Forever Wild continues battle with county

PHELAN • The Forever Wild Exotic Animal Shelter has only days to come up with thousands of dollars for San Bernardino County, or lose the appeal the shelter’s owners thought they won a year ago.

The shelter, home to exotic animals including tigers, cobras and alligators, was featured in a 2009 episode of “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” that both moved the Almquist family out of the rusting trailer they lived in and added a visitor’s center to the shelter, located down a dirt road in Phelan.

As producers discovered, inclement weather can turn Buttemere Road into an almost impassible bog. The County of San Bernardino’s Land Use Services Department wanted the Almquists to pave 1.4 miles of Buttemere to Phelan Road, which would have cost the shelter up to $5 million.

The Almquists appealed and, on June 16, 2009, thought their problems were over when they won an appeal that would allow them to remain open, and receive visitors, without paving Buttemere.

But a year later, the county planning commission still hasn’t formally approved the revised agreement with the Almquists. In the interim, the shelter is operating in violation of their pre-appeal conditional use permit and have to come up with $5,000 for the county before things can more forward. And if the county doesn’t receive their money by Aug. 30, the appeal the Almquists won last June won’t matter, as the Almquists’ shelter will be denied by the land use services department.

Although donations come in every time their episode airs in reruns — “Extreme Makeover: Home Edition” is seen in 69 countries — more animals continue to be dropped off at the shelter. As a result, the Almquists have roughly $8,000 in monthly expenses.

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Beau Yarbrough can be reached at (760) 956-7108 or at beau@HesperiaStar.com.