Volcan Mountain May Keep Natural Look : Julian Finds Two Potential ‘Angels’ to Put Up Funds

The tiny town of Julian is gearing up to buy a mountain.

The goal of this grass-roots effort is Volcan Mountain, which rises threateningly to the north and east of Julian, dividing the community from the desert to the east and delaying sunrise in the village for half an hour or so.

Volcan Mountain is home to ancient live oaks, some more than 1,000 years old, and to endangered spotted owls so friendly that you can approach close enough for a howdy-do. It harbors stands of incense pine and white pine, some 70 and 80 feet tall. It is the site of Indian burial grounds and archeological treasures.

And best of all, there has been very little change on the mountain in the last seven generations of man, a period in which most of Southern California has turned from wilderness to metropolis.

But, unlike many of the peaks to the south and the north, Volcan Mountain is privately owned. Now, one of its owners wants to build a housing development on its slopes.

‘Trying to Prevent Urbanization’

“We are not trying to prevent the landowner from getting value from his land. We are trying to prevent urbanization on the mountain,” said David Scheirman, one of the leaders in the Volcan Mountain Preserve Foundation. “We plan to buy the land and keep it in its natural state.”

The organization to save Volcan Mountain has found two potential “angels” to put up the funds to buy the 219 mountain acres threatened by development. Local Episcopalian and Methodist churches, which operate mountain camps in the area, are negotiating with leaders of First Fruit Inc., a nonprofit charitable organization that owns the property. Then, foundation funds would be used to repay the church groups and acquire title to the Volcan land.

Why save Volcan Mountain? It’s not the highest mountain, nor the most scenic. It has been scarred by miners and loggers over the decades, and bisected by paved roads that lead to telephone relay facilities and a forest ranger lookout atop one of its three peaks. On the 1,200-acre Rutherford Ranch there are a dozen or more cottages and hunting lodges tucked away in its foliage.

But, all in all, explained Scheirman, “it is a very special mountain, preserved in time . . . almost pristine.”

This week, the Volcan Mountain Preserve Foundation held its first official board meeting. They met on the mountain, of course, to “instill in us the spiritual strength we will need to accomplish our task.”

David Bergstrom, director of the Episcopalian Camp Stevens, and Don Williamson, head of the Methodists’ Camp Cedar Glen, confirmed that church leaders are receptive to putting up the funds to acquire the threatened mountain acreage. Bergstrom said he plans to make an offer to the landowners within the next few weeks.

16 Home Sites

Mike Leach, development consultant for the First Fruit landowners, said that the modest Volcan project has been in the works for about three years. It consists of plans to create 16 home sites on a mountain ridge, then sell the lots, ranging in size from 5.5 acres to more than 25 acres.

Grading on the project would be limited to creating an access road to the properties along the route of a current firebreak, Leach said. Strict covenants would govern the size, architecture and even the colors used in the buildings. Only earth tones and forest greens would be permitted.

Volcan Mountain Preserve Foundation members aren’t critical of the design, but they are opposed to the precedent that the First Fruit project would set--development within the mountain wilderness area that could upset the delicate ecosystem that now seems in perfect balance.

Estimates of $200,000 to $300,000 for purchase of the property “seem low to me,” Leach said, but he would not expand on just what the land might cost.

“We are open to any offers,” Leach added, “but we have received nothing yet.”

A county Planning and Environmental Review Board put the First Fruit project on hold last month until additional environmental data is produced, a delay that will give the foundation and its newly named executive director, John Price, time to launch a fund-raising drive.

The First Fruit project is only the first threat to creation of a permanent wilderness area on the mountain, Price said. Eventually the foundation, through public and private gifts and grants, plans to acquire 20,000 or so acres of the 40-square-mile Volcan Mountain area to protect it from development.

$600 Raised

Initial efforts at fund raising were successful as tourists flocking to Julian for a bluegrass music festival last weekend bought dozens of T-shirts bearing the Volcan profile and the slogan, “Not Your Ordinary Mountain,” netting the preservation effort more than $600.

The foundation membership now numbers 80 and is growing by 5 to 10 members a week, Bergstrom said, giving members hope that as the word spreads, hundreds of San Diegans will join in the effort to preserve “this special bit of wilderness.”

Clint Powell, who lives at the foot of the mountain and has explored its flanks since 1954, claims that on a clear winter day, Volcan’s peaks can be seen from as far away as Pacific Beach and the Arizona desert. He believes that “a little bit of wilderness” is a necessity “for everyone’s souls.”

Scheirman adds that the preservation of the mountain is a must, not only for today’s citizens but also for generations to come. He quoted Tom Lucas, an 85-year-old Kumeyaay Indian whose grandfather is buried on Volcan’s slopes, in explaining the foundation’s seemingly impossible goal of buying a mountain.

Lucas describes how, in the past, tribal leaders faced with a tough policy matter affecting the Indian band decided it by answering the question: “How will our people, seven generations hence, speak of us?”

“I think that people seven generations from now would approve of us preserving Volcan Mountain,” Scheirman said.