RIVER'S FRIENDS GO WITH FLOW GROUPS HELP SANTA CLARA.

Byline: Patricia Farrell Aidem Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Two agencies are negotiating to acquire land along the wild Santa Clara River, an 80-mile-long stretch that runs from the desert mountains of Acton to the sea.

The California Coastal Conservancy and the private Nature Conservancy - working in concert with cities, counties and residents with a stake in the Santa Clara - want to begin restoring and preserving what is revered as the last natural waterway in Southern California.

The separate plans bring new hope to the Friends of the Santa Clara River, an activist group instrumental in the seven-year effort to gather data to preserve the mostly dry riverbed and its delicate ecology.

Ron Bottorff, a member of the Friends of the Santa Clara, is thrilled. He has worked endless hours pulling various agencies together, igniting passion among environmentalists, battling opponents when he has to and scraping for money to preserve the wild river.

Preservationist efforts at the mouth are great - pulling the plan together at the head of the river would be even better, he said.

``If they're able to accomplish that, we're all for it,'' said Bottorff, a Newbury Park resident.

The Coastal Conservancy has its eye on 15 or so miles at the mouth of the river between the cities of Oxnard and Ventura. It has identified about $15 million this year to begin acquisition of about 6,400 acres, with the goal of removing manmade barriers to reduce the flooding potential and restore the wildlife, project manager Peter Brand said.

Some who own land where the river meets the sea are willing to sell, giving the conservancy hope that it can restore the natural 870-acre estuary, now curbed to 130 acres, mostly by agriculture. Two Ventura golf courses are enveloped by the land the conservancy wants, and city officials there said they are willing to consider relocating them.

``The goal is total continuity from the mouth upriver,'' Brand said. ``We won't necessarily be able to acquire properties in perfect stair-step pattern, but we will try - focusing on the lower river. That's a big task, but we've gotten some encouragement from property owners.''

At stake is a boundless river that drains mountains from the San Gabriels in the Angeles National forest to the rugged Santa Susanas to the Topatopa range north of the river, edging the Los Padres National Forest.

The snaking belt is typically dry but can rage in heavy winter rains, more and more as development crowds its banks, Brand said. It is home to small mammals, shimmering cottonwoods and willows and a range of plant and animal life that is rare in Southern California.

``When you get to a part of the river where the vegetation is lush, there are birds everywhere,'' said Wendy Millet, South Central Coast area director of the Nature Conservancy, another group making its mark on the Santa Clara.

While the Coastal Conservancy is looking at the mouth of the river and its rich ecology, the private nonprofit Washington, D.C.-based Nature Conservancy is looking at picking up large blocks of land that cross the river from Santa Paula east to the Los Angeles-Ventura County line.

The Nature Conservancy, one of the nation's largest nonprofit groups, wants to bolster the wildlife corridor between the Santa Susana Mountains west of Santa Clarita across the river to the mountains of the Los Padres.

The private agency's focus is on preserving the habitat, Millet said.

``Optimally, we would like to work in partnership with the Coastal Conservancy - where they're working on the lower part of the river, we would be looking upstream,'' she said.

The Nature Conservancy is in the midst of an exhaustive analysis of the river's wildlife, from the Los Angeles County line near Santa Clarita to the Pacific.

``We're looking for habitat, that's our focus,'' Millet said. ``We're conducting a scientific inventory of a critical riparian habitat, checking for threatened and endangered natural communities and species.''

At the head of the river, remote Aliso Canyon northeast of Santa Clarita, the origins of the Santa Clara have been added to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy's territory.

That conservancy has no immediate plan to buy land but is developing a work program to ensure preservation, spokeswoman Rorie Skei said.

CAPTION(S):

photo, map

Photo: (color in SAC edition only) Ron Bottorff, a member of Friends of the Santa Clara River, prepares to enter the water from a natural spring.

John Lazar/Staff Photographer

Map: Saving the River