Santa Cruz Mountains Old-Growth Campaign

You closed the gap! Peters Creek and Boulder Creek Redwoods are protected!

You Secured These Hidden Wonderlands

Thanks to donations from generous members like you, Save the Redwoods League met matching gift challenges and raised the funds needed by December 31, 2014, to protect the breathtaking Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest and Boulder Creek Forest.

The Sean Parker Foundation matched $500,000 of your thoughtful gifts, and the J.A. Woollam Foundation matched $100,000, completing the campaign to protect these rare forests from the risk of subdivision and development for estate homes.

These forests are some of the most beautiful ancient redwood forests still standing less than an hour’s drive from the bustle of the South San Francisco Bay Area.

Since 2011, Save the Redwoods League has worked with a willing seller on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to complete the purchase of Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest and protect Boulder Creek Forest through a conservation agreement. Our kind members helped raise the $8 million to protect these two forests.

“Protecting these giants has been a dream of conservationists for generations,” said Sam Hodder, League President and CEO. “We’re so thrilled that our dedicated members and partners pulled together to protect these stunning old-growth forests.”

A Land of Towering Ancients

The 145-acre Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest is a secret coast redwood gem where time stands still, and surprises delight the senses around every corner. Only a 45-minute drive from San Jose, immense coast redwoods rise from carpets of sorrel along rippling Peters Creek. And if you stroll a few minutes, you can cross into Portola Redwoods State Park and reach the astounding giants along Peters Creek Loop trail.

This is a cathedral, the kind of place where those who love nature get their religion,” said Tom Stienstra, a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, referring to the loop trail.

Boulder Creek Forest is a beautiful 214-acre parcel of old-growth redwood forest held by the Peters Creek owners. Adjacent to Big Basin Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz County, this property now is safeguarded through a conservation agreement that prohibits harvesting of its massive redwoods and subdivision of the land. This forest also provides homes for a wide range of wildlife, including the marbled murrelet, an imperiled seabird that nests in ancient trees.

The League will own and care for Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest for the foreseeable future until we can transfer it to a permanent steward.

We welcome your gifts for ongoing stewardship needs. Please donate today to support this and many other projects that are made possible by the Redwood Land Fund, our most important tool to protect, restore, and open to the public threatened redwood forestland.

Meanwhile, check this page, subscribe to our enewsletter, and join our social media communities for news about opening Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest to the public.

Thanks to Our Partners

Safeguarding these forests is an important part of the Living Landscape Initiative, an innovative effort by the League and four other conservation organizations to create and maintain a vibrant, sustainable living landscape in the heart of coastal California. Working together, our goal is to protect the Silicon Valley area’s vast open spaces, broad biodiversity and dramatic natural beauty, including 30,000 acres of redwood forests.

We thank all of you, our League members, for your visionary support, especially the generous grant of $1.75 million through the Living Landscape Initiative Challenge Grant program of Resources Legacy Fund (external link), which is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. We also thank our project partner, Peninsula Open Space Trust (external link), which has contributed $1.125 million to the campaign. Larry and Bronia Holmes, former owners of Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest, also made a generous contribution.


Van Kempen Addition: Easy-Access Gateway Forest

We’ve added another magnificent forest to the Santa Cruz Mountains campaign, and you have the chance to complete the project to restore and open this easy-access gateway to Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest. The Van Kempen Addition to Peters Creek Old-Growth Forest embraces 33 acres of rare ancient redwoods, tanoak, madrone, California bay, big leaf maple, knobcone pine, huckleberries, ferns and redwood sorrel.

This forest buffers nearby Pescadero Creek, home of threatened steelhead trout. Its towering redwoods provide nesting sites for state-endangered and federally threatened marbled murrelets. Black-tailed deer, raccoons, gray squirrels, coyotes and mountain lions live in these mountains. The undeveloped gateway provides valuable habitat for the forest community, and it connects protected land that wildlife needs to survive.

Save the Redwoods League must raise funds to make critical improvements to the property, and manage it for the long term or until a permanent steward can be identified and public access can be offered.

Your gifts will help protect magnificent forests like this one, assist in stream stabilization to aid fish passage and survival, and help develop the public access plan for this property.

“Our Santa Cruz Mountains Old-Growth campaign will safeguard iconic old-growth forests for all time and make it possible for future generations to experience and enjoy California and the Bay Area’s truly unique natural wonders,” said Sam Hodder, President and Chief Executive Officer of Save the Redwoods League.

Please donate today!

See a map of the Van Kempen Addition, Peters Creek and Boulder Creek projects.

Explore the property:


A Rare Chance to Dedicate a Grove in an Old-Growth Forest

Peters Creek Forest offers extraordinary new opportunities for you and your family to dedicate a grove in honor or memory of someone or something you love, or to mark important occasions such as weddings or anniversaries. Dedicating a redwood grove through a gift to Save the Redwoods League helps ensure that these magical places will survive, while naming a special place in the forest where you and your loved ones may enjoy the trees and the streams and wildlife that surround them.


Questions?

If you would like to learn more, or you would like to contribute to the Santa Cruz Mountains Old-Growth Fund, please contact Suzanne Moss, Campaign Director, at (415) 820-5818 or [email protected]


Tags: ,