Work in Progress...

Future Plans—Dream Team

In late 2016, we invited members of the Friends of Skyland, GSSGC’s Board of Directors, the Properties Committee and the GSSGC Regional Chairs to come to one of three “Dream Team” gatherings at Camp Skyland Ranch. We also invited a select group of GSSGC supporters and friends that possessed special expertise or capacity for funding. The group broadly represented highly talented and passionate thought partners dedicated to creating a world class environmental and leadership center.  The purpose of these teams was for GSSGC management and staff to listen and learn, and to capture ideas for improvements to the Camp Skyland Ranch property.

One facet this initiative was to consider options for placement of certain activity areas and proposed buildings on the Camp Skyland Ranch site.  A site map with the tentative and existing placement of existing structures and planned activities can be found here.

Hundreds of comments and observations were captured during the three Dream Team meetings.  A few of those comments and observations are provided here.

Bringing the Team Up to Date

• Full resident camp for summer 2016 served over 250 girls; overwhelming response that girls would love to return

• Weekend camps are planned for both spring and fall

• Equipment for activities is being updated for crafts, archery, fencing, horses, etc.

• Mobile kitchen is functioning well; mobile restrooms waiting for County permits

• Permit process includes County request for Hwy 243 easement

• New kitchen goal to serve 400 meals at a time; 200 per seating

• Duncan Lodge will retain its look and character; entrance will be relocated, asphalt roof to be replaced with concrete shingles or metal roof; overhead heating to be installed

• Solar power not included in first phase of renovations

Tour and Activity Placement on Site Map

Participants toured the entire property, with staff members as guides and Ken Mortensen, Property Director, offering observations. Following are the detailed notes from that tour.  These notes are extensive and not edited for style.  Numbers that appear next to notes correspond to the numbers on the site map.

November 8 Walkabout:

Stop 1: Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) Center & Nature Garden (cont.)

            Stake 21: VPA Center

VPA Center will be indoor? Outdoor?

Shell structure to provide sound barrier with rolling/sliding doors with moveable walls to utilize outside environment and shade

Stake 23: Farm House

Building of farm house will proceed in such a way that roots are not negatively impacted

Through a grant, a local arborist is assisting with the promotion of healthier trees, better water flow, and removal of dead trees

Stake 20: Music Garden

            “Art in woods”

Pause: Wishhaven Cabins (Purple Icon on Map)

Wishhaven:

Currently sleeps 40 - with installation of the new bunks, capacity will increase to 60

Wishhaven Cabins will have new bunk beds in three weeks

The maintenance area located at the old barn will move to lower camp and the barn will be converted for programmatic use

            Archery and catapult range will be located behind Wishhaven

                        One of two archery ranges will be located near Wishhaven

Two to three groups will be able to stay at camp at one time and be involved in separate/different programs

Stake 28: Housing Unit 3

Potential future housing site that will relate to Wishhaven Lodge and the cabins and will increase capacity

Before the fire, the barn was called “Silver Barn”

The last fire that came onto the property was in 1974 – the original farmhouse and the barn were lost in the fire

The Kiwanis Club of Long Beach was very involved in the development of camp in the 1950s and outlined the trail to Timber Peak

It is unclear if Timber Peak is on Skyland property or forest land

The view overlooking the Sand to Snow Monument and many cities, including Hemet and Banning – spectacular

Stop 2: Potential Site of the Lake: Indicated on map as “A?” (cont.):

Suggestion to switch the proposed location of the lake with that of the Nature Center, Music Garden, and Native Garden:

The challenge with switching the location is that it would increase the distance from Duncan Lodge to these program areas (the current proposed location of the Music Garden, Native Garden, and Nature

Center is much closer to Duncan Lodge than the proposed lake’s location)

            Greater travel time = less time for program

Hiking is program, no distance is too far between sites because the transition time gives an opportunity to breath, clear your mind, reflect

Additionally, the area where the Nature Center/Music Garden/Native Garden is currently located is blue-lined as natural drainage with California Water, therefore a lake cannot be placed at such a location due to the potential for pollution

The current proposed location of the lake is peaceful, safe from wandering children

The location of the lake will ultimately depend on regulations and approval from the appropriate agencies

            Is the site a natural bowl?

The lake appears to be one of the most important projects of camp: provides emergency water

Skyland Ranch is very fortunate to have a natural spring and plentiful water supply

Stop 3: Amphitheater (Stake 6):

Amphitheater will be used for performances

Proposed location provides a great view – prior to the fire, however, this view did not exist

Utilize slope of the hill for a natural amphitheater/stargazing area

            Suggestion to move the VPA Center to the amphitheater area

                        Suggestion: Don’t have anything near the highway, it is too noisy

                                    (Move Stakes 18-20 near Amphitheater as well)

Stop 4: Low/High Ropes Course, Grass Field, Creative Center (Stakes 2, 3, 4, 5):

            Open Grassy Area, Artificial Turf

            Makers Space – STEAM, crafts

Stake 14 – Archery Range 2

Location ideal because girls will be shooting downhill                                   

Hills/elevation drops off, not useable for any other program

            Skyloft rocks – leads to another viewpoint, see Morongo, Hemet, etc.

                        Grinding acorn location

Stop 5: Horses

Keep horses in this area near Archery Range 2

A barn, arena, and “lay-up” stall will be located nearby to allow easy exit for horses in case of emergency

Options for an easy trail and a more advanced trail will be provided

Nearby Sugar Bowl is a rock formation

Opportunity for campfire location

Also resembles a honey pot

Stop 6: Jr. Leadership Center (Stake 15):

Junior Leadership Center will double as an Adult Leadership Center until a separate Adult Leadership Center is built

Suggestion to call the “Junior Leadership Center” simply “Leadership Center”

                        Secluded, operate autonomously

                        Trail loops around to Amphitheater

                        Program wise – Jr. Leadership Center

            Cook? Provides housing, self sufficient

            Satellite areas, meeting spaces, outdoor activity spaces

Jr. Leadership Center and the Makers Space will be the only location with Wi-Fi - will be a hub for older girls

            Girls vs. Adult Leadership Center

            Potential exit – Caltrans

            Embraced by landscape

            Area previously used as primitive landscape

Side Notes and Suggestions:

Suggestion: Easement – put in an underground tunnel, so that golf carts and girls can travel through

Nothing is planned for the open space adjacent to the highway, northwest of Duncan Lodge  

November 19 Walkabout

• Leslee A. Temple, landscape architect, was present to share her expertise and knowledge to help create the overall master plan of Skyland Ranch. Leslee also shared some of Skyland Ranch’s history.

  • Leslee was the Property Manager of the Girl Scouts of Greater Long Beach Council and therefore oversaw the development and improvement of Skyland Ranch

    • She, along with a landscape architect, designed the second lot at Skyland Ranch

    • Skyland Ranch is what inspired Leslee to become a landscape architect; originally wanted to be a camp designer and plan camps for the National Park Service

    • Her senior project to receiver her baccalaureate as a landscape architect was done in Skyland Ranch – nature nook, nature program, and environs of Skyland Ranch

  • The original designers of Skyland Ranch were Irene Holton and Florence Johnson

    • Irene Holton was the first commissioner of the Long Beach Area Council and served as the camp development chairman at Girl Scouts of Greater Long Beach Council.

      • CIRCLE HO is named in part (HO for Holton) for Mrs. Holton

      • A plaque honoring Irene Holton was present at Skyland Ranch

    • Florence Johnson served as executive director of Girl Scouts of Greater Long Beach as well

    • Many of the original units were “canned” designs taken from GSUSA

      • Skyloft and Pioneer

    • Kiwanis helped design Hideaway and Sleepy Hollow

• Hope for Skyland

  • Preserve rustic beauty of Skyland Ranch – not a craftsman version of “glamping”

  • Make it beautiful to show respect to the girls and everyone who flourishes here

  • The Visual and Performing Arts Center and Creative Center will provide an opportunity around creative flow and human potential

  • An opportunity around 200 acres – split with 40 acres across the road

  • The different environs at Skyland, upper and lower camp, lend themselves naturally to the different things that can be built or created there

• Vision:

  • Leadership Center will be located in a more secluded meadow

    • Eventually a Macy’s Center of the West

    • Linking more traditional facilities with green space and breathing space

  • Museum and shop as destination for people going up to Idyllwild

    • Pieces from the original farm house

• Planning Process

  • Would like to include young people in planning

  • Planning is fluid, sketch in as we go, “plop design”

  • Use drone to map layout of proposed locations

    • Put sheets down with name of potential sites and see how it maps

    • Rev Air Program – Cal State San Bernardino drones

  • Planning is fluid, moving around - Plop art/plop design

  • Use a drone to coordinate during winter when there is low obstruction from trees, place a sheet at proposed location of stake sites

• Wishhaven

  • Would like it to be embracive, beautiful, not so bare-bones

  • History of Wishhaven

    • Originally, Wishhaven and Lofty Pines units – piney and cooking stove

      • Place for younger campers from Woodlands and Sleepy Hollow to walk up the hill for an overnight

      • Wishhaven and Lofty Pines were unprotected during the fire and not revitalized after fire

  • The vision for the future upper camp sites is outdoor primitive tent sites

  • Duncan Lodge was the base camp during the 1974 fire

    • Want to build a relationship with fire agencies

• Stop 1: Bathrooms

  • Currently have a temporary bathroom

  • Intent is to build permanent piney to serve Duncan Lodge and general public use

  • Plan to add restrooms to back of Fairfield

    • Model most used is attached bathroom – this is safer option

    • Add restrooms to existing options

  • Primitive Bathrooms

    • Add primitive bathroom areas to provide experience for kids so there is a balance

    • Areas identified as future tent sites will include cooking stove/cooking area, piney, and spigot

      • Can be short-term or long-term depending on desired use

  • Sewage

    • Tied into septic field of Willowdale, which explains placement of the bathroom

    • Tank size is fine for usage, but will replace leech lines

    • Meeting with a soils engineer soon to evaluate soil conditions and possibility of trench system

  • Girls want to be outdoors - with access to flush toilets

    • Need to teach girls how to be in primitive environments, not pristine bathroom environments

• Resources/Suggestions/Models

  • Cal Poly Pomona Architecture Group

    • Architecture department was contacted by state park and recreation to participate in a huge design competition project for portable cabins along rivers in the state park system

      • Mobile cabins vs. permanent cabins equals completely different set of codes

  • Annual DOE Solar Decathlon

    • Collegiate competition that challenges student teams to design and build full-size, solar-powered houses

    • All departments collaborate to win/compete

    • Tap into resource to decathlon, state park association

    • Level of architecture design mobile, tiny cabins

  • UCR

    • Best resource to connect with for development of Native Garden and Apple Orchard 

    • UCR is Southern California AG Cooperative Extension program

    • Can also have a troop competition to design Native Garden and Apple Orchard

• Land Canoes

  • History of land canoes – Land could be obtained at half the price if it could be rowed around. Therefore, pioneers in the Midwest put wheels on canoes and created land canoes

  • Use old canoes from Tautona and add wheels to create land canoes

    • YouTube videos of land canoe races

  • Old Town Canoe Co.

    • Review for design, great resource - they have the wheels for portage

  • Tires

    • Larger tires – wheelbarrow size, narrow, all-terrain

  • Track

    • No track – smoothing the land canoe area for flat terrain

  • Steering

    • First generation will be non-steering, progress to steering canoes

    • Suggestion to include ruddering

  • Barriers

    • Rope barrier to define the “lake”

  • Winter

    • Option for ice sailing

• Stake 24 - Access Gate

  • Gate to control traffic around camp

  • Use the National Forest design

  • Gate will appear rustic – not new

  • National Parks Service resources – automatic designs with the “right feel”

• Stake 23 – Farm House

  • Farm House - 1500 sq. ft. footprint

  • Multi-purpose – troop location, gathering point

  • Larger kitchen than Wishhaven: Cooking projects, jam making

  • Location

    • The original Sanders’ Farm House was near Wishhaven

      • Adopt similar white clapboard architecture and wrap-around porch for new Farm House

    • Locating the new Farm House at Stake 23 is for separation from Wishhaven – good, better, and different

      • The idea is to create spaces for multiple smaller groups or larger groups spread out and occupy

    • Suggests locating Farm House within circle of pines

      • Vision is to fit structures within existing clearings

    • Opening and exposure better for farmhouse

    • Orient building so telephone pole not as exposed/noticeable

  • Access road to the Farm House is far enough away and winds down, not a straight path to the Farm House

    • Experience a transition, exploratory journey to discover Farm House - want to come across the Farm House as you wind down the path, curving road

    • Find through the trees a clearing with a red barn

  • Move Farm House north, above Stake 19 on the map, close to the boulders and almost directly across from new location of Music Garden – Stake 20) in the clearing by the 10-year old sapling pine

  • Have the porch of the Farm House face the tall pine trees and Apple Orchard

    • Back part of farm house will be untouched, aside from Apple Orchard

• Stake 22 - Apple Orchard

  • Located near the Farm House

  • Formerly by Circle Ho/Sherwood Forest (Stakes 2,3,4 on map)

  • Reconsider clearing trees for the apple orchard at this location

    • Will clear 20 trees or less

  • Locate orchard up north of Farm House so that it faces the Farm House

  • Orchard trees along the pine line north of the Farm House

    • Create orchard from pathway to pine trees in the east

  • Buy trees to get heirloom apples

• Stake 19 - Nature Center

  • Skyloft was the old Nature Center        

  • Currently, Stake 19’s location is not a good location for the Nature Center

• Stake 20 - Music Garden

  • Close to old Lofty Pines

  • Concern the current location of Stake 20 is too close to the road – noise interference

    • Girls will be generating their own music at the site

  • Move Stake 20 to the location in center of pines, a more cathedral atmosphere surrounded by pine trees, alongside old riverbed and bridge

    • Move music garden to allow concert area more open audience

  • Harmony Park Outdoor Musical Instruments for Children

    • Lily pad music instruments make music when it rains

      • Nature creating music

    • Tune drums

    • Interplay of centers

  • Ready-to-go bridges by National Park Service

    • Functional piece

• Stake 18 - Native Garden

  • Too close to road?

    • Use as a teaching/introductory start point

  • Will plants grow there?

    • Don’t start with drip irrigation

      • True native garden needs to be planted seasonally, when appropriate (October – May)

      • Drip irrigate the Apple Orchard, not the Native Garden

    • Like rain, pour bucket for deep watering

      • Rain during winter

      • Need right soil

      • Trenches

  • Located between the Nature Center and the Farmhouse

    • Move the native garden below the farmhouse in between two cedars

    • Native Garden will be the backyard of the Farmhouse and front yard of the Nature Center

• Layout

  • Farmhouse (23)

    • Facing toward Apple Orchard (22) along pine line

  • Native Garden (18)

    • Backyard to the Farm House

  • Nature Center (19)

• Stake 19 - Nature Center

  • Exhibit

    • Pelts, bones of local animals

    • Signs, posters of native plants/animals and can locate them in natural environment – educational tool

    • Bring together a group of individuals who are passionate about nature centers to help with the design concept

    • The idea is one large room with space enough so that it can be versatile with walls that are semi-permanent

      • Opportunity for seasonal exhibits

    • Utilize Native American inspiration/information

      • Visit museum at Pechanga

      • Involve Native Americans with intellectual development at Skyland with focus on botany and use when creating the Nature Center to represent the history of Skyland

        • Native American talk to own lore, deeply integrate

          • Migration of tribes during seasons

        • Hands on and interactive partnership

  • Structure

    • Four 4-sided building vs. Four-closed sided buildings vs. Screened/Temporary Walls/Rolling Doors

    • Typical peak?

    • Every side will be different, exposed

    • Acrylic garage doors, acrylic glass, closed but not to environment

    • Ronald McDonald House roll up doors

    • Storm door/screening

    • Nature Center needs to be more organic, not log cabins, not this area,

      • Out of the box

    • Open, four-sided building relate to Farm House

      • Ramada style

• Created Pond/Lake

  • Army Corp of Engineers 404 permit

  • Along blue line (drainage)

  • Work with CA state water regarding quality

• Old Farmhouse was located near Wishhaven against the hill

  • 1920’s white clapboard, 2 stories and loft

  • Included a wrap-around porch

• Farm House

  • Copy of letter sent to Jennie by old owner

• Fate of all apple trees that are not maintained – died from competition from pine trees

• Original trees are 100 years’ old

  • Planted near Sherwood, trees in memorial

• 20-30 acres of original orchard

  • Counterpart to Oak Glen

• Silver Barn Map

  • Conceptual plans

  • Done by survey

    • w/o trees

    • List with plan contents kept by Pam Verhaegen

  • Original Survey includes SR-431

• Kiwanis Club

  • 1975-1976 built

• Wishhaven Area with sliding door and chimney

  • Recreate? Arms that come with it

    • Integral? Not necessarily

    • Arms do not need to be there

  • Metal roof

    • No transition zone

  • Remove old corral

    • Barn will be programmatic, maintenance building going in

• Wishhaven Lodge

  • Design to have more program space, potential to be more, original design

  • Split in half, panel room to split space allow two groups at one time

• Proposed Housing Unit

  • Set of cabins on either side of Wishhaven Lodge

  • Three cabins? Size not determined

  • Treehouses?

    • Different housing types around camp

  • Timber Peak looking up and out over land

    • Experience scenery at heights

    • Playful

  • Creative

    • Old containers convert to equipment/centers

  • Treehouses

    • Treehouse Masters are experts

    • County tolerance to tree-based structures

    • Girl Scouts with TV crews

• Stake 10 – Tent Site

  • Spigots available

  • Include a bathroom

  • 2-single use pineys with cooking space

  • Flush toilets to septic system

  • Most importantly, camp site

• Trees clearing

• Area for lake, housing structure

• Stake 9 – 1-acre lake: canoeing, wind surfing

  • Housing or lake at this location

  • Uphill topography is wrong

    • Would appear forced

  • Treehouses should be located where proposed lake is currently on map

  • Downhill looks more natural, organic for lake placement

    • “Plop Program”          

• History

  • Sherwood Forest/Castle

  • Lake below piney

  • Sherwood Castle was CIT

  • Treehouses with observation decks

  • Tanks fed lake

• Tent site Stake 8 (Old Amphitheater)

  • Could be more housing

• Stake 7

  • Real housing

  • Weird area, not for housing

  • “Dramatic housing”

  • Tent site more ideal at this location

  • Swap stake 8 with stake 7 locations

    • Switch stake 8 for real housing and 7 will be a tent site

• Stake 8

  • Housing will be nestled between trees

• Stake 21 – VPA Center

  • Ronald McDonald – Model

    • Building with program storage, restrooms, roll up garage doors

  • Have two indoor spaces with connected roof

  • Roof more like a shed

  • Piney could be part of the structure or not

  • *Suggestion: have an open view out toward Morongo, view Northwest toward Moreno Valley

  • Platform near new trees continue left and sculpt and plane

    • Enough to seat 300

  • Concern you will see the lights from casino to the north

  • Leave storage at the VPA Center

  • 4x4 post log seating around in semi-circle around view our west

  • Right (stage) next to two trees (small pines)

  • Locating VPA Center at concrete pad by orange fencing

    • Move stake 21 behind amphitheater seating