OUR FUTURE

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Once the Foundation has purchased open space, it will be dedicated and opened to the public, thus protecting the loss of scenic land to development. The Fond Land Preservation Foundation aims to turn over the day-to-day operation of the open space.  The Foundation will operate the open space. We also plan to continue raising supplementary funds that will be used to purchase additional undeveloped parcels and create more public open space within Los Angeles and/or Ventura Counties.

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Additionally, the Foundation would like to assist local governments in the implementation of its trails, parks, and open space master plans. With budgets being cut every day, one manner in which the public can ensure that it still have parks and open space is to assist in their acquisition.

 

We would like to expand our efforts to educate the public, government, and businesses about recreation, environmental, wildlife, and riparian protection, as well as the benefits to their health and physical fitness of using open space. In addition, this is a great opportunity for “city” dwellers to experience the wilderness in their own backyard. A number of learning opportunities are present at the Fond Family Open Space. There are numerous opportunities for learning about such things as -- blue-line streams and riparian vegetation; the propagation of some of California’s native plants, the animals present in this ecosystem; the geology and geomorphology of the area by hiking through the hills and mountains and observing outcrops and slumps. In addition, we think this type of environment would be a great opportunity for some of our community organizations who seek to spend time in the wilderness and learn about the beauty of nature.  ​

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Use of Property: While the property is publicly accessible, there are limitations. Because of fire danger and the safety of the public, motorized vehicles are not allowed nor are off-leash dogs, firearms, or campfires. Access to the park closes at dusk. This is an open space and visitors must be aware of snakes, coyotes, mountain lions, and plants, such as poison oak.
The property near the entrance to the 210 freeway has been fenced off with no trespassing
signs at a cost of about $20,000. The reason for this was that it had become a residence for
homeless people. They had generators, zip lines, campfires, and accumulated items which cost about $20,000 to remove and dispose of. While the Foundation would like open space to be open, it cannot allow people to live on the property. About 8 years ago, the people who were camping on the site started a fire which resulted in 23 fire trucks coming to the property to extinguish the fire. For that reason, that portion of the property will remain fenced.

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We are in the early stages of creating a  docent program which will be detailed in updates to the website.