NEWPORT BEACH : Conservancy Wants to Buy Open Land

The Newport Conservancy, a nonprofit environmental organization which hopes to purchase and preserve parcels of open land in the city, was the topic at this week’s Speak Up Newport meeting.

Councilwoman Jean H. Watt, who spoke to the audience of about 40, announced incorporation of the conservancy. The agency is forming an advisory committee composed of interested residents and knowledgeable professionals in the fields of biology, land appraisal and wildlife management.

Watt said the agency has its eye on three areas in Newport Beach for acquisition: the upper San Diego Creek basin between Jamboree Road and MacArthur Boulevard, the lower part of the Santa Ana channel, and the tract commonly called Castaways, a 60-acre parcel between Dover Drive and Coast Highway.

Although fund-raising plans are in the preliminary stages, Watt, who is a board member, said that the board of directors has begun to look at sources of government funding and is recruiting local members.

Watt said that so far, most people she has approached with the idea have been enthusiastic.

“People all over are feeling some of the environmental effects of all the paved infrastructure,” Watt said. “There are a lot of resources to be protected. There is a need to protect more wetlands, more habitats and just plain more recreational corridors.”

“I think we can provide more (open space) if we put our shoulders to it,” she continued. “There are more and more people wanting to see that nature is OK out there.”