Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren creates $30 million Bren Stewardship Fund to preserve habitat and accelerate public access on Irvine Ranch Land Reserve; The Nature Conservancy to lead land resource planning and conservation efforts

At a gathering of community and environmental leaders, The Irvine Company announced achievement of a major planning and land conservation milestone in the history of the Irvine Ranch: More than half of the 93,000-acre ranch will be protected forever as open space and for parks and recreational uses.

The Irvine Ranch Land Reserve – which reflects the collective effort of many different community groups and The Irvine Company over many years to permanently protect land for open space and recreation – has now reached 50,000 acres. It consists of public and private land that will never be developed and is committed to ultimate public ownership.

The Irvine Ranch Land Reserve’s 50,000 acres consist of approximately 44,000 acres held as permanent wilderness open space, and approximately 6,000 acres for parks and other recreational uses.

The reserve stretches in a crescent shape from Weir Canyon near the 91 Freeway at the Riverside County line, connects with the Cleveland National Forest along the northeast border of the ranch, continues south where it includes the massive regional open space systems in the northern and southern spheres of Irvine, and extends to the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and Crystal Cove State Park near Laguna Beach.

In aggregate, the reserve’s committed open space and parks total approximately 78 square miles, roughly equivalent to the current combined total land area of the cities of Irvine, Newport Beach and Costa Mesa.

To put the magnitude of today’s announcement into perspective: In 1960, the original Irvine Ranch Master Plan envisioned that 10,400 acres, or about 11 percent of the ranch, would ultimately be retained as parks and open space.

“This remarkable community accomplishment reflects the vision, energy and commitment of many people through many years. I believe it ensures a legacy of balanced land uses and thoughtful stewardship of the land for future generations to enjoy on the Irvine Ranch,” said Donald Bren, chairman of The Irvine Company.

The Irvine Company also announced expansion of its 10-year partnership with The Nature Conservancy, one of the nation’s premier environmental organizations dedicated to the preservation of native species and natural habitats.

The Nature Conservancy has agreed to manage 34,000 acres of open space on the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, and to work with The Irvine Company, local governments and community groups to plan for resource protection, habitat improvement and long-term uses, including appropriate public access throughout the reserve.

The Nature Conservancy has been performing a stewardship role on the company-owned open space in the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve since 1992. In addition to managing much of the existing permanent open space lands, the conservancy has organized the popular public hiking, mountain biking and horseback riding tours through Limestone Canyon, Bommer Canyon in Irvine, and other scenic open space areas on the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve.

To ensure that there are sufficient financial resources available for the long-term management, preservation and restoration of the natural resources on the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, and to facilitate accelerated public access to the lands, Bren said he is adding $10 million to the $20 million commitment announced last year for land stewardship and open space conservation efforts. The $30 million Bren Stewardship Fund will be allocated as follows:

·$4.6 million to provide an endowment in perpetuity to fund monitoring and enforcement of the permanent and irrevocable conservation easements that will protect more than 11,000 acres of reserve lands from development;

·$7 million to support The Nature Conservancy’s restoration and enhancement of natural habitats on the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve;

·$500,000 to fund environmental assessment studies for resource planning and public access;

·$7.9 million to support The Nature Conservancy’s management of the portion of the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve currently owned by The Irvine Company, including expanded public access opportunities;

·$10 million to support efforts of local governments and The Irvine Company to accelerate and improve public access to the protected lands.

“While portions of the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve can best serve the public by being opened for recreation, other parts are more appropriate for the conservation of natural habitats and the preservation of native species,” said Graham Chisholm, executive director of The Nature Conservancy of California. “A comprehensive, scientific assessment of the new reserve lands will be crucial to the development of a management plan ensuring that this open space will serve the needs of both humans and nature for centuries to come.”

The 50,000-acre Irvine Ranch Land Reserve includes large, uninterrupted areas of open space that not only contain important plant and wildlife species, but also provide green space buffers adjacent to cities on the Irvine Ranch: Irvine and portions of Orange, Tustin, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach and Anaheim.

“Not only does the significant open space preserved on the Irvine Ranch provide aesthetic beauty, relief from development and secure our great outdoors lifestyle, but communities on the Irvine Ranch have a better sense of their urban limits and the security of knowing these large green buffers around them will exist forever,” Bren said.

The reserve lands are prized for their beauty, as well as their stunning geological and natural diversity. They include such special places as the 5,500-acre Limestone Canyon and the “Sinks,” a striking formation frequently referred to as a miniature Grand Canyon; the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, one of Southern California’s largest coastal freshwater marshes; Irvine’s beautiful Bommer and Upper Shady canyons, and distinctive Quail Hill; and almost 8,000 acres of open space at the Newport Coast.

“The 50,000 acres of the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve is an extraordinary amount of property in an area that is heavily urbanized, and is given even more meaning because of the intense diversity and rarity of the biological habitat located on the reserve,” Steve McCormick, president and CEO of The Nature Conservancy, said in a videotaped message shown at the community event.

The Irvine Ranch Land Reserve, more than a century in the making, reflects the efforts of many community groups, environmental organizations, municipalities and resource agencies working with The Irvine Company. It has been created through a variety of methods, including land sales, donations, development agreements and ballot measures.

In 1897, the company’s first land donation of 160 acres established Orange County’s first park, Irvine Regional Park. Since then, the company has participated with the community and public agencies in important initiatives to preserve park and open space. These include the creation of Crystal Cove State Park, the preservation of Newport Harbor’s Back Bay and the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, the historic 1988 Irvine Open Space Agreement to preserve more than 10,000 open space acres in and around that city at the heart of the Irvine Ranch, a 21,000-acre commitment that helped create the Nature Reserve of Orange County, and the creation of Mason Park in Irvine as well as other city and regional parks on the Irvine Ranch.

The event was attended by more than 200 people who have been involved over the years with local open space issues, including leaders from community preservation groups; environmental organizations and local and regional government officials.