Reserve lands $20 million

Andrew Edwards

Irvine Co. Chairman Donald Bren picked Orange County’s first regional

park as the place to announce the donation of an additional $20

million to county open spaces on Thursday.

“We chose this setting because of the park’s deep historical ties

to our company’s open space and historical legacy,” Bren said of his

gift to the Irvine Ranch Land Reserve.

Irvine Regional Park, just outside the northwest city limits of

Orange, was donated to the county in 1897 by Irvine Co. founder James

Irvine. The land reserve, 50,000-plus acres, includes 11,000 acres

set aside in 2001.

The $20-million pledge announced Thursday set the total amount the

Donald Bren Foundation has donated to the land reserve at $50

million.

Bren, a billionaire who usually keeps a low profile, wore blue

jeans, hiking boots and Western-style belt when he made his

announcement to about 200 invited guests at the park.

Interior Secretary Gale Norton praised Bren and the Irvine Co. for

the donation and work on the land reserve.

She held up the land reserve as an example of “new

environmentalism” favored by the Bush administration, in which

private interests cooperate with the government to preserve land.

After addressing environmentalists and officials who were invited

to the announcement, Norton told reporters federal agencies are

unable to care for all land that is valuable for conservation and

recreation.

“We cannot do it alone,” she said.

In addition to the donation, Bren also announced the completion of

the land reserve’s first “Mountains-to-Sea Trail” and the formation

of a nonprofit agency to care for the reserve. Bren said he recently

made his own trek down the 22-mile trail, which travels from Weir

Canyon to Upper Newport Bay.

Following his speech, Bren said his favorite parts of the trail

were portions that pass through wetlands and the Back Bay.

“I’ve spent so much of my life around the Back Bay and watching it

in recent years; it’s been preserved so nicely,” Bren said.

The first executive director of the new Irvine Ranch Land Trust is

Michael O’Connell, who has held senior positions with the Nature

Conservancy. He said that over the next six months, the trust will

focus on adding trails, including two more that link mountains to the

ocean.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards@

latimes.com.