At the base of Cucamonga Peak with her two big sisters, Mount San Antonio and Ontario Peak looking on, lies Rancho Cucamonga. The specter of these three magnificent spires makes Rancho a beautiful place to live and raise a family.

Our community rests on a massive alluvial fan composed of sedimentation gathered over eons from multiple canyons along our mountain front. Our foothills comprise a rich transitional zone between our granite backdrop and the alluvial soils upon which most of us live. The natural communities that occupy our foothills and alluvial fan are extremely diverse, highly adapted, and incredibly threatened.

Southern California has been identified as one of eight “hot spots” worldwide where species loss is occurring at an unprecedented rate. Many of the plant and animal communities here rank as some of the most vulnerable in the world.

According to a nationwide survey of biologists by the American Museum of National History, “…seven out of ten biologists believe that we are in the midst of a mass extinction of living things, and that this loss of species will pose a major threat to human existence in the next century.”

When I speak to people about the complexity and fullness of our living systems here in Rancho their eyes tend to glaze over, even the sympathetic ones. What one really only needs to know is that our area was once a garden teeming with wildlife and highly specialized plants and that this garden is rapidly disappearing.

Don’t get me wrong. I do not oppose sensible development. We need new homes and businesses to accommodate our burgeoning population. But in our haste to build a shiny new city, we forgot one very important thing – our natural world, God’s Creation.

I should also say that I am proud to live in Rancho Cucamonga and that I love my community. But, plainly, it saddens me that my City’s environmental record and its stewardship of the web of life have been abysmal.

Of the hundreds of project developments (PD) that have been built in Rancho, not a single one required any meaningful or offsetting “environmental mitigation”.

In fairness, there is a current PD application that will require the dedication of offsite mitigation lands to reduce the negative environmental impact of the project. But this is the first time that Rancho has considered this form of mitigation. Perhaps there is a sea change going on, but I hate to say I’m skeptical. I’ve lived here too long.

I do not fault developers and builders seeking to earn a livelihood, but they must come to understand that there is a price to pay for destroying the last remnants of our vanishing natural heritage.

Rancho also can no longer afford to judge each new project in a vacuum, leaving the analysis of a project’s destructiveness to paid consultants who have close industry ties.

I don’t want to demean foxes, but we can’t allow them to guard the henhouse any longer. Nature can no longer be an abstraction that we can easily paper over.

Land conservation is not pie-in-the-sky stuff. There are numerous innovative ways to go about it. Our neighbors in La Verne and Claremont have succeeded in saving nearly 1000 acres in the past three years alone, through grants, good old-fashioned community effort and citizenship (the work of highly dedicated individuals), and the cooperation of their city and county governments.

The Claremont Hills Wilderness Park approaches 2000 acres and is an example of what can be accomplished if there is a political will.

One does not have to be a lover of songbirds or see the wonder in a doe with her fawn, to appreciate the value of open spaces. Simply said, open space adds value to communities.

Natural landscapes make communities more attractive places to live and convey a sense of place. Moreover, lands dedicated to conservation offer opportunities for human renewal and are respites from our busy lives.

The conservation of living systems not only enriches us by uplifting the human spirit but also enhances our moral character, intellect and humanity by allowing us to bequeath a lasting legacy to those who follow.

Indeed, as we continue to tear away at the fabric of life, the world becomes a less vibrant, less stimulating place. In the words of John Sawhill, the late president of The Nature Conservancy, “In the end, our society will be defined not only by what we create but what we refuse to destroy.”

Copyright © 2008 Frank Schiavone

Frank Schiavone
fschiavone@verizon.net