Save the Sandhills

Phase 1

This article originally appeared in our newsletter, Landmarks, Winter 2008

When we decided in August to launch our campaign to save the Sandhills, it was a big leap of faith. The Land Trust had never before raised anything like $1.2 million in community support in such a short period of time. In all of 2006 we raised barely a quarter of that amount. We “went for it” not only because the Sandhills are so remarkable, but also because saving places like the Sandhills is what we are here for.

Six months later, we are on the verge of completing the first phase of a campaign that will take another five years. We have raised almost all of the $1.2 million we need in community support from more than 200 donors. A woman from Sunnyvale wrote that she remembered picnicking in “the pines, as we called them” as a girl in the 1920s. Others sent in donations to honor Phyllis Edwards, who made her own donation just a few weeks before her death on Christmas Day. Another donor made a donation after seeing Dr. Jodi McGraw’s slide show. “I had no idea this was here,” she said.

We also received $2.3 million from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation – the largest foundation grant in our history – and $400,000 from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. We expect to hear soon about our request for $2 million from the Wildlife Conservation Board. In a few months we’ll take this money and protect forever 189 acres of “the Galapagos Islands of Santa Cruz County.”

Then we will spend more money taking care of that land. There’s trash to clean up, invasive plants to remove, and erosion problems to be fixed. We’re also planning on talking with neighbors and others about our plans for the Sandhills, including plans to get more school children out on the land so they can appreciate the wonder that is in our backyard. Our members will get a chance to see what they have protected this spring, when we will be hosting a series of walks on the Sandhills.

We take possession of the land in June and we are already looking ahead to the next phases of our campaign to save this rare habitat. Our plan is to protect an additional 500 acres over the next five years. That sounds like a bold and ambitious goal – but six months ago so did protecting the first 189 acres. •

More information about the Sandhills and our campaign to save this unique habitat.

Our deepest thanks to the following leadership supporters for their donations of $10,000 or more to the Save the Sandhills campaign.

Robert Stephens and Julie Packard
Dick and Mary Solari
The Bright Horizon Fund at the
Community Foundation of Santa
Cruz County
Michael Honack and Wendy Grace
Reed Hastings and Patty Quillin
David Kashtan
The Westcliff Foundation
JoeBen Holtz in honor of Paula and
Jonathan Holtz
Terry and Cathleen Eckhardt
Sempervirens Fund
Peggy and Jack Baskin

And to the members of the Sandhills Campaign Committee:

Robert Stephens
Harriet Deck
Cathleen Eckhardt

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