Tres Hermanos Update from the Los Angeles Times

Yesterday's Los Angeles Times has a lengthy article on Tres Hermanos Ranch and the current state of affairs at the 2,450-acre property, named for its orignal three owners, Harry Chandler, publisher of that paper; oilman William B. Scott, and William R. Rowland, son of the half-owner of Rancho La Puente, a Los Angeles County sheriff and oil magnate.

The article reviews the debates over the future of Tres Hermanos, including the proposal to build a solar farm on the tract while environmentalists and others want to see preservation of the property as part of a wildlife corridor connecting the Puente and Chino hills ranges to the Santa Ana Mountains and for passive recreation.

As a consulting biologist, Dan Cooper, told writer Louis Sahagun:

Tres Hermanos is the most significant expanse of grassland habitat left in the Los Angeles Basin—that much we know for certain.

For the article, City of Industry's City Manager Troy Helling took Sahagun, a Times photograper, and others on a tour of the ranch, which is rarely available for people to see.  Helling told the group the City's approach to the ranch has changed after a change in administration.

A view from March 2018 looking northeast from recent housing developments in Brea ino the southern end of Tonner Canyon and Tres Hermanos Ranch, where the "missing middle" of the connection of the Chino Hills (right) and Puente Hills (left, where thousands of homes have long been planned) are bisected by the 57 Freeway at upper left.

He stated that Industry wants to settle ongoing legal issues with the cities of Chino Hills and Diamond Bar and "partner with them on a plan that will benefit our communities and the wildlife that lives here."  He added, "But I wouldn't blame anybody for not believing that," given recent history, including the solar farm issue.  Helling concluded by noting, "we're working with a clean slate, and we want to be good neighbors."

Claire Schlotterbeck, long a champion for preserving open space and having passive recreation in the area, noted that access has been restricted but stated that video footage reveals a landscape "teeming with an abundance of species," though she remains cautious about the ranch's future, observing "Lord only knows what comes next out there."

Among the most recent developments is an attempt by the City of Commerce, another industrial city close to Los Angeles, to seek purchase of the property as it apparently is willing to partner with the firm that Industry hired, then fired, to build the solar farm.  A spokesperson told the Times that company's goal "is to use about 30% of Tres Hermanos for renewable energy and leave the rest for open space."

A biological consultant, Alyssa Cope of Sage Environmental Group, recently hired by Industry to review the ranch, told Sahagun:

Tres Hermanos is an extraordinary landscape—and it could be even better.  The more biodiversity, the healthier the habitat.