On Friday, Ventura County got some good news. Although Los Angeles is allowing Newhall Ranch to develop an entire new city on the outskirts of Santa Clarita, the Nature Conservancy bought 377 acres of habitat for endangered species along the Santa Clara River near Piru Creek from a mining company for less than $600,000.
"Not only is the acreage good, but the amount of river they’ve captured is quite long," said Ron Bottorff, chairman of Friends of the Santa Clara River, a nonprofit group working to restore habitat on 230 acres farther downstream. "That’s what we want to see: the river flood plain and the surrounding terraced lands protected."
Also good news is the passage of a ten billion dollar water bill in the Senate that includes over seventy million towards the taking down of Matilija Dam, the white elephant outside Ojai. Amazingly, the consensus that this dam should be taken down has held. No lawsuits have been filed to stop it since the environmental review was published last fall. (The fact that the dam is all but useless for flood control, irrigation, or anything else helps, no doubt.) It’s also interesting that Ventura County’s congressman, Elton Gallegly, has actively pursued the funding for this environmentally-minded project, despite complaints of taxpayer groups of "pork."
"This is the first step of a long and involved process that will unfold over several years before Matilija Dam has been deconstructed," said Rep. Elton Gallegly, R-Thousand Oaks, who worked for the project’s inclusion in the water bill.
Kit Stolz 