and moved away as soon as I graduated from Ojai’s Nordhoff High School, first for university in Los Angeles and then for a job in Tokyo.
During the muggy Japanese summers, filled with monsoons and typhoons, the stark contrast between the ever-damp jungle of the Japanese mountains and the much drier shrublands of the California mountains clashed inside me. Despite the novelty of my new home, I yearned for the smell of sage as I hiked to the river to take refuge from Ojai’s dusty, dry heat under lush alders and sycamores. As I reflected on my time away, more than anything, Ojai’s wild spaces make this place home.
As much as our human community defines the valley, so does this ecological community—the plants, animals, insects, mountains, and creeks. The scruffy sages and buckwheat on our southern hills, the silvery willows and prickly cocklebur in our creeks, and the brambling snowberry and wild rose under old oaks in our canyons make this place Ojai; they make this place my home. Try to imagine an Ojai full of Joshua trees or redwoods—though I’d rather not. This place becomes somewhere else; it’s no longer Ojai. Without these ecological neighbors, so to speak, Ojai is no longer the place I love.
After years of drought, fire, and flood—and with even more extreme weather predicted in the future—our ecological neighbors need us more than ever. We can welcome them back into the valley by connecting habitat and creating safe haven in our own backyards. Already, many of my human neighbors have been hard at work, planting native gardens and restoring weedy fields for these ecological neighbors, becoming active members of Ojai’s ecological community. In the last year and a half, over 80 acres of native gardens have been certified through OVLC’s Rewild Ojai program. So, I invite you to join this ecological community and help us rewild Ojai.
There are so many ways to get involved with Rewild Ojai. You don’t have to know where to start. Join the Rewild Ojai mailing list, learn more about caring for native plants, access free landscaping plans, or stop by our Rewild Ojai office hours. However you choose to participate, you’ll be helping restore the wild heart of this place we all call home.
Claire Woolson, Rewild Ojai & Volunteer Coordinator