Irvine Co. to help preserve nature sanctuary

Alex Coolman

The Irvine Co. announced Friday that it will donate $1.5 million to a wildlife sanctuary on land maintained by the Irvine Ranch Water District.

The Newport Beach-based developer pledged to make five annual payments

of $300,000 to the San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary, a 300-acre preserve of

indigenous plants and animals in Irvine.

Friday also saw a ceremony at the preserve commemorating the

restoration of the habitat there.

In decades past, the land in the area was devoid of local species,

said Peer Swan, San Joaquin Wildlife Sanctuary board president.

“What we have,” Swan said, “is basically old farmland that had been

converted to a series of duck ponds, abandoned, and then overgrown by a

bunch of nonnative plants. There were very few native species there, very

few wetlands.”

Since the mid 1990s, though, the Irvine Co. and the water district

have been working to repair the habitat, regrading large areas of land

and flooding them to restore the character of wetlands.

Swan noted that with its work on this project, the Irvine Co. has

earned credit to develop other parcel of land.

But Irvine Co. spokeswoman Jennifer Smith noted that the company’s

efforts did more than earn it the right to build elsewhere.

“Some of what has been done out there was a mitigation effort, but

about a third of the total restoration efforts that have occurred have

happened outside the scope of any mitigation,” she said. “There’s a great

deal being done above and beyond the call of duty that we’re proud of.”

The developer’s donation will be used to build the wildlife

sanctuary’s endowment, Swan said. Interest from the money will be used

for operating expenses and to fund public outreach programs.

“A lot of people aren’t even aware that this place exists,” Smith

said. “It’s this oasis.”