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Santa Cruz, sixty miles down the coast from San Francisco, is famous for surfing and a laid-back personality symbolized by the official mascot of the University of California Santa Cruz: the Banana Slug. But Santa Cruz County and its cities are also preserving smart by saving land that not only protects nature and agriculture but also forms greenbelts to confine and define urban areas. In 1969, plans were being drawn for annexations of county land which would have doubled the population of the City of Santa Cruz. Just west of the City, a 10,000-unit development was proposed for the Wilder Ranch. This proposal sparked a heated controversy that ended in 1973 when the State of California approved the purchase of what is now Wilder Ranch State Park. Subsequently, the State of California and Save-the-Redwoods League, a non-profit organization, acquired adjacent ranches. The park now offers 34 miles of hiking, biking and equestrian trails within 7,000 acres that extend from the Pacific shore to the redwood ridges. The park also forms a two- to four-mile-wide separator between the City of Santa Cruz and the farms, rangelands, forests and open space that predominate in the northwestern third of the County.
As explained by Daniel Press in Saving Open Space, the voters of the City of Santa Cruz adopted a measure 1979 that identified land desirable for an envisioned greenbelt around the City and placed a 10-year moratorium on development of this land. Santa Cruz activists then worked hard for passage of Proposition 70, a statewide initiative adopted in 1988. In return, $15 million from Proposition 70 was used to preserve Pogonip, a 640-acre greenbelt property which now forms a portion of the City’s northern boundary. The City then used general fund money to buy Arana Gulch, which defines a key segment of the City’s eastern border. Subsequently, City voters overwhelmingly approved a park and open space bond measure that funded acquisition of Moore Creek Preserve, a 246-acre greenbelt parcel that now forms much of the western boundary of the City. Finally, the City and the State of California have succeeded in protecting many of the beaches and bluffs of the Pacific coastline, which serves as the City’s southern edge, including Natural Bridges State Beach and Lighthouse Field State Beach.
In addition to these state beaches and Wilder Ranch State Park mentioned above, the State of California has created nine other state parks seven state beaches in Santa Cruz County. Two of the state parks are larger than Wilder Ranch State Park. Big Basin Redwoods State Park, California’s oldest state park, contains more than 18,000 acres of forest, trails and waterfalls while also creating a green wall along most of the County’s northern border. The Forest of Nisene Marks preserves 10,000 acres of a former commercial forest from the headwaters of Aptos Creek, near the Santa Clara County border, to the coastal plain in the community of Aptos. Non-profit organizations have been critical to this success story. The Sempervirens Fund, founded in 1900, was instrumental in the creation of Big Basin Redwoods and Castle Rock state parks. As mentioned above, Save-the- Redwoods League, formed in 1920, was a leader in the preservation of Wilder Ranch. In addition, the League acquired land for Henry Cowell Redwoods State Parks, the Forest of Nisene Marks, Portola Redwoods State Park and a portion of the Long Ridge Open Space Preserve now managed by the Mid-Peninsula Open Space District. The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, formed in 1978, has also preserved 1,500 acres and partnered with other organizations in the protection of more than 9,000 additional acres. In 1998, the Trust for Public Land acquired the 7,000-acre Coast Dairies property using funding from the David and Lucile Package Foundation, the Coastal Conservancy, Save-the-Redwoods League and individual donors. The inland portion of the property will be managed for conservation and recreation. The remainder will continue to be farmed and the shoreline itself will be open to the public, adding 13 miles to the California Coastal Trail.
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