Irvine Ranch Conservancy Celebrates 20 Years of Stewardship

2025 marks the 20th anniversary of the founding of Irvine Ranch Conservancy! IRC was established to protect, restore and enhance the ecological health of local urban wildlands while encouraging human connections and partnership. Since 2005, IRC has helped care for tens of thousands of acres of biological and geological treasures in Orange County while enabling hundreds of thousands of people to connect to nature. 

The world-class preserved open space on the historic Irvine Ranch is as large and beloved as many well-known national parks. In recognition of this spectacular nature, nearly 40,000 acres have been designated a Natural Landmark by both the US National Park Service and California State Parks. More than 5,000,000 visitors each year enjoy the parks, protected areas and coastline of the historic Irvine Ranch.

The legacy that lives today in IRC began in 1864 with stewardship of the Irvine Ranch by James Irvine and later his heirs for over 100 years, and creation of a master plan that ensured open space would remain a core part of the landscape forever. Beginning in the 1980s through the early 2000s, Irvine Company Chairman Donald Bren dramatically increased the amount of preserved land and permanently protected it in public ownership. From 1992 to 2004, The Nature Conservancy and Irvine Company worked together to manage the land before it was given to the public. IRC and its landowner partners are the proud successors to this distinguished legacy of stewards.

IRC was founded in 2005 as a non-profit organization with the support of an initial major donation from Irvine Company and Chairman Donald Bren. The donation was part of $50 million the Company has contributed more broadly for conservation and public enjoyment of the land. The goal was to create an organization that would help make sure these lands were cared for and enjoyed forever and to create a model for stewardship of urban wildlands to the highest possible standards. 

IRC’s approach is to partner with public landowners to assist them in caring for their land and connect people to it. This includes partnering with the City of Irvine since 2005 to manage its 6,600-acre Open Space Preserve and the City of Newport Beach since 2008 to manage the Buck Gully Nature Reserve. In 2010, IRC began working with the County of Orange to manage 20,000 acres transferred from The Irvine Company. Together, IRC helps manage more than 31,000 acres of land in long-term partnerships. 

IRC also works with major agencies such as Orange County Transportation Authority and OC Waste & Recycling to help them restore native habitats to offset the environmental impacts of their activities. Through these partnerships, IRC has restored and enhanced over 2,000 acres of important watersheds and natural areas in the Irvine Ranch Natural Landmarks over the last 20 years.

Equally important has been the devoted community of support that IRC has nurtured through volunteerism and participation in the land and its care. Thousands of volunteers have given hundreds of thousands of hours through activities as diverse as trail building, invasive plant removal, habitat restoration, leading public programs, and fire prevention. The dedication of this growing community allows IRC to exponentially increase its impact on the Mission and trains the next generation of stewards of this extraordinary landscape.

IRC’s work has always been grounded in its core values: Partnership, Innovation, and a Commitment to Excellence.  “Everything we do is about partnership,” says IRC President & CEO Michael O’Connell. “Our purpose is to help public landowners care for their lands while providing an abundance of opportunities for the community to connect, participate, and enjoy them. We achieve this by managing and restoring habitats and land on a grand scale across tens of thousands of acres, providing a consistent, high level of stewardship quality and first-rate visitor experiences. We want to work with anyone who shares this vision of excellence.”

IRC innovates in every area of its work, whether creating new designs for building wilderness trails and entry gates or working with volunteers and emerging technology to detect and deter wildfires, from completing large-scale habitat restorations using cutting-edge methods to finding new ways to enable tens of thousands of visitors to enjoy nature each year. 

In the next 20 years, IRC will continue serving as a model for other land managers, testing new and innovative ways of working, encouraging the growing community of support for the land, and preparing the next generation of stewards to carry the legacy forward. 

Stay tuned this year for more ways to help celebrate 20 years of stewardship with IRC!