River Grove Sanctuary

San Jacinto, California

Opening  At The River Grove Conservancy Project Site:

    A gated conservancy with a one-bedroom farmhouse is available which is west of Palm Springs California, near universities, in a semi-rural area, suitable for one or possibly two; there is also room for horses with several large corrals. You may optionally participate with reforestation, species restoration and gardening; the personal site expenses are $425 monthly, utilities are separate.

    The sanctuary is located in a peaceful rural area at the base of snow capped Mount San Jacinto, close to the San Jacinto River; in a moderate climate where oranges and grapefruit are grown in the nearby foothills. Located west of Palm Springs California, although not in the desert; situated half way between San Diego and Los Angeles. The nearby mountains are snow covered in the winter and densely forested, with mineral hot springs in the nearby warm desert areas, as well as six Native American Reservations, and near several large universities, excellent libraries, including the University of California’s agricultural research facilities where the navel orange was first discovered and propagated, and where good technical help is available to support food production and plant restoration endeavors. A Pentium computer may be provided for free internet and long distance telephone services. Access to stores is convenient in the nearby town of San Jacinto, along with generally very considerably lower food costs. There are few requirements outside of participating with monthly expenses and not causing damages. Participation with reforestation efforts, species restoration, orchard or vegetable gardening, etc. is all voluntary and optional.

Structure Dimensions

    There are marble floors from Mexican quarries in the kitchen and bath, oak hardwood floors in the other rooms; all rooms are newly painted, with a new externally vented Williams thermostatic heater, new Rinnai Japanese piezo-electric gas stove, an Australian Solahart 300JK passive solar water heating system with a propylene glycol heat exchanger and electric boost if required, with substantial personal gardening areas, a large enclosed yard with 2 large walnut trees and 2 large walk-in aviaries, with 5 guinea birds that live in the yard and trees.

For additional information please [[[Note that the Discussion Forum doesn't work properly yet, so don't: leave a discussion message by clicking the discussion button above; however do]]] contact River Grove through your standard E-mail; and please leave your number if you would prefer a return call back, since a great deal of specific information can be conveyed many times faster by phone, also please allow at least several days for a reply.  We will attempt to include any responses in a Frequently Asked Questions section in the future. [email protected]

 

Southern California Map

To give a general overview of the region, it's about a 1 1/2 hour drive to either Los Angeles, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano Beach, or Tijuana Mexico, and about 30 to 45 minutes to the mountains or the deserts around Palm Springs.   So most of southern California, western Nevada and Arizona can easily be reached within 3 to 4 hours.   San Jacinto would be represented by the star in the center of the map.   There is rarely any actual need to go to the large cities since the local resources and facilities are about the same or perhaps better, only with much less driving, better air, no traffic jams, lower food and living costs, as well as much better natural scenery.   If you need more detailed maps please click on the map above, or here:  (MORE MAPS).

    The conservancy site is perhaps less than 20 miles to Palm Springs, in a straight line, but the climate is very different, since one of California's tallest mountains, at 10,804 feet, is in-between.  Big Bear Lake is a short drive to the north next to San Gorgonio Mountain at 11,485 feet with ski lifts and cross country skiing.  We have 3 to 4 times the rain fall here as Palm Springs, so it's really not a desert. Cottonwoods and Oaks are native to this area, and it's certainly not as hot in the summer here, however it's cooler in the winter than the deserts to the east, but not too cold for the oranges and grapefruit that are abundant nearby.  In early March we were in the snow at Idyllwild only about 30 minutes away and then crossed over the mountain into a warm desert to walk through Palm Springs at night while the rains were pouring in LA.   The aboriginal people of the area were more mobile than most people with cars.   They may have had 4 different dwellings during the year, so based on the seasonal harvest they were able to take advantage of the valley, mountain, coastal and desert climates. We're in a rural region but near the towns of San Jacinto and Hemet, which has first run movies where you can catch 12 features for $2.50. Fresh vegetables can cost only about ½ to 1/3 the price of the markets in the bigger cities like LA or San Francisco, with perhaps better variety. So it can cost much less to live here, in an environment that is much less concentrated, and perhaps a considerably easier place to work in, and of course there's a variety of jobs in the area as needed with access to much larger cities.   Various cultural centers include a photography museum in Riverside, the new Getty Museum in Los Angeles which may be the world's best funded, plus numerous botanical gardens, theater and music events, along with many miles of extraordinarily beautiful huge stone monuments in relatively nearby Joshua Tree National Monument.

    This conservancy maybe restoring what was the first farm in the region, perhaps established in the 1870's, and accessed by what appears to be the first designated and mapped roadway here.   Undoubtedly this area would have been a first choice for planting because it was so close to the San Jacinto River, and with the high water table of that time, anything planted could easily access the soil moisture and so would grow without irrigation, in an excellent climate suitable for a very wide variety of plants.   In the early 1900's apricots, peaches, oranges and grapefruit orchards became the primary industry of the region.   Our purpose here, in part, is to restore the forest that were substantially removed from the area for firewood, on the 20 acres, although fortunately there are still many large trees around the farmhouse. We've been protecting habitats and researching the process of cooperative restoration since the early 1970's. The house is a duplex, with the smaller portion now being used, however efforts are underway to complete the cleaning, painting and installing a new thermostatic heater and a stove in the larger 1 bedroom portion. There's a variety of interesting projects to study or consider participating in but nothing resembling a personal requirement.  We are slowly accommodating our technical documentation needs here including the design and preparation of an ecological web site to demonstrate the results of various research endeavors. If you would ever need a good library, there's the University of California at Riverside and Loma Linda University libraries, both not too far away with free DSL web terminals there, as well as at several local libraries, along with a college library which is within walking distance. UCR also has a large agricultural and botanical facility that can be a very helpful practical resource, and there is a variety of environmental, garden and botanical societies that meet monthly nearby and at the museum of natural history.  These monthly meetings can be another good source of helpful information.

For  information regarding conservation and restoration details please refer to the agreement page.

[ Home ] [ Up ] [ Agreement ]

Send mail to [email protected] with questions or comments about this web site.
Copyright © 2001 River Grove Sanctuary
Last modified: May 05, 2001