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 at Santa Cruz: the Banana Slug. But Santa Cruz County and its cities are also getting attention for their smart approach to preservation: saving land that not only protects nature and agriculture but also forms greenbelts to confine and define urban areas.

A banana slug, mascot of the University of California Santa Cruz, races up a redwood in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

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 in 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 and seven state beaches in Santa Cruz County. Two of the state parks are larger than Wilder Ranch State Park. Big Basin Redwoods State Park contains more than 18,000 acres of forest, trails and waterfalls, effectively creating a green wall along the County’s northern border. The Forest of Nisene Marks State Park preserves another 10,000 acres in southeastern Santa Cruz County.

Non-profit organizations have been crucial to this success story. In addition to its leadership in preserving Wilder Ranch, Save-the-Redwoods League also 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. 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 Packard Foundation, the Coastal Conservancy, Save-the-Redwoods League and individual donors.

On an expedition to the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1900, photographer Andrew Hill and a group of educators, writers and women’s club members decided to form the Sempervirens Club, a private, non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Due largely to their efforts, Big Basin Redwoods became California’s first state park two years later. Since then, this organization, now known as the Sempervirens Fund, has participated in protecting many other critical areas including Castle Rock State Park. Despite its achievements, the Fund’s vision is nothing less than “a permanently protected and forested natural area, continuous from Half Moon Bay to Monterey Bay, covering the coastal mountains of San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.” Given the commitment of conservationists and public officials in these counties, this ambitious goal actually seems attainable.