8,500 Acres and 5 Local Leaders = One Big Deal

What creates a connected area of 26,000 acres of protected land, with potential trail connections to Big Basin Redwoods and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Parks?  Provides drinking water to Davenport and Santa Cruz?  Supports Coho salmon and steelhead trout habitat?  Promises excellent future public recreation opportunities, with miles of unpaved roads suitable for trails?  And offers a buffer against impacts of climate change as a result of proximity to coast, high elevations, north-facing slopes and extensive ecological niches?

 

Five Bay Area conservation organizations - all members of the Open Space Council - including the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, The Nature Conservancy, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Save the Redwoods League and Sempervirens Fund have joined forces to preserve the largest expanse of unprotected redwoods and wildlife habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains.  The property, which is 8 miles long and the largest piece of privately owned land in Santa Cruz County, stretches from the remote ridges of Bonny Doon almost to the Pacific Ocean. The broad expanse of redwood and oak forests is home to mountain lions, peregrine falcons and endangered coho salmon.

Read more about it in the Mercury News and on the Living Landscape Initiative's website.