Chuck Kirman / Star staff Children play in the Ventura River at Foster Park. The California Coastal Conservancy has provided $100,000 to research creating a publicly accessible nature area along the river.

While driving six miles up the Ventura River from Surfers Point, Barbara Harison pointed to the many natural attractions that could one day make up a verdant greenway.

Beyond that barbed-wire fence and empty beer cans is a nice patch of native plants, she said.

Over there, near the oil derricks bobbing up and down, an interpretive center could be built.

And when all that nasty arundo and other thickets of nonnative plants are cleared out, kids could meander in and out of the river bottom, chasing tadpoles and exploring swimming holes.

"You have to have a grand vision," said Harison, executive director of the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy.

But a grand vision is exactly what is in store for the Ventura River Parkway project.

The Trust for Public Land is proposing a six-mile greenway along the river, a place where trails will wend along the river, giving the city access to the waterway that is now mostly cut off from the public.

"The basic concept is to connect the city to the Ventura River in a way that enhances the city and the river," said Reed Holderman, western regional director for the Trust for Public Land. "It's a gem in the rough, one of the last natural rivers left in Southern California, and everyone sees an incredible opportunity to increase its recreational opportunities, the biological productivity, improve water quality and the flood control of a scenic icon."

The California Coastal Conservancy recently awarded the Trust for Public Land $100,000 to draw up a plan on how to create the Ventura River Parkway.

Chuck Kirman / Star staff Barbara Harison, executive director of the Ventura Hillsides Conservancy, stands near a proposed greenway along the Ventura River.

Although the final look of the project is still being developed, the area would provide many points of public access to the river, including picnic areas and hiking trails.

It would start at the ocean and go as far as Foster Park, where it would tie into other conservation easements and trails that the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy has established. A hiker could eventually walk from Surfers Point to Los Padres National Forest. Harison hopes that it could tie into the Ventura Hillsides Preserve, a proposed area to be conserved north of Grant Park.

A major part of the parkway project is buying private property or getting easements from the many landowners along the waterway. Some have already expressed a desire to turn over their land, which can't be developed because it is in a flood plain.

Most of the parkway would be within the flood plain, so any trails or signs would have to be able to withstand a potential deluge.

The project is expected to take years to complete and cost millions of dollars, which could come from the many agencies and nonprofit groups supporting the idea. The Ventura City Council recently unanimously passed a resolution backing the proposal.

Councilman Brian Brennan said that for too long, the city has not embraced the river, which defines its western border.

"It's important to reconnect the city back to its roots," he said, citing the Chumash who used to live along the river. "As we matured in the city, we left the river behind because we became oil-centric and concentrated on the hills."

Most of the river in Ventura is inaccessible because of fences or private property lines, and many residents don't think about its existence, Brennan said.

By providing access and making it a recreation area, people will think twice about watershed issues and how to preserve their natural environments, he said.

Homeless camps have sprouted up in the river bottom, an issue that all involved in the project said is something that will have to be dealt with. The city has recently been trying to get the homeless settled in other locations.

"It's not an appropriate place to live," Brennan said.

In other areas, industrial parks abut the river and old machines are rusting.

But Harison said other cities, such as Pittsburgh, have turned their industrial corridors into beautiful greenways, and Ventura doesn't have that much work to do.

At Foster Park, the upper end of the proposed project, people already have access to the river. This week, two young kids played in the water, jumping off rocks while herons flapped by overhead. A couple ate lunch under a shade tree nearby.

"This is the vision," Harison said as she looked around.