Coastal Conservancy to Buy Land Along River

The state Coastal Conservancy is primed to spend $4.8 million to buy 220 acres along the Santa Clara River, the first step in the environmental group’s plan to purchase and restore a 15-mile swath of private land along the channel.

The property, now owned by attorney Allen Camp, is in the Montalvo area of Ventura County, near the Ventura Freeway bridge connecting Ventura and Oxnard.

Conservancy leaders say they’re also negotiating with other landowners to buy an additional 1,000 acres along the river. Those purchases would be underwritten by an additional $4.4 million from the Proposition 12 bond, the statewide measure approved by voters in March that provides $2.1 billion in part to preserve open space and wildlife habitat.

The 220-acre purchase is “a very, very important step. It kicks things off,” said Ron Bottorff, of Friends of the Santa Clara River in Ventura. The conservancy “has landowners convinced this is the right thing to do.”

The purchase is part of an ambitious plan outlined by the conservancy in July to create a permanent protected area along the river. It is part of an overall strategy to undo man-made changes that have left the area prone to flooding and harmed some plants and animals.

The project coincides with a separate 57,000-acre, habitat-protection project at the other end of the river, in the headwaters nearly 100 miles away in the Angeles National Forest.

“The purpose is to restore a natural state to the river,” said Peter Brand, project director for the conservancy. “We want as much of the adjoining land as we can get.”

The conservancy’s nine-member governing board is expected to formally approve the Santa Clara River purchase at its meeting today. It is also expected to announce funding for several other projects.

On Wednesday, some of the board members toured a number of the conservancy’s other projects. Members stopped by Ormond Beach in Oxnard to see the wetlands currently owned by Southern California Edison, and checked out Surfers Point in Ventura, where thousands of pounds of rocks have been distributed to prevent erosion.

The 220 acres in the so-called Santa Clara River Parkway project would be bought by the Coastal Conservancy and then transferred for management to the Nature Conservancy, a private nonprofit group. The county and city of Ventura will also help to manage the land.

For years, landowners have been complaining the river often overflows its banks and makes development almost impossible. Under the restoration proposal, the river will eventually revert to its natural state.

“This will cost tens of millions of dollars more, but we’re positive they’ll come,” said Bill Ahern, of the Nature Conservancy. The owners “have kind of gotten flooded out” and are amenable to selling.

The Santa Clara River is home to 22 rare plants and animal species, included nine threatened and endangered ones, such the southwestern willow flycatcher bird. The stream’s lower stretch is also proposed as a crucial habitat for the endangered southern steelhead trout.