California Coast & Ocean

In San Mateo County, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) will use $377,000 approved by the Conservancy to build nearly a mile of Coastal Trail, other connecting trails, and a small parking lot with a restroom at Pillar Point Bluff, north of Half Moon Bay. The 119-acre Pillar Point Bluff property was acquired by POST in 2004 with the help of Conservancy funding. It overlooks beaches, tidepools and, much further offshore, the famous Maverick's surf break. The new trails will mostly follow an existing system of former farm roads and informal trails, but will be upgraded to allow fire and emergency access and correct erosion problems. One route from the parking lot to the blufftop will be wheelchair accessible, while another will follow a steeper grade. A boardwalk will be built through the property's seasonal wetlands, and some informal trails that connect the blufftop to the beach through an active landslide area will be closed.

On the U.C. Santa Barbara campus, the student government organization, Associated Students, will use $175,000 from the Conservancy to reconstruct the West Campus Bluff Trail, a half-mile Coastal Trail segment that runs from the western edge of Isla Vista to Coal Oil Point Reserve. The trail originated as an unplanned, informal route along the bluffs, but in 1990, the University improved the surface with decomposed granite and added border posts, signs, and benches. Since then, the trail has eroded and deep ruts have formed due to poor drainage and heavy use by joggers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. The Associated Students will improve and upgrade the damaged trail and make it wheelchair accessible, regrading, stabilizing, and resurfacing it with decomposed gravel treated with a binding polymer. In some places the route will be shifted away from the bluff for safety. Informal trails will be closed and planted with native plants. The completed trail will be ten to 12 feet wide, have two-foot shoulders, and will be landscaped to deter off-trail use. Associated Students has raised $90,000 toward planning and construction, and will assume management of the trail.

The funding approved by the Conservancy in May also included $90,000 to the County of San Mateo to prepare plans and construction documents for a quarter-mile segment of the Coastal Trail through the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve and a new ramp to Moss Beach Reef; and $30,000 to the Moat Creek Management Agency for a feasibility study for Coastal Trail access on property between Moat Creek and Arena Cove in Mendocino County.