Image from article Changes afoot at Moffett
Residents, then and now, show commitment to keeping open space open
Los Altos resident Lee Cole has just finished her training as a docent with the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. She’s ready to lead hikes on the over 250 miles of paths the district maintains in over 42,000 acres it owns or controls. And she’s one of a growing number of area residents taking an active interest in open space preservation.
“I just feel it’s so important to preserve this open space, this jewel we have,” Cole said.
Los Altos-based agencies dedicated to open space preservation are seeing growing support in terms of survey responses, donations and volunteer time. That translates directly into more land acquisitions and programs.
“We’ve had an increase in the number of gifts and the overall giving total,” said Verl Clausen, executive director of Sempervirens Fund.
Sempervirens, in its present form, opened its Los Altos office in 1968 through the efforts of Los Altos Hills resident Tony Look, Dorothy Varian and noted redwood photographer Howard King. Its roots go back to 1900, when a group banded together to purchase Big Basin, California’s first state park. Since 1968, the group has donated 8,600 acres of redwood watershed to the state park system and developed trail connections including the Skyline to the Sea trail connecting Castle Rock State Park to the coast. Their most recent effort is a 1.5-mile trail linking Big Basin with Año Nuevo State Park.
“We have an active constituency of 15,000,” Clausen said. “That has grown in the last few years.”
The Los Altos-based Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District has seen volunteer hours jump from 7,800 in 1995 to 9,500 in 1997. That’s meant the addition of programs such as Outdoor Education Leaders that provides environmental science education outings for fourth-to-sixth-grade students. Weekend volunteer staffing at the Daniels Nature Center was added in 1996. This year, the district added volunteer crew leaders for outdoor volunteer projects, volunteer conservation easement monitors and community outreach volunteers.
“There are many more docents and trails than when I started,” said Lily Estrade, who, 20 years ago was one of the district’s first docents.
“This is too big a job to do without volunteers,” said David Smernoff, board member for the district’s Ward 4 including Los Altos and Mountain View. “With volunteers we have an army of people taking care of the land they are using.”
Three years ago, the district added a full-time volunteer coordinator.
Mary Davey of Los Altos Hills, board member for the district’s Ward 2 including the Hills, Cupertino, Sunnyvale and Stanford, says the linkages and cooperation among area preservation agencies help enable the district’s success. Her background and Smernoff’s, demonstrate those linkages
Smernoff, who holds a doctorate in ecology from Stanford, joined the district board in 1995. He had been an activist with Bay Area Action and a project director at the Arastradero Preserve boarding Los Altos Hills and Palo Alto.
Davey became involved in the Sierra Club and Committee for a Green Foothills when she moved to Los Altos Hills in 1960. In 1966, she led the movement to protect the Bryne Preserve while serving on the Los Altos Hills Town Council. In 1972, she was one of seven cofounders of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. She serves on the board of the Sempervirens Fund and was active in the 1977 founding of Peninsula Open Space Trust or POST.
According to POST development associate Janet Curtis, POST was founded by the district as a private, nonprofit organization that could raise funds for acquisition of threatened lands. Working in concert with the district and other park agencies, POST has been instrumental in preserving more than 35,000 acres for open space, including the Windy Hill Open Space Preserve. It, too, is experiencing increased interest.
“There is certainly a greater awareness as sprawl continues with our booming Silicon Valley,” Curtis said. “People don’t want to loose our unique environment – to be come another Los Angeles.”
That awareness is tangible in POST’s three-year fund-raising campaign, established in 1966 with a goal of raising $28.5 million and preserving an additional 1,200 acres.
“Two years into (the campaign) we have doubled our donor base,” Curtis said. “We’ve already raised $24 million and saved 1,000 more acres.”
The interest in open space also creates challenges. The first, said Smernoff, is whether to dedicate available funds to purchase of additional land or to preserving that already acquired. Preservation and maintenance take up more than 50 percent of the district’s budget he said.
But, said Davey, “there are 30,000 more acres in this area we’d like to see preserved.”
Both say the task would be easier if state and federal money earmarked for open space was forthcoming. The district was originally to receive 10 cents per $100 of assessed valuation, Davey said, but since Proposition 13 was passed that has shrunk to 1.7 cents.
In 1965, Congress created the Land and Water Conservation Fund to channel fees paid by companies drilling off-shore for oil and gas into the acquisition of land and water for recreation and conservation purposed. Smernoff said that, despite efforts by California’s Congressional delegation, money in the fund has been diverted to other sources. In 1996, less than 15 percent of the fund was used for its intended purpose.
Smernoff said there is also the challenge of “balancing between preserving the ecological value of the land with increasing public use.”
District spokesman Malcolm Smith said district rangers “are confident visits have doubled over the last 10 years. We estimate one million visits per year to all preserves combined. Half of all visits are made to Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve.”
A further issue is how to control invasive plants and animals on the preserves, including feral pigs and eucalyptus trees. Smernoff said this requires coordination with other park agencies. He lobbied hard for the full-time resource management expert the district hired three years.
To address these challenges, the district has undertaken a Regional Open Space Design process. Through public hearings and stakeholder meetings, it is developing a 20-year vision. Smith termed it “a fluid document and program to guide the district – a blueprint for what might occur, not a commitment to undertake any acquisition.” It will be the primary topic on the district board’s Aug. 12 meeting.
The district board has also placed an advisory measure on the Nov. 3 ballot, to ask San Mateo County coastal residents if they would like their area annexed into the district. Last year, several coastal councils asked the district to begin an active exploration of coastal preservation in San Mateo County. Expanding the district would allow it to participate in land acquisition, farmland preservation and management of public lands in the coastal area of San Mateo County.
There’s a lot left to be done in open space preservation. Davey urges people to “Keep up your support, not only with tax dollars but support that open space preservation is a valid purpose.”
“Go out and enjoy land in public trust,” Smernoff said. “Use it as a refuge from our hectic life. Share in the stewardship of it with time as well as taxes.”
“You are the ones who own this property,” Estrada said. “Come and help us run it.”
For more information on the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District or to volunteer, visit the office at 330 Distel Circle in Los Altos, call 691-1200 or visit the Web site at www.openspace.org. For information on the Sempervirens Fund, call 968-4509, write Drawer BE, Los Altos 94023 or visit the Web site at www.sempervirens.org. For information on the Peninsula Open Space Trust, call 854-7696.
