Westside : STREISAND CONSERVANCY

Officials with the Streisand Center for Conservancy Studies have applied for status as a nonprofit organization to help the conservancy qualify for grants to pay for programs and activities run by the financially strapped group.

Most of the grant money would fund a series of environmental education programs on the 22-acre property, which sits atop Ramirez Canyon in Malibu, said Lisa Soghor, program coordinator. The Streisand Center was created as a site for environmental studies after entertainer Barbra Streisand donated the property to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy in 1993. However, the conservancy has created tensions with some neighbors who have expressed concern that activities in the compound will attract too many people to the area.