POST Protects 75,000 Acres of Land

POST Celebrates 75,000 Acres of Protected Land

April 2, 2015

(Palo Alto, Calif.)—Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced it reached a new milestone yesterday. The nonprofit land trust has now protected more than 75,000 acres throughout the San Francisco Peninsula—an area 2.5 times the size of San Francisco.

In the past week, POST completed the following transactions to reach this 75,000-acre mark:

• Purchased a 21-acre property at Pillar Point Bluff in El Granada, completing the last segment of the California Coastal Trail that runs along the bluff and a decade-long effort to connect open space previously protected by POST along the bluff;
• Purchased a 74-acre working farm in San Gregorio to protect its water and habitat values and ensure it remains in agriculture; and
• Assisted the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District with the protection of a 40-acre property adjacent to October Farm (which POST acquired in 2011 and transferred to the District in 2012).

“This is an exciting milestone for POST,” said Walter T. Moore, president of POST. “It’s so satisfying to know that our community continues to make land protection and conservation a priority. It’s what makes this place so special. POST could not have come this far without the support of our partner organizations and the individuals who love open space as much as we do.”

As a private nonprofit, POST uses funds from individual donors to purchase critical open spaces as opportunities arise. These private dollars enable POST to leverage funds from foundations and public agencies. POST then transfers properties to local, state and federal agencies with the resources to maintain them and open them to the public, or properties remain in private ownership subject to deed restrictions that limit development and often reserve trail corridors.

This model has been the key to some of POST’s most visible successes. These include protecting 4,232-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra in Moss Beach, of which nearly 4,000 acres were transferred to the National Park Service in 2011 to become part of the Golden Gate National Recreational Area; raising $200 million to protect 20,000 acres along the San Mateo County coast, and the recent completion of the $50 million Heart of the Redwoods Campaign, during which the lands POST protected included the 8,532-acre San Vicente Redwoods property in Davenport.

Learn more about the 75,000 acres POST has protected throughout the San Francisco Peninsula at What We Do.

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POST is a leading private, nonprofit land trust that protects and cares for open space, farms and parkland in and around Silicon Valley. Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving more than 70,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

 

Press Contact

Michelle Mellon
Public Relations Manager
Phone: (650) 854-7696 x341
Email: mmellon [at] openspacetrust [dot] org
www.openspacetrust.org