Wildlife corridors link fragmented areas of habitat through open space, allowing wildlife to get to essential core habitat areas for water, food and mating. Until now, Ventura County has not considered impacts to wildlife when granting over-the-counter ministerial permits for structures in the [...]

On average, a mountain lion a year is killed from vehicle collisions while moving to and from the Santa Monica Mountains. The inability of wildlife in the Santa Monica Mountains to connect to inland mountain ranges is a major reason why mountain lions live for only 3 years in our mountains, [...]

It is safe to say that without the passage of the SOAR initiatives 20 years ago, there would be much less agriculture and open space in Ventura County today. As our water crisis intensifies, SOAR has played an important role in keeping our water options open. Paving over less land means more [...]

Housing affordability is a tremendous challenge in all Southern California coastal counties, from San Diego to Santa Barbara county. Our Mediterranean climate and high quality of life attract so many people that this area will always have high prices relative to inland areas. Counties without [...]

Birds gotta fly, fish gotta swim, and mountain lions gotta roam. Or as plant physiologist David Goddard once said, “No organism lives without an environment.” While we’ve protected large areas of open space in Ventura County through SOAR, the survival of wildlife in those open spaces is [...]

Some have wondered about the purpose and effects of the recent SOAR election victories, and it certainly cannot hurt to be reminded every now and then that theSOAR battles have created real and tangible benefits to the community. The obvious sometimes creates complacency. We have open space [...]

The Thomas Fire was the largest fire in our State’s history,however it was not the most devastating. When compared to Sonoma County where two months earlier the city of Santa Rosa experienced ten times the loss of homes as Ventura, the Thomas Fire while crushing and geographically larger, was [...]