The County of Orange operates landfills throughout the County. One of those landfills lies next to the City of Brea. In the mid 1970s Brea proposed the 1,100 acre Brea Olinda Wilderness Park extending from the landfill across the hills to a small community called Olinda Village. Funding to protect the land was initially secured and then lost. In its place, the County then proposed expanding the landfill across the same hills and canyons.
At the urging of Hills For Everyone, Senator Ross Johnson intervened and added the same land as a prioritized addition to Chino Hills State Park. These hills were eventually purchased and then added to the State Park in 1995.
Instead of residents coping with barren dirt, litter, flocks of birds congregating to eat garbage, bulldozers scraping and compacting the landfill, and smelling a daily breeze of foul odors—residents are resting their eyes on beautiful hills.
A bald eagle was recently spotted nearby, and this parkland has become an important protected pathway to other natural lands. ![]()