Santa Ana River Arboretum Still His Garden Spot

The board of the Orange County Water District postponed a decision Wednesday on whether to allow a 60-year-old man to continue tending the arboretum he has maintained for two decades on the bank of the Santa Ana River in Anaheim.

“I don’t want to sound like Scrooge before Christmas,” board member Wes Bannister said in suggesting the delay, “but we have a person trespassing on our land. What do we know about this person?”

Bannister said he was concerned that if criminal activity took place on the land, the district could be held liable.

Board president Denis R. Bilodeau, however, sounded a more positive note. “He’s a nice man,” Bilodeau said of the green-thumbed squatter. The arboretum, he said, “is kind of like a river -- you can’t turn it on and off.”

The small-but-colorful garden, which has about 250 shrubs, trees and exotic plants, was created and continues to be tended by Richard Dumke, a biologist-turned-janitor who, until recently, lived at the site in a shack.

For years, the water district, which owns the land, was unaware of his presence. Then, three months ago, an agency employee conducting a property check discovered Dumke and his spread. The water district asked him to move. But several local activists came to the gardener’s defense, forming a support group called Save Richard’s Garden.

“Our society didn’t provide him with any solution for his homelessness,” member Bruce Hostetter said. “He provided one himself. We respect that, and we want our leaders to respect it. He can serve as an inspiration to us all.”

Two weeks ago, the group persuaded Dumke, who was not present at the meeting, to move off the water district’s property and into a recreational vehicle donated by the Orange County Catholic Worker, a Santa Ana charity.

Supporters say he parks it regularly at a berth in Fullerton and moves around a lot. But Dumke still tends his plants near the Santa Ana River. And on Wednesday his support group offered the district’s board of directors two proposals to ensure the garden’s survival.

The first would establish a “life estate” allowing Dumke to pay a small fee and maintain the site. Under the second proposal, the land would be leased either to a local ministry for use as a prayer garden or to an organization formed recently to conduct botanical research.

Board members, however, said they needed to know more before making a decision. Specifically, they directed their staff to conduct a thorough background check on Dumke and to provide detailed information on the district’s potential liability.

“We need to know all the facts,” director Richard Chavez said.

Board president Bilodeau might have been speaking for the majority when he summed up the matter. “He obviously marches to a different beat,” he said of Dumke. “But I think there’s a little bit of Richard in all of us.”

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Times staff writer Stan Allison contributed to this report.