Palos Verdes Land Conservancy
Meet the Founders: BIll and Barbara Ailor
“As the Conservancy evolved, one of the most pleasurable things was the involvement of so many talented and dedicated people who stepped forward to help. Early on, there were some who believed what we were doing was crazy–land in Palos Verdes was simply too expensive. Having a group of community leaders who believed it was possible got involved, and were willing to help meant everything.
A key feature of the Conservancy is its non-confrontational approach to land preservation. Our goal has always been to acquire land from willing sellers by working with them to develop acquisition details that were agreeable to both sides. We never opposed development but offered developers a financially acceptable alternative to implementing their development plans.” Bill Ailor
Preserving a Peninsula
William and Barbara Ailor had a daring concept: to purchase and preserve valuable land and preserve it as natural, open space for a community and public to enjoy. They managed to rally a community to create a land preservation trust which we call today the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy. William Ailor is still on the Board of Directors 32 years later.
The Ailors moved to Southern California in 1974 looking for a place in the Los Angeles area that had ample open space similar to where both grew up, (Bill is from Virginia and Barbara grew up on a farm in upstate New York-a friend advised them to look at Palos Verdes). The couple have always enjoyed hiking and being outdoors. Through the years, they began noticing lots of development happening in the area and they began to get concerned. Bill saw first-hand the number of developers wanting to develop large parcels of land in the area during his eight years in city government on the Rolling Hills Estates Planning Commission. His concern led to him contacting a national nonprofit organization, The Trust for Public Land which bought up acreage for parkland. He scheduled a Trust speaker from this organization to conduct a workshop at the Peninsula Library.
The early days of the organization were difficult and many elected officials and community members questioned if they could ever raise enough money to buy land just for the purpose of preserving it. Bill got to work showing lawmakers and elected officials on the Peninsula as well as in Sacramento photos and information proving the land worthy of protection. The Conservancy slowly started to gain momentum in 1988 when Ken Zuckerman and his family donated the first 20 acres in Lunada Canyon. Land preservation was the primary goal of the Conservancy for years and eventually evolved to include a huge habitat restoration effort. Today there are miles of multi-use trails throughout the preserves. There are education programs, Volunteer Trail Watch groups, guided nature walks with nature centers and many enrichment opportunities for the community and local schools.
Generous gifts from the community combined with state and federal resources made the funding for the land purchases possible.
Read more at pvplc.org/
