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Photograph by Dai Sugano
Craig Britton, general manager of MROSD, helps hold a map to show state Sen. Byron Sher the area covered by the new Bear Creek Redwoods Park.
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Open space may get boost from state
Sher backs plan to fund land buy
By Jeff Kearns
Open-space groups that recently purchased the Bear Creek Redwoods area from Arlie Land and Cattle Company may get an infusion of state money to help pay the $25 million bill.
The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District will be asking the Bay Area Coastal Conservancy and the state Wildlife Conservation Board for $5 million, with state Sen. Byron Sher (D-Palo Alto), backing the plan.
Midpeninsula took about $15 million out of its budget to purchase the more than 1,000 acres now in the preserve, along with a $10 million loan from the Peninsula Open Space Trust. POST said it was hoping to repay the loan as quickly as possible by raising $5 million in private donations and getting the rest from government agencies.
Sher, who helped create the Bay Area arm of the Coastal Conservancy last year, thinks the plan is perfect for the new agency, which just received its first $10 million infusion of funding from the state. The agency was created in 1998, but it wasn't funded until the current fiscal year's budget was approved this year. It operates as a part of the state Coastal Conservancy, but is funded separately from that agency.
As chairman of the Senate Budget Subcommittee, Sher managed to get the BACC's funding inserted into the $79 billion state budget--and keep it there until it was signed by the governor. "The goal is to come up with about $5 million in state money to help retire this debt," Sher said. "We're very hopeful that we'll get substantial funds from the Bay Area Coastal Conservancy. It's ready, it's available, and it's needed."
On behalf of POST, Midpeninsula has already started the process of applying to the BACC and Wildlife Conservation Board. While the BACC may be able to come up with money fairly fast, the Wildlife Conservation Board, which meets quarterly, probably won't be able to formally consider the request until February or May.
Sher toured the property last week with officials from Midpeninsula, the BACC, the Wildlife Conservation Board, and the state Department of Fish and Game, which will forward a formal recommendation to Conservation Board members.
BACC project manager Brenda Buxton says that the Bear Creek Redwoods project meets the major concerns of the newly created agency because it has existing trail systems and serves as a habitat for wildlife, which makes it eligible for funding.
Midpeninsula's wildlife biologist, Eric Remington, spent the last eight months making an investigation of the wildlife on the property. He turned up 90 species of birds (including a golden eagle), 32 species of mammals (including mountain lions), and 22 species of reptiles and amphibians. The final results of that study will be forwarded to the Department of Fish and Game and the Wildlife Conservation Board.
Once the property is open to the public, the more than 14 miles of dirt roads that crisscross it will be open to hikers and accessible from the Bay Area Ridge Trail and Los Gatos Creek Trail, which is one of the most popular recreational trails in the valley.
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