Open Space Council: Blog

Opportunity: Santa Clara County community workshops

The County of Santa Clara Parks and Recreation Department, a member of the Open Space Council, is seeking public input to guide the County’s future parkland acquisition efforts. The voters approved the current Park Charter Fund in 2006, ensuring funding through 2021 for acquisition, development, operation, and maintenance of the County’s 46,000-acre 28-park system. Fifteen percent of the funding is allocated specifically for land acquisition.

Three community workshops are scheduled for July for the public to provide input on future direction of the County’s purchase of parkland, including trails.

The three meetings will be held from 7 to 9 PM at: the Cupertino Community Hall on July 6; the Morgan Hill Community Center on July 12; and the Mayfair Community Center in San Jose on July 14.

The public is encouraged to attend one or more of these workshops. The workshops will provide an overview of current County parks, the planned Countywide Trail System, and future park expansion areas as identified in the County General Plan. While the updated Parks Acquisition Plan will not identify specific parcels to be acquired, the public will have an opportunity in these workshops to help identify acquisition criteria and provide other thoughts about parkland acquisition to County staff. A summary of the public input will be presented to the Board of Supervisors in August.

For more information call 408 355 2200. 

The First Ever Transit & Trails Triple Threat

This past weekend 10 bikers/adventurers set out to show that public transit is a viable option for getting out to the Bay Area's amazing parks and open spaces. They took it to the extreme by attempting to ride their bikes up 3 of the highest bike accessible mountains in the Bay Area - Mount Hamilton, Mount Diablo and Mount Tamalpais - in 1 day and only using public transit to transfer between each mountain. 

This adventure was put on by Transit and Trails, which is a project of the Bay Area Open Space Council. The site allows users to Find, Plan, and Share outdoor trips via public transit. There are hundreds of trailheads, 20+ hikes and bike rides, and all of the region's campgrounds on the site. Users can find hikes and outdoor recreation opportunities in any part of the region and then plan how to get their on public transit, biking, or driving.  Funding for the site is provided by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, State Coastal Conservancy, East Bay Regional Park District, Save Mount Diablo, and Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District.  Partners include GreenInfo Network, Bay Nature, 511.org, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and Bay Area Air Quality Management District.  Transit and Trails uses Google Maps for the base map and routing. 

Using the Transit & Trails site to plan out the bike ride, lengths and how to get from mountain to mountain the group set out on Friday evening from San Francisco (some from Oakland). They camped out at Joseph D. Grant County Park in the foothills of the Mount Hamilton range in order to get an early start on Saturday morning. From San Francisco they took Caltrain and then biked up to Grant park via the very challenging Quimby Road.

Departing at 5:30am on Saturday, June 19 they tackled Mount Hamilton before the crowds showed up. After descending Hamilton they headed over to the Alum Rock VTA Light Rail station which they took to the Great Mall Transit station and transferred to the VTA 180 bus. They took the 180 to Fremont BART, then transferred to the Pittsburg/Bay Point line to Pleasant Hill. Running a few hours late because of a long lunch stop, having to stagger the bus rides because of too many bikes, the group charged up Mount Diablo from the BART station. Two hours later they arrived at the top and after a quick snack and photo break, they sped down Diablo back to BART. For some folks this was the end of their journey as they had only planned on the Double Dip.  For a few the adventure continued to Mount Tamalpais for the third and final leg.   

After a short ride on BART they arrived at Embarcadero at 6:15pm, just in time to get the last ferry to Sausalito. On the ferry, the rested and refueled before the last leg, Mount Tamalpais. Feeling a bit tired and run down they took a few breaks along the way, but arrived at the top of Tamalpais at 9pm, about 15 hours after they started their journey! They congratulated each other and then headed down the long, cold, dark descent. By 11pm they arrived at the Marin City Transit station, where they picked up the Golden Gate 80 back to San Francisco. Arriving home just before midnight, about 19 hours after they started their expedition.

 

 

All in all 110 miles of riding, more than 10,000 feet of elevation gain, and a myriad of transit - Caltrain, VTA light rail and bus, BART, Golden Gate Ferry and Golden Gate Bus. 

The team saved 1,138lbs of carbon from being emitted into the air by taking transit over driving! The total cost for transit was about $30/person. 

Photos can be seen here on Flickr and on Facebook. Want to try one, two or three legs of the trip yourself?  Here are the routes for Mt Hamilton, Mt Diablo and Mt Tamalpais. Interested in doing the Triple Threat with Transit and Trails next year?  Join us!  For more information about the 2nd annual Triple Threat and Transit & Trails in general, contact Ryan Branciforte at ryan[at]openspacecouncil.org. 

State Parks Initiative Qualifies for November Ballot

From www.calparks.org

6/10/10: Measure Will Provide California’s State Parks Stable & Reliable Funding; Returns Vital General Fund Dollars for Other Social Services

Sacramento, CA – California Secretary of State Debra Bowen today qualified the State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010, a measure that will provide a stable and adequate funding source to keep state parks open, for the Nov. 2 statewide ballot. With passage of the initiative, not only will state parks have a long-term funding solution, but also important General Fund dollars will be made available for other vital needs.

“The breadth and depth of support for this initiative is evident across California and among the wide range of individuals and organizations that have endorsed the measure,” said Mike Sweeney, executive director of The Nature Conservancy California. “This measure represents the best and most reliable path to keeping our parks and wildlife areas open for the enjoyment of Californians.”

State parks play an important role in strengthening California’s economy. Annually, California’s 278 state parks attract millions of tourists, who spend $4.32 billion annually in park-related expenditures. In fact, Visitors generate so much local economic activity that every dollar spent on state parks creates another $2.35 for California’s treasury.

“Once considered to be among the best in the nation, California’s state parks now rank among the most endangered sites in the country,” said Elizabeth Goldstein, president of the California State Parks Foundation. “Budget cuts forced nearly 150 of the state’s 278 state parks to close or reduce services last year, and chronic underfunding is forcing the more than $1 billion maintenance backlog to continue to grow. This initiative will provide the stable and adequate source of funding needed to keep state parks open and contributing to our economy, the public’s health and education.”

Approval of the state parks initiative will provide California vehicles with free, year-round day-use access to state parks, in exchange for a new $18 surcharge. This new surcharge will be assessed as part of California’s annual vehicle registration. All California vehicles will be subject to the surcharge, except larger commercial vehicles, mobile homes and permanent trailers. Funds from the surcharge will be placed in a trust fund dedicated specifically to state parks and wildlife conservation, which cannot legally be used for other purposes. Approximately $500 million will be generated annually from the trust fund, providing the funding needed to restore, maintain and keep state parks accessible today and for future generations.

Click here for more about the Initiative including who's supporting it. 

2010 Protected Areas Database Released

A major part of understanding the conservation landscape is knowing where the existing protected lands are and who owns or manages those lands. Knowing this information allows us to assess regional goals, assist in planning for new areas to conserve, identify where people are in relation to parks and so much more.

The Bay Area Open Space Council has collaborated with GreenInfo Network over the past 12 years to develop a very detailed GIS database of protected areas in the 9 county San Francisco Bay Area. This year we included Santa Cruz County for the first time. 

Download the 2010 database here.

Some interesting facts from the database include:

• Roughly 1.25 million acres are protected in the 10 counties of the Bay Area
• About 800,000 acres are fully open access
• Around 160,000 additional acres have been protected since 2002 (doesn't include Santa Cruz County)
• Around 18,000 acres have been added since 2008

For more information, contact Ryan Branciforte at 510-809-8009 x253 or ryan[at]openspacecouncil.org.

Jobs!

One of the services we provide to our 57 member organizations is to host a job board on our website.  Be sure to check it out if you're new to the field or looking for a new adventure.

Click here to see some exciting opportunities.

Buzz about Transit and Trails

There is buzz buzzing about one of the Council’s programs, Transit and Trails!

 

From Cyclelicious to San Francisco Chronicle to the Mother Nature Network, people are talking about the very interactive and innovative website that connects Bay Area residents to the great outdoors by encouraging public transportation.  ReadyMade called the site "amazing!" 

All of this attention has led over 5,000 people a month to the site.  Join the buzz and follow us on Twitter and become a fan on Facebook.

Blogs: BAOSC on Conservation Maven

The conversation about the 11th annual conference continues!

Yesterday Rob Goldstein at Conservation Maven posted his thoughts about and analysis of our conference last month. 

He says, "This year's conference ... merits particular attention from conservationists well beyond the San Francisco Bay Area. Commemorating the group's 20th year anniversary, the conference presented a number of interesting speakers on the future of the land conservation movement."

Thank you, Rob, for attending the conference and spreading the word!  Read the full post here.

Bay Area Ridge Trail gets attention

With 325 of 550 miles of trail available to hikers, cyclists and equestrians, the Bay Area Ridge Trail is a vision of open space that connects the whole region.  On May 30, 2010 the San Jose Mercury News ran a fantastic article about the trail and included new and interactive maps.  

Click here to read the article and see the maps. 

Click here to see the Bay Area Ridge Trail's website.