Group raises money to buy 700 acres of open space

Posted on Fri, Mar. 11, 2005

Group raises money to buy 700 acres of open space

By Denis Cuff
CONTRA COSTA TIMES

A conservation group has raised $3.2 million to buy 700 acres of rolling hills between Martinez and Hercules as the centerpiece of a new open space for hikers, birds and wildlife.

The nonprofit Muir Heritage Land Trust reached the milestone Thursday when the state Coastal Conservancy approved a $1.1 million grant toward the purchase.

The grant provides the last funds the land trust needs to buy the 700-acre remnant of Bernardo Fernandez's 9,000-acre cattle ranch, which stretched all the way to the Pinole waterfront in the 1880s.

The purchase doubles the size of the trust's open space between Martinez and Hercules

"The Fernandez property is the biggest missing piece of a large open preserve that will protect scenic lands and provide a wildlife corridor," said Tina Batt, the executive director of the Martinez-based Muir Heritage Land Trust.

Buying the land, with its large oak forests, protects it from development pressure.

On nearby land in Franklin Canyon, developers had planned 500 homes, offices and a luxury hotel, but Hercules voters approved an initiative in November aimed at blocking the project.

The Fernandez property will provide a 2.5-mile link for the Bay Area Ridge trail.

Some ridges on the property rise 1,000 feet, and water in Rodeo Creek cascades toward San Pablo Bay.

The land trust took less than a year to raise the $3.2 million from a variety of state and federal agencies, foundations and private donors.

But the group now faces a new challenge: raising $500,000 for an endowment fund to maintain the Fernandez land, and restoring some of the wildlife habitat there.

The land trust needs money to replace a washed out bridge, restore Rodeo Creek habitat for salmon runs and clean up tons of trash that illegal dumpers tossed from a public road into Rodeo Creek.

"We're extremely happy we raised the purchase money in less than a year, but now we have to pay for the management costs," Batt said. "Stewardship money is hard to come by."

Improvements must be made before hikers, bicyclists and horse riders can be allowed regular entry to the property from access points on Chrystie Road in Franklin Canyon from the east and Refugio Valley Road in Hercules from the west.

For information about escorted hikes to the land, call the land trust at 925-228-5460

Among other donors toward the purchase, the State Wildlife Conservation Board and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation each chipped in $1 million.

Contact Denis Cuff at 925-943-8267 or dcuff@cctimes.com