Wild Welcome : Two New Regional Parks Will Finally Open to the Public

The slightly built hiker trudged up a rutted trail, through meadows of wildflowers and sycamore groves, past canyon walls and creek beds exploding with color after two years of heavy winter rain.

Up and up the young man went in his Army field jacket and camouflage cap, a bedroll peeking from his knapsack. He was lured on, perhaps, by the rare sound of water rushing down Laurel Creek and a glimpse of the wispy veils of wet tumbling over a waterfall ahead.

His reverie was interrupted by Orange County Park Ranger Larry Sweet, who happened to be at the head of the cascade on a cool morning last week. Sweet told the hiker he would have to leave Laurel Canyon, but could come back Saturday for a guided tour.

“There’s a long and glorious tradition of trespassing here,” Sweet explained after the dejected hiker headed back down the trail.

Such nature lovers have struggled for decades to preserve this and other privately owned canyons flanking Laguna Canyon Road from development. All the while, many have become used to slipping past barbed-wire barricades to grab a bit of solitude in shady groves or on ocean-view ridges.

Now, this key piece of Orange County coastal wilderness is being transformed into public parklands, ending nearly 25 years of acrimony, negotiation, accommodation and public sacrifice to the tune of more than $40 million.

The Laguna Coast Wilderness Park is one of two new Orange County regional parks opening to the public this month. It will provide recreation and preserve valuable coastal sage that is home for many rare species of plants and animals, including the California gnatcatcher, which last month was declared a “threatened species” by the federal government.

The park is also the first in a series of wilderness areas to be added to the public domain in the next decade or so, which will almost double county parkland to 40,000 acres.

“This is the most exciting time for the park system,” said Tim Miller, manager of the county’s regional parks, who has seen total park acreage increase from 2,000 acres 20 years ago to 23,000 acres this month.

With the opening of Peters Canyon Regional Park near Orange later this month, “it looks like we’re going to continue to expand,” Miller said. “And what we’re getting are huge pieces of land in a natural state, land that the public has never had the right to go on before.”

When Laguna Coast Wilderness Park officially opens at 9 a.m. Saturday, the public will be able to take the first guided tours of almost pristine coastal sage canyons in full bloom.

But there is a hitch: Access to most of the park will be limited to docent-led tours scheduled on three weekend days each month, and reservations must be made in advance. That is a small price to pay, Sweet says, to keep the wilderness area truly wild.

“There has to be a new ethic, a new appreciation for this land that allows people to enjoy it without degrading it for the people who will follow us,” Sweet said after a recent tour of the new park.

Those who fought so long to keep out housing tracts, golf courses and resorts couldn’t be happier now that their beloved canyon is finally opening as a park.

“I’m absolutely ecstatic about it,” said Robert F. Gentry, a longtime city councilman in Laguna Beach, where 80% of the city’s voters agreed to tax themselves to pay for a $20-million bond measure to acquire the land from the Irvine Co.

“When I first came to Laguna Beach, we all expected there would be several thousand homes out there. To me, this is symbolically one of the most important events of my 20 some years in Laguna,” added Gentry, who is expected to join dozens of environmentalists, civic leaders and Irvine Co. officials at Saturday’s dedication ceremony.

At about 3,200 acres, the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park already is the county’s third largest park. With future land acquisitions, it will become the county’s largest at more than 10,000 acres.

Assuming that the city of Laguna Beach and the Laguna Canyon Foundation are able to raise an additional $38 million over the next several years, the ultimate park would encompass a wide swath of coastal hills stretching from the lowlands near Irvine to the rocky outcroppings beside Laguna Canyon to the grassy seaside cliffs near Crystal Cove State Park south of Corona del Mar.

With Crystal Cove State Park on its southwestern flank, and proposed parks in Irvine’s Shady and Bommer Canyons, environmentalists say this coastal Orange County region long known as the “Laguna Greenbelt” could eventually include nearly 15,000 acres.

All of it will be undeveloped except for the planned San Joaquin Hills Transportation Corridor, a six-lane highway that will bisect a portion of the region.

The preservation effort started in the 1960s, when a scholarly looking Laguna Beach bookseller named James Dilley first talked about creating a huge greenbelt along the Orange County coast, instead of fingers of so-called “open space.”

Tirelessly, he proselytized to locals, to a growing group of youth and young adults already tuned into the value of “greening” America by the Sierra Club and writers such as Rachel Carson.

But the key people Dilley won over were county planners who by the early 1970s had penciled in the Laguna Greenbelt on maps of the area. That was a crucial bit of leverage for those who would come after Dilley, such as Elisabeth Brown, president of Laguna Greenbelt, a group that became active more than a decade ago.

By 1980, key parcels had been acquired--most notably Crystal Cove State Park, then the state’s most expensive park acquisition at $30 million. Also obtained was a lush area east of Laguna Canyon Road near Laguna Lakes, which is now named the James Dilley Preserve.

After efforts failed to turn the remainder of the area into a national park, the Irvine Co. proposed Laguna Laurel, a housing and golf course development on part of the land. The plan fostered a host of legal battles and a showdown that culminated in a massive demonstration in 1989 by thousands of protesters.

Eventually, a deal was worked out whereby the Irvine Co. agreed to sell what is known as the Laguna Laurel area and part of the Irvine Coast region to the city of Laguna Beach for $78 million.

Today, the effort has focused on raising the last $38 million, an uphill battle environmentalists say they hope will be spurred by the opening of part of Dilley’s ultimate greenbelt.

“For thousands of people, this is the beginning of a dream come true,” said Michael Pinto, founder and president of the Laguna Canyon Foundation, a nonprofit group formed to raise the money to buy the parkland.

“The preservation of thousands of acres of wilderness in the middle of a rapidly developing urban area is something many scoffed at. . . . To truly protect this park from the impact of urbanization, we must save all of the canyon,” Pinto said.

Peters Canyon Regional Park, which will open on April 30, is a 354-acre haven nestled in the foothills east of Orange. It includes a 55-acre reservoir teeming with migrating birds and waterfowl. Black cottonwoods, willows and sycamores line the lake and Peters Canyon Creek, which meanders through a narrow canyon and is home to a rich variety of wildlife.

Opening day ceremonies are scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at the park, located near Jamboree Road and Chapman Avenue, east of Orange. The main park entrance will be on Canyon View Avenue, west of Jamboree Road.

Unlike Laguna Coast, Peters Canyon will be open daily from 7 a.m. to sunset to hikers, horseback riders and mountain bikers. But no camping or campfires will be allowed at either park in an effort to maintain their natural character.

Once known as Canon de las Ranas, or “Canyon of the Frogs,” Peters Canyon drained into Cienega de las Ranas, or “Marsh of the Frogs,” which today is Upper Newport Bay.

The area was part of the original Spanish land grant, Rancho Lomas de Santiago, but was renamed for James Peters, who began growing barley and beans in the upper canyon area in 1891. James Irvine bought the land in 1897. Eventually, the Irvine Co. donated Peters Canyon to the county in March, 1992.

“This is a great area to go out and hike, ride a horse or a mountain bike,” said Miller, the county parks manager. “It’s so close to the center of the county, it will give people a chance to get out and experience nature in their own back yard.”

A New Pair of Parks

Two new regional parks open this month, offering both North County and South County residents a combined 3,500 acres of new facilities. Both will be day-use facilities, with no camping permitted. Both are free.

Laguna Coast Wilderness Park

Opens: This Saturay for limited public access

Size: 3,200 acres

Cost: $78 million

Future: Park expected to expand to 7,000 acres

Tours: Guided walks conducted three Saturdays a month; separate tours for hikers, equestrians, mountain bikers

Sights: Deer, coyote, quail, oak and sycamore trees, cactus, coastal sage scrub, natural and interpretive exhibits

Hours: By reservation only

Peters Canyon Regional Park

Opens: April 30

Size: 354 acres

Cost: Donated to county by Irvine Co.

Future: Park is at maximum acreage

Tours: None

Sights: Migrating birds; black cottonwoods, willows, sycamores, lake, creek; wildlife includingmule deer, bobcats, coyotes, raccoons, California gnatcatchers, cactus wren.

Hours: 7 a.m. to sunset, daily

Source: Orange County Environmental Management Agency; Researched by KRISTINE LINDGREN / Los Angeles Times