HELP SHAPE THE FUTURE OF CROOKED PALM PRESERVE
Crooked Palm Community Listening Day
Saturday, October 10th, 2026: 10 AM – 1 PM
Crooked Palm Preserve, 4777 Crooked Palm Rd, Ventura, CA 93001
Join us on Saturday, October 10, from 10 AM to 1 PM at Crooked Palm Preserve to make your voice heard and help shape the future of this special place. Ventura Land Trust is beginning to develop a long-term vision for Crooked Palm and wants to hear from the community. What would you value as part of a future nature preserve? What concerns you? What activities, experiences, or opportunities would you hope to see here in the future? This is an early listening phase, and your ideas and perspectives will help inform future planning for the preserve.
Stop by anytime between 10 AM and 1 PM to share your thoughts, ask questions, and help us imagine what’s possible for the future of Crooked Palm Preserve. We want the future of this preserve to reflect the values and needs of the community while balancing the protection and restoration of its ecological resources.
Can’t attend the listening event? You can still make your voice heard by completing our Crooked Palm Community Listening Form. Share your thoughts, ideas, and hopes for the preserve and help shape its future.
Crooked Palm Preserve is a 100+ acre property along the Ventura River
For more than a century, the property was privately owned and used for both farming and industrial purposes, including an oil refinery, agricultural fertilizer plant, and above ground storage tank farm. Undergoing several waves of remediation since the late 1980’s, it was acquired by Ventura Land Trust (VLT) in late 2025. Today, VLT is engaged in the complex process of strategic planning and fundraising to transform this heavily impacted property into an ecologically rich nature preserve.
VLT is beginning an extended planning and restoration process. The site still contains deteriorating industrial buildings and infrastructure. Significant work will be required to restore its ecological integrity and determine how we can safely and appropriately incorporate community use.
Help Shape the Future of Crooked Palm
Ventura Land Trust wants to work with the community to help determine the future of Crooked Palm Preserve. What do you value about this special place? What concerns you? What do you hope Crooked Palm could provide for the community in the future? We want the preserve’s future to reflect the values and needs of the community while balancing the protection and restoration of its ecological resources.
VLT is beginning with community listening and visioning to help determine the future of Crooked Palm. After generations of limited access to this stretch of the Ventura River, this conservation project offers a unique opportunity to imagine, together, what this land can become next.
Help us shape the future of the preserve by attending a Community Listening Day, completing our questionnaire, or emailing info@venturalandtrust.org.
Crooked Palm Preserve protects more than 100 acres of floodplain along the Ventura River, including nearly one mile of riparian corridor and the confluence of Cañada Larga Creek, one of the largest tributaries in the Ventura River watershed.
The preserve contains mature riparian woodland and forest with areas of perennial surface water, providing important habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including sensitive species such as the southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida), two-striped garter snake (Thamnophis hammondii), and federally endangered least Bell’s vireo (Vireo bellii pusillus).
While ecological vibrant, the property faces significant restoration challenges, including extensive areas of monotypic invasive species like arundo (Arundo donax) and castor bean (Ricinus communis), homeless encampments, and a heavily impacted industrial footprint.
VLT is currently seeking funding for ecological surveys at Crooked Palm that will help establish a biological baseline essential for understanding and protecting the preserve’s natural resources, and a comprehensive strategic plan that will guide the long-term management and restoration of this complex and ecologically important property.
Ecological Importance of Crooked Palm
southwestern pond turtle (Actinemys pallida)
two-striped garter snake (Thamnophis hammondii)
CROOKED PALM INFO
It’s 101.5 acres!
Crooked Palm Preserve protects more than 100 acres of land along the Ventura River north of Ventura.The property was purchased for $7 million.
The purchase was made possible through a combination of $4 million in Proposition 68 funding and $3 million from an anonymous donor.The Ventura River runs right through it.
The preserve includes 0.9 miles of the Ventura River and 0.95 miles of the Ventura River/Ojai Valley Trail, supporting an important connection between people and the riparian ecosystem.There’s still a lot of restoration ahead.
Ventura Land Trust estimates that transforming Crooked Palm into a thriving natural area will take about a decade, making this a true conservation project in progress.It’s already home to wildlife.
Despite its industrial history, the property hosts riparian forest and woodland, riparian scrub, coastal sage scrub, and riverine habitats. Ecological monitoring to document existing diversity and changes over time is our first priority.Crooked Palm is a “Cinderella story” for conservation.
Our vision is to transform a former industrial site into a biodiverse, ecologically functional river preserve that supports opportunities for people to enjoy nature and for this unique and geographically limited ecosystem to thrive—turning a heavily degraded landscape into a vibrant community asset for generations to come.
FLORA & FAUNA OF CROOKED PALM
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California sycamore
Platanus racemosa
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California blackberry
Rubus ursinus
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arroyo willow
Salix lasiolepis
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coyote brush leaf beetle
Trirhabda flavolimbata
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mourning cloak
Nymphalis antiopa
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southern California walnut
Juglans californica
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belted kingfisher
Megaceryle alcyon
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black cottonwood
Populus trichocarpa
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Pacific chorus frog
Pseudacris regilla
Become a Community Scientist!
Be a part of a collection of community scientists creating the most comprehensive data on the animals, plants, insects, and fungi that exist in Crooked Palm Preserve. Your careful observations help us better understand the biodiversity and manage the nature preserve to the best of our abilities.
To learn more about how VLT uses iNaturalist, please read our blog post The Power of Community Science through iNaturalist.
STEP ONE: Download the iNaturalist App and set up your account.
STEP TWO: Go outside! Take in the life around you–slow down, be curious, pay attention, and take photos.
STEP THREE: Upload your photos to iNaturalist. It will help you with IDs if you need them. Post your observation and we’ll see it on our end–thanks for your contributions!
Recent Crooked Palm Observations
WAYS TO SUPPORT
Help us restore Crooked Palm!
Your support will help establish ecological monitoring plans to create a biological baseline—an essential foundation for effective long-term management that can be difficult to fund—and develop a comprehensive management plan to guide the long-term stewardship of this complex property.
Photo by Laim Pickhardt