Conservancy Seeks Help in Saving, Supporting Area Oranges
By Leonor Vivanco, staff writer for the San Bernardino Sun, published December 22, 2004
REDLANDS—A quick drive around Redlands reveals a city in the midst of a transformation one that has some longtime residents worried every tangible trace of their distinctive citrus history will be buried by commercial and residential developments.
"Everybody is concerned about citrus heritage, citrus preservation, seeing these groves disappear," said Bob Knight, coordinator of the newly-formed Inland Orange Conservancy.
Knight, a fourth-generation orange grower in the Crafton area, would like to keep East Valley groves from disappearing. The region was the center of orange business, and groves were planted here 100 years ago, he said.
After a 19-year hiatus living in New York, Japan, Asia and Saudi Arabia, Knight returned to the area in 2001 to find how his community drastically changed.
"I got back from Saudi Arabia and I was flabbergasted, shocked and really struck by how quickly we're losing all this. The acreage is plummeting. If we don't do anything about it soon, it's going to be gone," he said.
So in August he formed the Inland Orange Conservancy, currently operating as a project under the Redlands Conservancy while applying for nonprofit status. Its objective is to educate the community about citrus heritage and promote citrus preservation.
Orange groves have been a part of history not just for Redlands, but for cities throughout Southern California. Many cities have included the fruit on their seals and logos. But many don't have orange groves left. It's a fate that appears to be moving to the Inland Empire, which Knight says he doesn't want to suffer.
"We're at a crossroads," Knight said. "Are we going to be just like Covina and Monrovia or are we going to try to save something?"
PLAN FOR ACTION
The Inland Orange Conservancy is trying to attract between 1,000 to 3,000 members, who will pay $65 in dues per orange season. Members will then get a "share of the crop" when they pick up two five-pound bags of fresh local oranges each week starting in mid-January for the 14-to-16-week season. So far, the conservancy has 300 members, Knight said.
This is one way local residents can taste what's grown in their back yard. Supermarket chains here sell oranges shipped from overseas. Although they may taste terrible, they are bigger and more beautiful, he said.
"The fact that (acreage) is disappearing is kind of an irony because this place grows the best naval oranges in the world," Knight said. "It makes it doubly ironic then that we can't buy them around here".
Grower Mike Micallef has been frustrated that his oranges aren't sold here. "Other than a grower that tastes his own oranges, nobody ever sees our oranges," he said.
Micallef has been a grower for 25 years and also works as a high school principal. "When I take my oranges to school I'll take five or six bags a month for two or three months they go crazy over my oranges. They've never tasted oranges like that," he said.
By giving bags of oranges to members, people at community events and the needy, word will get out about how good locally grown oranges are, and more people will want to save them, the group hopes. "All we have to do to save local oranges or support local oranges is eat local oranges," said Knight, also general manager of the Redlands Foothill Groves, the only remaining packing house in San Bernardino County.
Interested in the conservancy, Brian Roche attended an informational meeting Tuesday night and became a member. He's lived in the area for 30 years and has seen orange groves steadily diminish.
"The main attraction (of joining) is actually seeing if we can conserve, keep some of these groves, and keep this open space here in Redlands so this town retains some of the character and flavor that it's always had," he said.
HELPING GROWERS AND GROVES
"I honestly think that if there was some way we can get the oranges marketed in this area and people realize how good they are, we'll be able to make a little money toward the grower," Micallef said.
The oranges the conservancy plans to give away will be bought from local growers at five times the price they get from supermarkets. Growers only get 1 or 2 cents for every dollar in orange sales made at the supermarket, according to the conservancy.
To preserve groves long-term, Knight would like to get groves into the conservancy by buying land or receiving it as a donation. "Finally, all of us can do something to conserve groves. Before we would just complain about it or be worried about it," Knight said.
Ej Philippi-Ranciglio, a Redlands resident, joined the conservancy to help preserve the groves that attracted her to move here 17 years ago.
"If we give up our orange groves, we have lost what this community was founded on," she said.
"Sixty-five dollars, sure, that's a lot of money. But if it saves our orange groves for not only our future, our children, our grandchildren, that's a small price to pay," she said.
RISKY BUSINESS FOR FARMERS
Micallef described the last couple of years as a grower in Crafton as "terrible."
In 2003, for the first time in 25 years, he had a loss, owing nearly $280 to the packing house. In August 2004, he received about $1,725 for his oranges. That was below the average of $6,000 to $7,000 he earns a year.
He spends on average about $4,000 to $5,000 a year to maintain his 3-acre grove. Like other growers, Micallef doesn't want to sell his grove but has questioned keeping it when he loses money on it.
"Once the oranges become a detriment, then you know what's going to happen. They'll sell it off to the real estate people and then the real estate people will put homes in and this whole area will change, and I've seen it happen in all the cities around here," Micallef said.
Knight is familiar with the struggles of a grower. "It's hard for these guys to make a living and that's why you see a lot of groves drying up. Even before there's a real estate deal, they'll just let them go," he said.
The conservancy isn't trying to stop development; it just wants to save at least portions of the groves.
"If we can make this local connection between growers and local families, if we can get 1 in 10 to buy on to this thing, then we can look at our own city seals which are plastered with oranges, and we can say we can keep those oranges on there because we saved our heritage," Knight said.