Land Conservancy Hires New Chief
Greg Gamble
Gamble comes to Ojai with years of Land Trust, Nature Conservancy skills
By Earl Bates
The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy has completed its four-month search for a new executive director by signing a contract with Greg Gamble on Friday.
Gamble said he is excited about his new job and about becoming integrated with the Ojai community. “I think the OVLC has done great work and has great potential,” said Gamble.
“Ojai’s a beautiful place — I think it is certainly a very special place. I think there is a lot of great work to be done from a conservation standpoint. And from a personal standpoint, my wife and I are very much looking forward to joining the community and raising our two little kids here.”
Gamble joins the OVLC from the Desert Foothills Land Trust of Cave Creek, Ariz., where he was executive director. For 10 years prior to that he held several positions of progressive responsibility with The Nature Conservancy in Colorado, San Francisco, and Phoenix.
Gamble holds an undergraduate degree in petroleum engineering from Stanford, a master’s in natural resource management from Colorado State, and a master of business administration from the University of Michigan. He has also traveled widely both in the United States and abroad.
Gamble will relocate with his family to the Ojai Valley soon and join the OVLC staff around May 4. He replaces Fred Fox, who left to join his wife in an educational software venture.
The Ojai Valley Land Conservancy has a staff of seven, including the executive. Formed in 1991, the 1,000-plus-member conservancy manages several large tracts of land, including the 1,591-acre Ventura River Preserve, and the restored wetlands at the Ojai Meadows.
Roger Essick, OVLC board president, stated, “Greg is a very talented and able individual who will bring strong leadership to the OVLC as we seek to move our organization to a new level. We are delighted to welcome Greg and his family to the Ojai Valley and we feel confident that he will make a significant contribution to OVLC and to the community.”
Gamble said, “I have a great deal of respect for this organization and what it has accomplished, and I am humbled and excited to be working with the talented and dedicated staff and directors of the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy. I look forward to working with the community to build on the conservancy’s past success and protect much more of this special place.”
Yak yak yak
j.h. holds only one true solution,behold the answer too my insomnia !!!!!
Thanx j. hatch ZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzz
The one point of my blog you just answered. The lone voice crying in the wilderness happens to be a megalomanias whore, conjugating all the thoughts in his head into one schzophrenic voice.
Maury,
What is the point of your blog? It lacks the inherent qualities of James Hatch: Strength, courage under fire, resolve, and dignity.
You are the pacifist; a meal for the sharp sword of James Hatch’s pen.
Mr. Gamble does not read this blog because he is not in touch with the real leaders of this valley. Those that think they are in charge continue to blindly walk into each other: A clear example of the blind leading the blind. If Mr. Gamble had any chance of success by receiving the blessing of James Hatch, he would publicly profess his inferiority to James Hatch on this website. At that time, he might have a chance of success.
His statement would read something like the following: ” Mr. Hatch, what a pleasure it is to work in your town, in your home, in your valley. I cannot thank you enough for allowing me this opportunity. Mr. Hatch, I won’t let you down. And to ensure that your direction is followed, I accept your offer to allow Ret. Lieut. John Doe to serve as a liason within my administration.”
Ret. Lieut. John Doe
Aide to James Hatch
It is clear that a majority of the people in this valley are mealy pacificists, pseudo-stewards of liberalism, who show force by wearing black, light candles, and stand silently in the park -sending thought waves of peace. Who have just enough clout to murmur amongst themselves, and yet never stand alone. Mr. Gamble should read this blog, and had better have a direction toward resolve, rather than sitting on a position… Mother Bird is already kicking chics out of the nest.
I leave for a couple of days and my blog is taken over by a couple of whiners? To the new writers, be forewarned, your little spats won’t last long. This isn’t Romper Room.
Very funny, but please, everyone know I didn’t write that above commment meant to imitate Ms Badwafta. In fact I am done commenting on the subject and I just apologized to her. She can take it or leave it. I am completely worn out.
Dave’s not here-
Well all I know is the true invasive species are at any given waterhole along the road side of 33 and Matilija Canyon Rd. on any given weekend. They decorate the enviornment to make themselves feel like they’re in their own backyard. Ive seen floating diapers, shards of broken bottles, of course graffiti, and bon-fires of trash. I don’t need to see test results to know these are cesspools. Even the hot springs I imagine, are a petri dish of unknown hazards.
How dare you suggest that the lake is polluted just because a nonnative plant is in the riverbed. Are you a Native American? We were all immigrants at one time.
To suggest that the canyon is choked off by invasive non natives is an underhanded way of slighting Mexican laborers. Shame on you and your bigotry.
No one from Everywhere, are you saying you actually swim in the water behind the dam? I haven’t done an actual study, but I hope you don’t really swim in it because it is like the catch basin for any unsavory thing up stream.
By the way someone is doing something about the arundo. They are spraying it with weed killer and trying to get rid of it.
I heard that ARUNDO isn’t even a true local plant. It was brought here for decorative purposes.
I happen to love Matilija Dam. Especially during the summer months, when every local waterhole is overrun, and left in ruin. I don’t mind the risk of it being off limits, anything to keep the riff-raff away. If the land conservancy wants to do something, then get rid of the arundo(giant reeds) that’s choking up the canyon.
Mr. Doe has hijacked every single thread!
Maury,
You do the math. Get off your pedestal you jerk. Don’t you think you should stay on topic? James Hatch does not skirt around the issue. He gets straight to the point, like a laser-guided missle honing in on its target. You figure out the bottom line yet. For you, it adds up to zero.
You may be right about the five percent. And of that five percent, one percent does eighty percent of it. James Hatch is in the top tier; he leads that one percent. On aptitude tests, he scores in the top 1/4 percent. Where do you score? Based on your comments, most like in the middle of the pack. Let’s face it, Maury, you’re hovering right around the below average mark.
Let’s talk about the real issues. When I say real issues, I mean the ones that face us each and every day. The issues upon which success is defined. Unfortunately, Maury, you come up on the wrong end of that one. Here, we have an out-of-towner who has no idea what faces this valley. I challenge him to offer his subpar opinions on an area he does not know here on this blog.
Ret. Lieut. John Doe
Aide to James Hatch
Hey, don’t we all belong at Rambling Rants? Just sayin’…
I ‘really working’ my abc’s.., as much as your 1.2.3′s…?
For if you, person responsible for 95% of the vapid responses on all of these sites, leave 10% for ‘have must be losers’ and their penchant toward ventriloquy, then it’s a combined effort of 105%. Not much room for competition huh? Do you want to eat my spleen? I thank you though, to help emphasize my point, It’s usually only 5% of the population that takes action against the 95% stolid dullards wasting space and air.
Uh oh. I think someone’s getting ready to cry.
Mr. Gould,
You are clearly out to lunch. You should really working on your abc’s before you come to the show. This is big league stuff here, where we’re all accountable. Watch how I can take what you write and tear you apart:
Human/nature competition
That’s a fair game. I like humans and nature so I can shoot and eat them.
Pretty impressive, huh?
Signed,
The one person who is responsible for 95% of the Anonymous comments on this website. But of course, James Hatch and John Doe have must be losers since they are always on this site and account for no more than 10% of the comments.
Get a life you jerk!
We’re glad to have you.
Darn right!
Just don’t ever ask what happened to Fred Fox or Rich Handley. And quit nosing around those mounds behind the office. They’re just…..middens….Chumash middens. Yeah, that’s it. That’s the ticket. They’re middens!
Mr. Gamble, welcome to Ojai. Just read the paper, don’t bother reading the comments here, because they are not at all indicative of our welcoming Ojai spirit. We’re glad to have you.
Anon.,
Genius observation. Mr. Gamble be forewarned its a jungle out here.
Guess what, the only four people that blog on this site have all posted so far. Are we really this pathetic?
Ret. Lieut. John Doe
Aide to James Hatch
Guess what, the only four people that blog on this site have all posted so far. Are we really this pathetic?
But actually, if Mr. Gamble is lucky, he’ll live a long and healthy life without ever having to know what kind of crap goes on at this blog. Except to serve as a warning, I can’t imagine that any of it would ever do him much good.
Do something for the people. Open up the preserve by Nordhoff to motorcycles.
I want to hunt live human beings, and it’s so much more challenging and fun if the prey is on a motorcycle. (I, too, am “the people”.)
Let me be the first to welcome you Mr.Gamble. Have you been able to enjoy one of our pink moments? Please do, soak it in, it’s one of our little intangible pride n’ joys. But another, is the terra-firma you are here to defend. This is where we do not tread lightly. There are ‘lines drawn in the sand’, bible references will be helpful to stay in good graces with the christian folk who own a majority of the disputed land being conserved. This is not the thermal, desert of Maricopa Valley where you fought to save stove pipe cactus, from shopping malls and golf course retirement communities. Which I question how good of a job you did considering the unlimited sprawl in the Phoenix area-that may have driven you up to the foothills of Cave Creek to ‘preserve’. Here, it is not the level of ecological issues, it’s the amount of people with issues. This valley is a fertile crescent, but its politics are entrenched in a quagmire that wafts dead air. It’s an ideological difference of progress- a stale mate. So take your shoes off and dig your feet in, cause not everyone wants to meander down a horse trail and smell the flowers, we want conscience conservation that balances human/nature cohabitation.
Do something for the people. Open up the preserve by Nordhoff to motorcycles. Enough with the stupid horses down on the river bottom. You should put a bar in near the swimming hole. Then you should get rid of the leash law. Does anyone ever use those stupid bags for dog dukes?