ahmanson ranch

Simi Valley In the Distance. Photo Courtesy: www.saveahmanson.org

Rolling down into an arroyo, she stops to point out the dried-out, tiny remnants of a bunch of Pacific Spineflowers. These highly endangered little plants were part of the argument conservationists had used to stop the development. "They found a red-legged frog population down there in the creek," she said, "that no one even knew about."

Las Virgenes Creek. Photo Courtesy: www.saveahmanson.org

Red legged frogs are also highly endangered. Ms. Skei said that she looked forward to one day in the distant future when she had to figure out how to keep endangered steelhead trout from eating her endangered frogs. Steelhead haven't been seen up here since the 1920's, she said, but if Malibu Creek could be seriously restored, she hoped they might come back.

Red Legged Frog. Photo Courtesy: www.saveahmanson.org

Overhead, a kestrel hovered in the air over some unseen prey, while a flock of rare meadowlarks burst from the brush as we passed. "There are very few places you can see larks anymore," she said. "I'd forgotten about them til I started driving around out here."

The Ranch is dotted with thousands of oak, willow and walnut trees. Some of them truly massive and truly ancient. Many young saplings were being grown by Washington Mutual for future plantings on the site. But thousands were to be felled. "Once they did the rape and scrape," she said, "they were going to use native plants. For a developer, they were a really good developer. They just came up with this incredibly important piece of property. It was important ecologically, politically and psychologically."

She added that it was part of a critical wildlife corridor used by larger predatory species like coyote and mountain lion. What I wouldn't have given to have seen a mountain lion.

Location of the Ranch

click here to view a large aerial overview of the ranch

We soon happened on a trail jogger named Gary Stone. This, he said, was his first time up here. "I always used to look over here and just go, it's so sad. They can't pave that thing over. It's just so unbelievable back here. I've seen lots of birds of prey, lots of tracks of deer. It's a complete escape. I can't believe how huge it is."

I asked him if he thought the land would have been better suited for million-dollar homes and he said no. "It's too much to give up. There's got to be a point where you say there's no more room. Ther'es not enough water. It's too much. Your quality of life just starts to go down. It just puts you in a whole new frame of mind out here, whereas if I had seen a traffic jam coming out of Las Virgenes, (due to the the building of the development) I would have been completely bummed out and just said you know what I'm just going to move out of California because it's just going to hell. I don't mind paying taxes for this. I've got kids. They're gonna need space. Everybody needs space. "

Farther up the trail, we came upon a pair of mountain bikers who were hunched over a tiny rattlesnake. Randy Savre and Ron Beck had ridden over ten miles, seeing how many different trails they could connect from parks outside this one. "I was shocked this was preserved," said Mr. Beck.

"I thought the money would win again and the big corporations would have their homes out here."

When I asked if they voted for the bond that bought the land, both sheepishly looked down. "You've got to have houses," said Mr. Savre. "No doubt about it. But there are ways you can build in places more efficiently. We hardly have any grassland left. I mean look at the San Fernando Valley. It was an amazing chapparal grassland, but now all the animals and species are disappearing."

Photo Courtesy: Tom Gamache and www.saveahmanson.org

Rising to the top of another stunning rise, I remarked on how lucky Ms. Skei is to have this place as an office. "You can see what it was about California that was so enticing to the 49er's back here besides gold," she said, "This is California."

Click Below for a pdf Map of the Park
http://smmc.ca.gov/ahmanson.pdf

Click below to read more about the battle to save the ranch.
http://www.ahmanson.org