Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy

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A trail in the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, overlooking Coastal sage scrub and the Pacific Ocean. PBNP EarlySpring 77.JPG
A trail in the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve, overlooking Coastal sage scrub and the Pacific Ocean.

The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy (PVPLC) is a non-profit organization that is based on the Palos Verdes Peninsula in southwestern Los Angeles County, California.

Contents

Its mission is "Preserving land and restoring habitat for the education and enjoyment of all". [1]

The Conservancy is a land trust and environmental organization to protect natural areas in the Palos Verdes Hills and adjacent coastal Palos Verdes Peninsula areas. Habitats protected include those of the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion and its Coastal sage scrub and Southern coastal grasslands subregions. [2]

Preserves

Founded in 1988, the Conservancy has protected 1,600 acres (6.5 km2) of open space as nature preserves on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. [1]

White Point Nature Preserve

The White Point Nature Preserve is located in San Pedro and features 102 acres (0.41 km2) of restored coastal sage scrub habitat, hiking and handicap access trails, and a Nature Education Center overlooking the ocean and Santa Catalina Island.

According to the Land Conservancy, White Point Nature Preserve was formerly owned and operated by the US military as a Nike missile site. [3] When the City of Los Angeles purchased the land back, it was designated to the Conservancy in 2000. A 25-year agreement was made with the Conservancy and the City to help restore the native plant species and habitat for both native flora and fauna. The White Point Nature Preserve was established and opened for the public to enjoy its scenery, trails, and education program in 2003. [4]

The White Point Nature Education Center has been constructed from an old missile assembly building and provides visitors with exhibits showcasing the Preserve's rich cultural and ecological history. The site once belonged to the Tongva, an indigenous tribe from the Los Angeles Basin and the Southern Channel Islands. The Education Center highlights the history of the Tongvan people and their importance to the land, and is surrounded by native plant demonstration gardens.

Defense Fuel Supply Point

The rare Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly. PVBlue.jpg
The rare Palos Verdes Blue Butterfly.

The Defense Fuel Supply Point in San Pedro provides storage for military fuel reserves and is also home to the endangered Palos Verdes blue butterfly (Glaucopsyche lygdamus palosverdesensis), the “rarest butterfly on earth”. The DFSP mission is a restricted facility which receives, stores, and distributes diesel and jet fuels for military use in California, Arizona and Nevada. Coastal sage scrub is juxtaposed within pipelines and storage tanks, providing habitat for the Palos Verdes blue butterfly as well as the threatened California gnatcatcher (Polioptila californica), a small gray bird that is listed as threatened by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Linden H. Chandler Preserve

The Linden H. Chandler Preserve is a 28.5-acre (115,000 m2) property located in Rolling Hills Estates. Owned jointly by the City of Rolling Hills Estates and the Land Conservancy, intensive habitat restoration efforts have added native wildflowers and shrubs to the hillsides. [5] Trails traverse its slopes and grasslands, passing by a recently restored wetland area. The Linden H. Chandler Preserve was created in 1993 through a sale and donation of property by the Chandler heirs, who wanted to see the land preserved in their father's name, who was the founder of Chandler's Palos Verdes Sand and Gravel in Rolling Hills Estates.

Palos Verdes Nature Preserve

Aerial view of preserved land on the coast PBendWest600.jpg
Aerial view of preserved land on the coast

The Palos Verdes Nature Preserve is the largest of the Conservancy's preserves consisting of approximately 1,400 acres (5.7 km2) of rolling hills, steep canyons and rock outcrops, with natural habitat and views of the Pacific Ocean and Santa Catalina Island. The City of Rancho Palos Verdes owns most of the land and the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy manages the preserve. [6] The preserve is made up of 10 reserves: Abalone Cove Ecological Reserve, Agua Amarga Reserve, Alta Vicente Reserve, Portuguese Bend Reserve, Filiorum Reserve, Forrestal Reserve, Three Sisters Reserve, San Ramon Reserve, Vicente Bluffs Reserve, and Vista Del Norte Reserve. [7]

Lunada Canyon Reserve

The Lunada Canyon Reserve is a 20-acre (81,000 m2) canyon that was given to the Conservancy by the E.K Zuckerman family in 1992. It makes up part of the Palos Verdes Nature Preserve.

George F Canyon Preserve

The 51-acre (21 ha) George F Canyon Preserve and Nature Center is owned by the City of Rolling Hills Estates, and operated by the Conservancy. A nature trail passes through one of the largest canyons on the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Visitors walk or ride on horseback through willow-riparian and coastal sage scrub habitats, culminating in a view of the Los Angeles Basin.

The George F Canyon Nature Center provides educational and recreational programs. [8] Exhibits focus on themes such as butterflies, birds of the canyon, insects, plant habitats, animals and wildflowers.

Science and education

The Conservancy works to save the landscape from past degradation from urbanization, agriculture uses, and the introduction of invasive foreign species. The goals of the Conservancy's science program are to increase the scientific knowledge base of the Palos Verdes Peninsula through collaborative research. The scientific program focuses on understanding the basic ecosystem functions that define the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Research is conducted both by Conservancy staff and through partnerships with universities, colleges and local agencies.

Research projects inform restoration, conservation, education, and stewardship programs and address the interface between the natural and urban environments. The Conservancy's research program was developed to involve collaborative researchers with the overall goal of increasing the scientific knowledge of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

See also

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes blue</span> Subspecies of butterfly

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes Peninsula</span> Sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area in California, United States

The Palos Verdes Peninsula is a peninsula and sub-region of the Los Angeles metropolitan area, located within southwestern Los Angeles County in the U.S. state of California. Located in the South Bay region, the peninsula contains a group of cities in the Palos Verdes Hills, including Palos Verdes Estates, Rancho Palos Verdes, Rolling Hills and Rolling Hills Estates, as well as the unincorporated community of Westfield/Academy Hill. The South Bay city of Torrance borders the peninsula on the north, the Pacific Ocean is on the west and south, and the Port of Los Angeles is east. As of the 2010 Census, the population of the Palos Verdes Peninsula is 65,008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese Bend</span> Area on Palos Verdes Peninsula, Los Angeles County, California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simi Hills</span> Mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in California, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Puente Hills</span> Mountain range of the Transverse Ranges in California, United States

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coastal sage scrub</span> Shrubland plant community of California

Coastal sage scrub, also known as coastal scrub, CSS, or soft chaparral, is a low scrubland plant community of the California coastal sage and chaparral subecoregion, found in coastal California and northwestern coastal Baja California. It is within the California chaparral and woodlands ecoregion, of the Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub biome.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument</span> Protected area in California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">California Coastal National Monument</span> All islets, reefs and rock outcroppings along the coast of California

The California Coastal National Monument is located along the entire coastline of the U.S. state of California. This monument ensures the protection of all islets, reefs and rock outcroppings along the coast of California within 12 nautical miles (22 km) of shore along the entire 840-mile (1,350 km) long coastline. Conservative estimates are for at least 20,000 such outcroppings. The monument was created by Bill Clinton via Presidential proclamation on January 11, 2000, with the authority in section two of the Antiquities Act of 1906. As of 2014, the monument has expanded to 2,272 acres (919 ha). The U.S. Bureau of Land Management, an agency of the U.S. Department of the Interior that manages the monument, has developed gateways in cooperation with other agencies along the California coast to introduce the monument to the public. These include the Trinidad, Point Arena, Fort Bragg-Mendocino, Pigeon Point Lighthouse, Piedras Blancas State Marine Reserve and Marine Conservation Area, and the Palos Verdes Peninsula. Although being the most-viewed national monument in California, people are usually unaware that the entire coastline is a national monument.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palos Verdes Hills</span> Mountain range in Southern California

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laguna Coast Wilderness Park</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arroyo Conejo Open Space</span> Park in Ventura County, California, United States of America

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big Sur Land Trust</span> Non-profit located in Monterey, California

The Big Sur Land Trust is a private 501(c)(3) non-profit located in Monterey, California, that has played an instrumental role in preserving land in California's Big Sur and Central Coast regions. The trust was the first to conceive of and use the "conservation buyer" method in 1989 by partnering with government and developers to offer tax benefits as an inducement to sell land at below-market rates. Since 1978, with the support of donors, funders and partners, it has conserved over 40,000 acres through conservation easements, acquisition and transfer of land to state, county and city agencies. It has placed conservation easements on 7,000 acres and has retained ownership of over 4,000 acres.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Palo Corona Regional Park</span> Public recreational area

The Palo Corona Regional Park is a 4,500 acres (1,800 ha) park owned by the Monterey Peninsula Regional Park District on land east of Big Sur Coast Highway and Garrapata State Park in California. The 9,898 acres (4,006 ha) property stretches southeast about 11 miles (18 km) from the near the Carmel River State Beach to the Los Padres National Forest. The park is long from north to south, bordered on the northwest by Highway 1 and across from Carmel River State Beach. It wraps around Point Lobos Ranch and abuts Santa Lucia Preserve to the east. In the middle, it is sandwiched by Mitteldorf Preserve and Garrapata State Park. Its southern border abuts Joshua Creek Canyon Ecological Reserve. Environmental interests were concerned that it would be converted to an estate-type development like that done for Rancho San Carlos. In May 2002, the Big Sur Land trust and The Nature Conservancy joined to buy the Ranch. Overall, the park directly and indirectly connects nine conservation properties preserved for their biological, recreation and scenic values. The area includes the former Rancho Caňada Country Club and golf course in Carmel Valley.

References

  1. 1 2 Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy
  2. Ohanesian, Liz (July 15, 2021). "This Tiny, Blue Butterfly Is in Trouble. Local Conservationists Are Fighting to Change That". Los Angeles Magazine.
  3. "White Point Nature Preserve – Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy". 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  4. "White Point Nature Preserve – Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy". 2024-03-15. Retrieved 2024-03-15.
  5. Paul, Deborah (May 15, 2020). "More than 1,000 Palos Verdes Blue Butterflies have been released into their native habitat". Palos Verdes Peninsula News. Retrieved 2020-05-15.
  6. http://www.conservingcalifornia.org/pdf/CC_Article_PVConservancy.pdf [ dead link ]
  7. Walks and Hikes on the Palos Verdes Peninsula Archived 2010-08-08 at the Wayback Machine
  8. CREEC - George F Canyon Nature Center & Trail