Stronger Together, A Short Film About the Ojai Ecology Center

Ojai’s historic City Hall is surrounded by eight acres of open space with great potential to be a vital community asset. It encompasses historic gardens and outdoor spaces for relaxing, exploring, and playing in a natural setting. It’s also adjacent to a special creekside ecosystem, Middle Stewart Canyon Creek, which has been restored to year-round flow thanks to the leadership of Pax Environmental, with help from The C.R.E.W. and other organizations.   

But there’s work yet to be done. Over the past three years, the Ojai Valley Green Coalition has led community input sessions that have resulted in a clear consensus that this land could become an exciting nature education center: the Ojai Ecology Center*. 

In this film, community leaders and experts Brian Aikens from the Ojai Historic Preservation Commission, Chumash elder and storyteller Julie Tumamait-Stenslie, and Ojai Valley Land Conversvancy nursery manager Sophie McLean talk about the Eco Center and its potential to unite our community, while honoring the property’s past, present, and future uses. We are incredibly grateful to the filmmakers at Bowspirit and Coldwater Collective for their contributions to this project. It is a beautiful film that captures the collective spirit of our project.

But you might be asking: “What happens next?” With president and landscape architect Kathy Nolan and team, we have developed a master plan that we think encompasses all the desired elements: a natural sanctuary and educational resource, historic and beautiful demonstration gardens, restored natural landscapes, along with ideas for programming, such as talks, classes, hands-on workshops and demonstrations, and even celebrations. We have presented the plan to City Council, and it will be the subject of a meeting on June 23, 2026, where we hope the City of Ojai adopts the master plan. Next steps with the City involve approval to move forward and funding for design development, engineering, and construction documents. We invite all of our members to attend this important meeting and lend their support for the project.

You can learn more about the Eco Center and discover ways to support us by visiting our Projects page here. We also invite every resident of our valley to participate in our current workshops, as we help foster this community vision forward.

*Final name to be determined by City Council. Enter your suggestions at our naming survey here.