Everyone involved with the Wagner Ranch Nature Area issue can agree on one thing: the desire to preserve and keep as much of it undeveloped as possible. Beyond that, volunteer supporters of the area and its owner, the Orinda Union School District (OUSD), don’t seem to agree on much.
Those conflicts have led to some uncomfortable public confrontations between the OUSD and members of Friends of the Orinda Nature Area (FONA), a group of volunteers who, over the years, have lavished time and money on creating paths and other amenities and conducting a variety of environmental and historical educational programs there.
The conflicts have led to mistrust and to resentment about the district’s reassertion of control over the more than 18 acres of wildlands, evidenced in the comments from FONA members and supporters at a Feb. 21 special OUSD board meeting.
For most of its history, the Orinda Nature Area was subject to a kind of benign neglect on the part of the district. Part of a 33-acre tract that EBMUD “sold” to OUSD for $10 in 1961, it became the site of Wagner Ranch Elementary School in 1969.
But just as the new elementary school was opening, the population of school-age children in Orinda was plummeting, leading to several other schools closures. In 1982, Wagner Ranch also was shuttered.
By 1997 however, the tide turned, and Wagner Ranch was given a new lease on life.
A small group of Orinda nature lovers immediately recognized an extraordinary opportunity to make use of the wild parts of the property. They soon formed Friends of the Wagner Ranch Nature Area (more recently renamed Friends of Orinda Nature Area, or FONA).
Volunteers raised money to conduct education programs focused on celebrating the history of the area and inculcating a love for outdoor activities. They provided hands-on science projects. They built a greenhouse, a picnic area, created paths throughout the property, and formed work parties to clear out dead branches and other safety hazards.
Over 15,000 Orinda schoolchildren took part in programs there over the years.
That era is over. The district has made it clear that volunteers and others will no longer be able to make independent decisions about use of the area. The district also will have the final say on educational programs. Due to safety and liability concerns, unfettered access by volunteers will no longer be allowed.
Several FONA supporters at that meeting questioned the reasoning behind the decision of Superintendent Aida Glimme to continue to limit public access to the area.
“We have a deep appreciation for the efforts volunteers have put into the Nature Area,” said Glimme at the board meeting.
Then she laid out the challenges the district faces to clean up and maintain an area that recent storms left severely damaged.
The district closed the Nature Area after the storms of 2022-2023 due to safety concerns, promising to reopen it when those concerns had been addressed. But as a reopening plan was being developed, some troubling facts came into focus.
For starters, the official boundaries were unclear.
For years, the programs run by volunteers had blurred the lines separating the parts of the tract that belong to OUSD from the part that still belongs to EBMUD.
Furthermore, visitors and volunteers had been using it all, although the last known permit for use of EBMUD’s portion expired in 1978.
To establish clean-up responsibilities and facilitate planning, a land survey was completed this January, and an accurate property line was marked.
OUSD also needed an assessment of the safety issues in the undeveloped portion of the land. What that revealed was far more damage and concerns than previously thought. Not only were there downed or damaged trees and badly eroded pathways, but a growing list of wildfire safety compliance and mitigation issues.
In all, 63 trees on OUSD property were tagged for needed work, with 23 to be removed. The cost estimate for this work alone is $400,000 to $700,000, which doesn’t include the additional environmental consultation required to proceed.
Additionally, the district must contend with new MOFD compliance requirements, including a 100-foot wide fire break all along the side of the property furthest from the school – cost yet to be determined.
Depending on the plan for future use, path repairs could be subject to ADA compliance, which might add to the expense of repair and replacement.
UC Emeritus Professor John Helms, a FONA supporter at the Feb. 21 meeting, questioned the location and responsibility for the fire break and suggested it could be relocated to EBMUD land or completed by volunteers. He had not met with MOFD on the matter.
Then there’s the greenhouse, an outdoor kitchen and other structures largely installed and paid for by FONA volunteers.
In a visit to Wagner Ranch School to review and discuss the district’s plans for other renovations, California State Architect Ida Clair (responsible for oversight of state-owned schools and other buildings) noticed the Nature Area greenhouse and outdoor kitchen and the paths surrounding them.
Clair pointed out that if the structures weren’t properly permitted (and state certification so far has not been found), they cannot be used and either need to be reinforced to meet code or removed. The presence of the non-compliant structures might even impede the district’s ability to get permits for work at other locations.
A further complication is the $1.5 million state grant issued through the office of Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan.
It is intended to preserve and protect the Nature Area as “Open Space.” FONA and other Nature Area advocates hoped the funding could provide a solution to some or all the cost issues.
To date, however, no one has agreed on what limitations and responsibilities would be placed on the district if it accepts the money. Glimme said that even if they can iron out a deal, the money won’t be enough to solve the longer-term issues, such as ongoing maintenance
and liability.
Since the availability of the grant was set to expire last July, the City of Orinda stepped in to steward the funds until an agreement can be reached.
“Future fire and safety mitigation could cost as much as $120,000 a year,” Glimme said. “If we continue education programs, we will need to better connect and integrate them into required classroom curriculum and materials. All of this takes resources. Do I just pull the money out of the classrooms? Frankly, I’d be eaten alive by parents if we did that.”
Most FONA members and supporters left the February meeting reassured that the district does not plan to sell or develop the Nature Area land. But some speakers expressed impatience and anger at continuing restrictions on use.
FONA board member Reg Barrett at one point suggested the district was overstepping its authority. “We’ve been doing the work there for decades,” he said. “And as taxpayers, it belongs to us,” he said, pointing angrily at the board.
Most of the speakers, however, came to affirm the importance of continuing the educational programs that have delighted Orinda’s young students for decades, and to highlight the Nature Area’s benefits as an everyday refuge for Orinda residents.
FONA board member Katie Shogun called the Nature Area “a huge and awesome opportunity.”
Glimme said she will continue “ongoing and collaborative conversations with Bauer-Kahan’s staff,” hoping to find more funding for future costs.
The district will also investigate the availability of Measure X funding to create the required fire break.
Glimme said she hopes they can find a suitable partner – Save Mt. Diablo and the John Muir Land Trust are possibilities – to help relieve the financial burden of continued preservation.
Katherine Barrett, FONA board president, said, “If OUSD does decide to work in partnership with a land trust, that would be good news.”
“The Nature Area is both a treasure and a burden,” Glimme added. “But we all agree completely that it needs to be preserved.”
