By 9 a.m. on December 1, 2003, the first day the former Ahmanson Ranch was opened to the public—only three weeks after the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy (SMMC) formally acquired it — a crowd of hikers and mountain bikers, along with five television crews, was waiting at the Las Virgenes Canyon Road trailhead.

“Some said they had wanted to walk in those hills for years, others said they had trespassed for years and were looking forward to coming in legally,” said Rorie Skei, who helped to negotiate the final phases of the purchase of the 2,983-acre property. This gorgeous and long-contested chunk of old California on the Ventura–Los Angeles County border is now a wildlife refuge and natural park, the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Reserve.

Until quite recently, it was the designated site of a new town, with 3,050 residences, two golf courses, a commercial and business center, and a 300-room hotel. Ventura County had approved a Specific Plan and an Environmental Impact Report. Then the people who had been fighting for protection of the ranch as a natural area managed to persuade the property owner, Washington Mutual Bank, to sell to the State; and persuaded the State to put up the purchase price: $150 million in bond money from Proposition 50, the Water Security, Clean Drinking Water, Coastal and Beach Protection Act of 2002.

Preservation advocates succeeded in showing that the ranch was a core habitat area for wildlife and essential to the health of Malibu Creek and Malibu Lagoon. Neighbors and downstream residents, elected officials, Hollywood celebrities, and environmental groups played major roles. They couldn’t have succeeded without the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB), Coastal Conservancy, and other public agencies, as well as a bit of luck and strong political skills. The Mountains Conservancy led the way to a resolution that won the ranch for the people and wildlife of California.

Usually, after new parkland is acquired, the public must wait for months, if not years, to be officially admitted. First come studies, hearings, and meetings to resolve various conflicts of interest, then management plans are drawn up and adopted. The planning process can be especially lengthy when endangered species are on the property, as they are here. A lot of people start grumbling about delays.

Not in this case. In approving the use of Proposition 50 money, the WCB stipulated that the new preserve be promptly opened to the public. Joe Edmiston, the SMMC’s executive officer, agreed: “The public spent $150 million so they damn well better be able to get onto the property.” Besides, he added, “it’s far better to have some degree of controlled access than to have people scrambling all over the place.” Formal planning will occur as soon as funds become available, Edmiston said.

Skei explained it this way: “We sat down one day and said: ‘Let’s open it Monday.’” Skei, in addition to being deputy director of the Mountains Conservancy, is deputy executive officer of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA), the joint powers agency that is managing the property.

Ever since, people have been visiting on foot, by bicycle, and on horseback. No motorized vehicles are permitted. Old ranch roads and footpaths already constitute a 15-mile trail network that allows access to rolling hills and deep valleys, willow-shaded streams, and oak savannahs. Trying to keep the public out would have been not only unpolitic, but also difficult, even with rangers in residence.

Top of a Watershed

The new open space preserve is in Ventura County, on the Los Angeles County border, only 20 miles from downtown Los Angeles. It adjoins the 155,000-acre Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. Ranging in elevation from 869 to 1,842 feet, it lies on the southeastern slope of the Simi Hills, in a protected landscape that extends, with few interruptions, from the urbanized San Fernando Valley to the Pacific Ocean. The new preserve expands the wildlife movement corridor between the Santa Monica and Santa Susana Mountains and protects the headwaters of Malibu Creek, the most ecologically significant stream emptying into Santa Monica Bay.

To understand the preserve’s relationship to the ocean, you might want to approach it from the bottom of the watershed, starting at Malibu Lagoon off the Pacific Coast Highway and driving up Malibu Canyon Road along Malibu Creek, continuing on Las Virgenes Canyon Road to its northern end at the county line, the property line, and a gate and trailhead.

Until the 1920s, when Rindge Dam was built on lower Malibu Creek, steelhead would swim all the way up into their spawning grounds in Las Virgines Creek. A few still use the pools below the dam. The Coastal Conservancy, the Southern California Steelhead Coalition, Heal the Bay, the Department of Fish and Game, and others are working to improve the water quality of Malibu Creek and to remove barriers to fish passage, including the dam, which was built to store water for ranching but has silted in completely.

To understand the preserve as a place on the urban edge, however, it may be best to approach it on Highway 101 from metropolitan Los Angeles. The first thing you notice is the thinning of traffic as you near Calabasas. Then the road rises and suddenly you are facing blue mountain ridges, a landscape that greets you like a huge wave of fresh air. You take a deep breath, your senses relax. You feel you have entered the natural world. At Las Virgenes Canyon Road you turn off, and in another minute, you’re at the ranch.