State Wildlife Board Awards Grant of $1.5 Million to Save Sandhills

This press release was sent out March, 2008.

             The Land Trust of Santa Cruz County has received a $1.5 million grant for its campaign to save the Sandhills from the state Wildlife Conservation Board.  The grant will fund part of the acquisition cost of 189 acres located off Mt. Hermon Road between Felton and Scotts Valley.   
            This grant brings the Land Trust to within $7,000 of completing a $5.5 million campaign that began last August. 
            “This is the largest campaign in our 30 year history," said Terry Corwin, the Land Trust's Executive Director.  "And it is fitting that we are protecting land of world-class importance." 
            "This property, supporting one of the rarest ecosystems in the United States, is truly a remarkable piece of property and certainly worthy of protection," said John Donnelly, Executive Director of the Wildlife Conservation Board
            The Sandhills is a rare, biologically rich habitat in the hills between Felton and Scotts Valley.  World renowned biodiversity expert Dr. Peter Raven has called the area, “the Galapagos Islands of Santa Cruz County.”  There are at least seven species of plants and animals in the Sandhills that can be found nowhere else in the world.
            The acquisition of the 189 acre property is the first phase of a campaign that will eventually protect up to 700 acres of this rare habitat.  The Sandhills is an ancient seabed and fossils of sand dollars, extinct sharks, and other ocean specials can be found there.  The area also has spectacular displays of spring wild flowers, many of them unique to the Sandhills.
            As part of the Save the Sandhills campaign, the Land Trust also received a previously approved grant from the WCB for $500,000, a $2.3 million grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and has raised almost $1.2 million in community support.   Corwin said that more than 240 donors have so far contributed $1.93 million, leaving the Land Trust just $7,000 short of its goal.  Donors to the campaign will be invited to walks on the property in the spring.  •

Make a donation now.

Members and their friends are invited to Land Trust events throughout the year. 
See the list of spring events, including guided tours of the Sandhills.

 

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