The Revolutionary Pen - beta

By Frank Schiavone

Recently, I visited an old friend.

Well, actually it’s a place, a very special place called the Santa Rosa Plateau. It’s just north of Murrieta. The last time I was there was about 12 years ago or so. Now an ecological reserve, it could easily have become a hodgepodge of mini-mansions and tract homes. A specific plan for the area called for some 4,000 homes.

Currently, the reserve is well over 8,000 acres - larger than many state parks. More land acquisitions are planned to connect the reserve with the Cleveland National Forest.

In the early 1980s, The Nature Conservancy recognized the value of this haven. Land acquisition on the plateau became one of its high priority “landscape” projects. TNC’s efforts were the primary reason I became a member and I directed my contributions to the cause. In 1984, it purchased 3,100 acres. I was ecstatic.

On my day off, I would drive down and hike through the former ranch land, enjoy the solitude, and just unwind.

Why this trip down memory lane? Over the years I had lost touch with the Santa Rosa Plateau. I was unaware just how wildly successful the project originally begun by TNC had become. Several new acquisitions had been made. There were new players and new collaborations. The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California provided $15.4 million toward the purchase of additional land in exchange for mitigation credits for their Eastside Reservoir Project. The county of Riverside matched that funding with $15 million and the state’s Wildlife Conservation Board kicked in another $5 million.

More than 40,000 people visit and enjoy the reserve annually. There are more than 40 miles of trails. Equestrians and bicyclists are permitted on designated trails.

As I hiked through the new portions of the reserve, marveling at the highly threatened stands of Engelmann oak, the vernal pools (now dry), the last flush of summer flowers, and the sheer beauty and fullness of the land, I kept asking myself, “why can’t my local policy makers see the value in places like these?”

It’s not like the preservation of the Santa Rosa Plateau is a once-in-a-lifetime example of land conservation. Just a stone’s throw away from my hometown of Rancho Cucamonga is the Claremont Hills Wilderness Park. It is well over 2,000 acres now. This didn’t happen by chance. It took a lot of dedicated people, partnerships, and policy makers that bought into the creation of permanently protected, wild lands.

In my growth-crazed city, land conservation is not even an afterthought. Policies, both spoken and unspoken, drive us with reckless abandon. There is a tacit acceptance that wild things, no matter how rare or endangered, will need to be sacrificed to make way for our shiny new city.

The foothills that lie within my city’s sphere of influence are a no-man’s land. Oversight and regulation are nonexistent. Illegal discharge of firearms, off-roading, dumping, graffiti and vandalism are rampant. Apparently, Rancho Cucamonga has no police powers or influence in its sphere of influence.

Lax oversight, laissez-faire enforcement, and handwringing are policies just as sure as if they were codified in an ordinance. Refusing to require developers to provide real mitigation for their environmentally destructive projects is policy just as sure as if it were formalized in our building and development codes. And failing to support land and habitat conservation is policy just as sure as any administrative directive.

Now the city will tell you otherwise. They will point to something called the Green Valley Initiative. Discontinuing the use of Styrofoam cups, using recycled water and porous concrete, and powering city vehicles with natural gas are all well and good. But we have some of the rarest plants and animals on Earth right here in our own backyard and we can’t bring ourselves to recognize their importance. We are destroying these masterpieces of Creation at unsustainable rates, eliminating many plants and animals that were relatively common here just a couple of decades ago.

The intrinsic value of the natural world aside, what are these “policies” doing to us as a community and a people?

The human and societal costs of urban sprawl are well documented. We are now seeing the disastrous effects of growth at all costs. Housing booms spurred on by our local politicians invariably lead to housing busts leaving thousands of families in tatters.

Rancho Cucamonga may be a city with a “plan” but it clearly lacks imagination. A wilderness park along our mountain front could become a reality if only there were the will and the wisdom to undertake the effort.

Copyright © 2008 Frank Schiavone

Frank Schiavone is a Rancho Cucamonga, CA resident.