Ranches Ventura County

On a horse named Bullet, Jed Dillon gallops across a verdant ridgeline after a couple dozen head of cattle. He drives the cows down a hill and into a wide green meadow bordered with oaks, joining up with another 100 head of cattle that are being coaxed along by three cowboys on horseback. They fan out on their horses, driving the herd through a winding expanse of grassland dotted with scrub brush and oak trees, and toward a corral where 400 head of cattle are already kicking up dust.

Opponents of the proposed Ahmanson Ranch development continued Tuesday to seize on evidence of contaminated ground water near the property as reason for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to delay ground breaking. In the second day of hearings on a new environmental study of the project, experts hired by its critics focused on perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that can cause thyroid problems in humans.

On a horse named Bullet, Jed Dillon gallops across a verdant ridgeline after a few dozen head of cattle. He drives the cows down a hill and into a wide green meadow bordered with oaks, joining up with another 100 head of cattle that are being coaxed along by three other cowboys on horseback. They fan out on their horses, driving the herd through a winding expanse of grassland dotted with scrub brush and oak trees, and toward a corral where 400 head of cattle are already kicking up dust.

Ventura County could have a say in the proposed Newhall Ranch development if its review of deeds and land surveys is correct, a county memo says. According to a memo by a county committee released Thursday, a review of deeds and surveys filed by the developers indicates some of the property for the proposed development may extend into Ventura County. In that case, the memo says, Ventura County may have the authority to grant permits to subdivide some of the property for the proposed Newhall Ranch.

Ventura County could have a say in the proposed Newhall Ranch development if its review of deeds and land surveys is correct, a county memo says. According to a memo by a county committee released Thursday, a review of deeds and surveys filed by the developers indicates some of the property for the proposed development may extend into Ventura County. In that case, the memo says, Ventura County may have the authority to grant permits to subdivide some of the property for the proposed Newhall Ranch.

Giving up on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, developers of the Jordan Ranch project have asked the city of Simi Valley to save a land swap involving entertainer Bob Hope by annexing about 5,900 acres of the controversial property. If the annexation goes through, Simi Valley would have jurisdiction over the property and thus have the final say over the 750-house Jordan Ranch project in the rolling hills of southeast Ventura County.

Opponents of the proposed Ahmanson Ranch development continued Tuesday to seize on evidence of contaminated ground water near the property as reason for the Ventura County Board of Supervisors to delay ground breaking. In the second day of hearings on a new environmental study of the project, experts hired by its critics focused on perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel that can cause thyroid problems in humans.

State and federal agencies are investigating reports that Mexican laborers were imprisoned behind walls at a Ventura County flower ranch and forced to work for sub-minimum wages. Workers at the Griffith-Ives Co. ranch in Somis received about $1 an hour while routinely toiling 16 hours a day and were required to buy food and supplies from a company store at inflated prices, they said in interviews with The Times.

Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, wounded by the fight over the Ahmanson Ranch project despite her political victory, said Wednesday that she may not run for reelection in 1994. VanderKolk, elected as an open-space advocate, was blasted as "a traitor" and "sellout" by environmentalists after she voted in favor of building the 3,050-dwelling Ahmanson Ranch project in the Simi Hills against the Los Angeles County line northwest of Calabasas.

As firefighters worked Tuesday to fully contain a wildfire that ripped through Ventura County this week, an official put damage to the agricultural industry at $2.9 million. The blaze that began Sunday on rural land north of Moorpark had consumed 214 acres of citrus and avocado orchards, and 1,500 acres of hay as of Tuesday, said Earl McPhail, the county's agricultural commissioner. A Somis nursery lost most of its equipment and plant stock, McPhail told the Ventura County Board of Supervisors.

On a horse named Bullet, Jed Dillon gallops across a verdant ridgeline after a couple dozen head of cattle. He drives the cows down a hill and into a wide green meadow bordered with oaks, joining up with another 100 head of cattle that are being coaxed along by three cowboys on horseback. They fan out on their horses, driving the herd through a winding expanse of grassland dotted with scrub brush and oak trees, and toward a corral where 400 head of cattle are already kicking up dust.

On a horse named Bullet, Jed Dillon gallops across a verdant ridgeline after a few dozen head of cattle. He drives the cows down a hill and into a wide green meadow bordered with oaks, joining up with another 100 head of cattle that are being coaxed along by three other cowboys on horseback. They fan out on their horses, driving the herd through a winding expanse of grassland dotted with scrub brush and oak trees, and toward a corral where 400 head of cattle are already kicking up dust.

Ventura County Supervisor Maria VanderKolk, wounded by the fight over the Ahmanson Ranch project despite her political victory, said Wednesday that she may not run for reelection in 1994. VanderKolk, elected as an open-space advocate, was blasted as "a traitor" and "sellout" by environmentalists after she voted in favor of building the 3,050-dwelling Ahmanson Ranch project in the Simi Hills against the Los Angeles County line northwest of Calabasas.

Giving up on the Ventura County Board of Supervisors, developers of the Jordan Ranch project have asked the city of Simi Valley to save a land swap involving entertainer Bob Hope by annexing about 5,900 acres of the controversial property. If the annexation goes through, Simi Valley would have jurisdiction over the property and thus have the final say over the 750-house Jordan Ranch project in the rolling hills of southeast Ventura County.

State and federal agencies are investigating reports that Mexican laborers were imprisoned behind walls at a Ventura County flower ranch and forced to work for sub-minimum wages. Workers at the Griffith-Ives Co. ranch in Somis received about $1 an hour while routinely toiling 16 hours a day and were required to buy food and supplies from a company store at inflated prices, they said in interviews with The Times.

W. Owens Miller, 78, an aerospace executive, citrus grower and philanthropist. Born in Oklahoma City, Miller grew up in Glendale and was educated at UCLA. He co-founded one of the first aerospace sales companies half a century ago and became known as an innovator in flight controls. In agriculture, he introduced new techniques to landscape and terrace orange and avocado groves and operated OMA Ojai Ranch, one of the largest citrus ranches in Ventura County.

As the city of Moorpark battles in court with the owner of a High Street feed mill the city is trying to evict, a handful of merchants who lease space from the depot owner have found themselves caught in the middle. "We're living day to day and it's a very difficult, unbearable situation," Leon Paikin, who operates a paint and wallpaper decorating center in the shadow of the mill, told the City Council last week.