Rob and Michele Reiner were crucial in saving the 2,783 acre former Ahmanson Ranch in 2003 and creating the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve.

In their honor, we propose that this nature preserve in the heart of Southern California be renamed by the State, and Governor Gavin Newsom, to the "Rob and Michele Reiner Open Space Preserve.”

This endeavor to reward these two great Americans is detailed in my EnviroReporter.com story “Rob Reiner’s Ranch” which tells the tale of how this Hollywood heavyweight convinced developers to stop their $2 billion plan to build thousands of homes.

Rob Reiner also made possible this reporter’s promise to his father in the spring of 2002 after he’d recently learned he had terminal stage kidney cancer. I swore to my dad that I would uncover the chemicals and radiation emanating from the ranch-bordering ‘Rocketdyne,’ the Santa Susana Field Laboratory and stop the development in its tracks before he died and ceremoniously give it to him for all to cherish. Pops promised to try to live at least that long.

Sure enough, after my reporting questioned the groundwater the Washington Mutual development was going to use, it was tested and was found to be polluted by the toxic chemical perchlorate. 

Rob Reiner took the discovery seriously and let it be known. 

“I am appalled that Washington Mutual will not do the appropriate testing to determine the extent of the contamination on Ahmanson Ranch,” Reiner told me in a December 2002 newspaper article. “Moving forward on the Ahmanson Ranch project without further testing is irresponsible and puts the public’s health and safety at risk.”

The Reiners went all out to preserve this precious wild land adjacent to millions of park-starved people. And, with the help of a heroic group of citizens, succeeded in saving Ahmanson Ranch by October 2003 and renaming it the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve.

My father passed away November 30, 2003, hours before the Upper Las Virgenes Canyon Open Space Preserve opened for the first time to the public December 1, 2003. I believe that he had to get there first to welcome all to the park I promised him.

Rob Reiner made that wish come true. Rob and Michele Reiner made all of our wishes come true with this everlasting gift of the preserve won through their efforts.

Now it’s time to reward the Reiners for this timeless place for magnificent creatures to roam. It’s time for another wish to come true: renaming the former Ahmanson Ranch the “Rob and Michele Reiner Open Space Preserve.”