HUNTINGTON BEACH : Conservancy Board Selects New President

A state environmental organization active in restoring the Huntington Beach Pier and the Bolsa Chica Ecological Reserve has selected Michael L. Fischer as its new executive officer.

The board of the State Coastal Conservancy unanimously selected Fischer, 53, to succeed Peter Grenell at its Dec. 9 meeting.

The conservancy was created by the state Legislature in 1976 to complement the regulatory work of the California Coastal Commission, its sister agency, which Fischer headed from 1978 to 1985.

“I am delighted to return to the important, satisfying work of protecting and making accessible the beauties of the California coast,” said Fischer, who will assume the post Feb. 1.

“The conservancy’s hallmark is the development of creative, innovative financing and legal techniques to find ‘win-win’ solutions for developers and environmentalists who might otherwise find themselves in conflict.”

In its 18 years, the Oakland-based conservancy has acquired 27,800 acres of scenic areas, wetlands and habitat.

It also has developed more than 150 new access ways to the coast and shoreline and made $155 million in grants to local governments and nonprofit organizations and local “land trusts.”

Fischer most recently served as national executive director of the Sierra Club.

During the first half of 1993 he was in residence as a Fellow at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

“I am extremely pleased that the board of Coastal Conservancy has selected Michael Fischer,” said Douglas P. Wheeler, California’s secretary for resources and Fischer’s predecessor as executive director of the Sierra Club.

“The conservancy plays a key role in the conservation of the California’s extraordinary and pristine coast.”

Fischer holds a master’s degree in city and regional planning from UC Berkeley and a bachelor’s degree in political science from Santa Clara University.