Conservation Group Names New Director

The Mountains Restoration Trust, a private conservation group with substantial holdings in the Santa Monica Mountains, has announced the hiring of Peter Ireland as its executive director.

Ireland, 48, will head a staff of three at the Malibu-based trust, which owns the 750-acre Cold Creek Canyon Preserve in Calabasas and runs environmental education programs there. The trust also assists other groups and agencies in preserving mountain land.

“I’m excited about it--lots of things to do,” Ireland said.

From late 1989 until this past spring, Ireland was assistant executive officer of the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, an arm of the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. He recently went on consultant status because of a funding squeeze at the conservancy, a state agency that acquires parkland in the mountains.

The restoration trust had been without an executive director since last November, when its board fired Betty Wiechec after she criticized board members for failing to take part in fund-raising efforts. Wiechec had been the only executive director of the trust since its inception in 1981.

In announcing Ireland’s appointment, the trust said his “experience with major land acquisition and park planning projects . . . provides him with the background necessary to guide the trust in its pivotal role of preserving, protecting and enhancing the Santa Monica Mountains.”

Ireland, a Van Nuys resident involved in mountain land issues for the last 15 years, underwent a dramatic transformation from arch-critic to staunch supporter of preservation efforts.

He was once a leading spokesman for a property rights group that bitterly opposed park agencies working in the Santa Monicas. Then in 1981, he became an aide to Los Angeles County Supervisor Deane Dana, considered an ally of mountain developers.

Over time, Ireland developed a strong interest in preserving the mountains, and he joined the staff of the mountains conservancy in 1989.