The County’s Mt. Olympus Preserve east of the North County community of Rainbow is an undeveloped expanse of chaparral dotted with oak woods where mountain lions, deer, hawks, bobcats and other animals thrive.
Without freeways or major development in their way, these animal populations can migrate and connect through the preserve along a wildlife route that reaches the Santa Ana Mountains to the north and Palomar Mountain to the east.
“It’s a great corridor to open space in Riverside — animals don’t care where the county line is,” said Trish Boaz, chief of County Parks and Recreation’s Resource Management Division.
On Wednesday, the County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to purchase 86.4 acres of undeveloped land to enlarge the Mt. Olympus Preserve. The new land will expand the 750 acre area by more than 10 percent.
That means more critical wildland habitat will never be developed. Leaving the land alone will also protect water quality, because the area is part of the San Luis Rey River watershed. Undeveloped land absorbs and filters storm water, while developed areas tend to produce polluted runoff.
Tuesday’s vote to purchase the land came as part of the County’s Multiple Species Conservation Plan, which sets aside environmentally important habitat to protect endangered and sensitive plants and animals while directing development towards existing population centers.
Since the plan’s adoption in 1997, the County has preserved nearly 70,000 acres of open space.
The County’s open-space preserves are managed by its Parks and Recreation department, and the open space is acquired through a variety of means. Sometimes owners donate the land to the County; sometimes other conservation agencies buy environmentally important land and turn it over to the County, and sometimes commercial developers purchase land and turn it over to the county to mitigate for building elsewhere.
In the case of the Mt. Olympus Preserve, the new portion of the preserve costs $525,000 and the County is paying half the purchase price while the Department of the Navy will contribute the other half in the interest of marinating an open space buffer zone around Camp Pendleton. The County will own and manage the entire preserve.
Mt. Olympus Preserve is not yet open to the public, but with a 2,274-foot peak and some spectacular viewpoints, it may be an appropriate place for hiking and other forms of recreation that don’t harm plant or animal life.
But transforming the preserve into an enjoyable safe place for humans, with usable trails and other features, will take time and money, Boaz said.
“The reason why it’s not open to the public yet is the assets we have aren’t in good enough shape for the public yet,” Boaz said.
Opening trails in a preserve can be a tricky matter, because human activity must not threaten the habitat of endangered or threatened species. So trails must run through areas that don’t disturb critical habitat.
However, the Multiple Species Conservation Plan aims to protect the environment while allowing the public to enjoy the lands. So the ultimate aim is to open Mt. Olympus for people to enjoy alongside the native species.
