  Thank
you!
Thanks to nearly 14,000 gifts from more than 8,400 Sempervirens
Fund supporters, the campaign to purchase the San Lorenzo River Redwoods
was completed in October 2004, and this magnificent redwood forest
will be preserved in perpetuity as part of Castle
Rock State Park.
Sale to State Parks Completes the Deal
At its October 8, 2004
meeting, the California State Public Works Board accepted the terms
of Sempervirens Fund's bargain-priced sale of more than 1,000 redwood
acres to the State Parks Department, completing the State's 2-phase
purchase of the entire 1,340 San Lorenzo River Redwoods. For details,
see our Press Release.
"The Crown Jewel of the San Lorenzo River
Valley"
In the late summer of 2000, the future
of the magnificent San Lorenzo River Redwoods was at stake.
After more than a century of careful stewardship by the San
Lorenzo Valley Water District, the time had come to sell
these beautiful lands. Loggers had big plans. But so did
Sempervirens Fund…
 Spared
from the logger's ax!
In
dramatic 11th-hour timing, Sempervirens
Fund beat loggers' bids
to acquire the San Lorenzo River Redwoods…by an eye
blink! And immediately the campaign began to retire the
principal and interest that Sempervirens Fund needed to pay
the San Lorenzo Valley Water District.
This
campaign was the biggest in Sempervirens Fund's 100+year
history:
- the
biggest single piece of property, 1,340 acres;
and
- the
biggest financial outlay, $10.9 million for the land,
plus $2.5 million in estimated interest expense.
 Character,
history, trails
The
San Lorenzo River Redwoods have strategic and historical
significance. In the late 19th Century, the Saratoga Toll
Road was built through these woodlands to connect the Santa
Clara Valley to the outskirts of Boulder Creek, then a
booming lumber town. Today, the vestiges of the Saratoga
Toll Road serve as a public hiking trail that aligns with
the 30-mile Skyline-to-the-Sea trail. New trails will be
built on the property and connect to existing trails inside
Castle Rock State Park. Also, an easy-access Summit Trail (a.k.a. Michael's Summit Loop >HIKE info)
will allow hikers to view Monterey Bay and the Monterey
Peninsula from an 1,800-ft high promontory on the
property.
Funding Dilema May Delay Public Access
Full public access to the San
Lorenzo River Redwoods is being delayed by the State Department of
Finance's current policy of prohibiting the use of state money to
cover
the operating costs of newly acquired parkland.
Biological
survey
In
the Fall of 2001 Dr. Chris Brinegar and the students of his
Redwood Forest Ecology course at San Jose State University
completed a biological survey of the San Lorenzo Rive
Redwoods. This survey revealed an important and
resource-rich redwood forest that was last logged nearly 100
years ago. As a newly-balanced ecosystem, it is in an
important state of transition, and it is just a few hundred
years from developing "old-growth" characteristics. Highlights
of the survey
include details of vegetation, stream habitat, plant and
animal observations, and natural and historical
notes. |
