Donald Bren Quotes

My two primary areas of focus have been open-space conservation and education, and I expect those to remain my priorities in the future. The Irvine open space and parklands provide serenity and balance to our unique Orange County lifestyle.

My ultimate dream is for the Irvine Ranch to be known and celebrated as much for the outstanding communities we've planned and built as it is for what is not developed. The beneficiary being the 50,000 acres of undeveloped land that is now permanently preserved and conserved as Open Space and parklands.

A city should decide where it doesn't want to develop, saving at least some of the canyons and hillsides and wetlands from the bulldozer's blade.

I'm excited and encouraged to see people getting involved with their public lands and forests. We really need the public's help to repair these heavily used recreation sites.

It is a commitment to our children and grandchildren to preserve a statewide network of land and water resources, prime agricultural and forestry lands, and natural, historic, and recreational areas for them to enjoy.

I will protect public lands.

Planning a garden, park, building, or city shouldn't be done in an office.

Wilderness designations should not be the result of a quid pro quo. They should rise or fall on their own merits.

Fulfilling the vision of the Irvine Ranch master plan has been a lifetime dedication and lifetime passion, and I am hopeful the heritage of our Irvine stewardship will live on in many new ways.

There is something basic about protecting land by taking it off the market. People should be able to enjoy where they live while at the same time protect the plants and animals around them.

Our responsibility for BLM lands is multiple-use, meaning a variety of needs and uses.

Human settlements are like living organisms. They must grow, and they will change. But we can decide on the nature of that growth - on the quality and the character of it - and where it ought to go. We don't have to scatter the building blocks of our civic life all over the countryside, destroying our towns and ruining farmland.

We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect

I would be quite willing personally to leave the whole country as a wilderness for the next half-century, but I fear that if Englishmen do not go there, Yankees will.

The Right has such antiquated ideas - if they took charge, I think they'd want to close the parks, open the land up for development. It's an ongoing battle to keep the parks strong.

I love creating hideaways. My idea is to go to the most beautiful, unspoilt places, buy the land, and make sure it is never damaged. I've always admired John D. Rockefeller, who bought up tracts of land to ensure they were left wild in perpetuity.

I do worry about population growth and the preservation of the green belt space but I don't think these are insurmountable problems.

I want people to feel they are living in good urban environments with greenery and green space.

We must do more to protect our neighborhoods and give integrity to our community plans.

I realize the answer is not to create wilderness and walk away.

My first large-scale community development opportunity was the formation of the Mission Viejo Co. - a partnership with the O'Neill Family, who owned Rancho Mission Viejo. As the young president of the company, I had the responsibility for master planning, master building and implementing the new community's development plans.

Protecting all this land, working with the President to establish all these monuments, to, you know... I think the President has a land protection record that's second to no one in this century, maybe Teddy Roosevelt.

Environmentalism opposes reckless innovation and makes conservation the central order of business.

Americans have long recognized the need to protect our public lands and their vast resources.

If people destroy something replaceable made by mankind, they are called vandals; if they destroy something irreplaceable made by God, they are called developers.