Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument is set to be Santa Cruz County’s next outdoor marvel BY JOHANNA MILLER
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rowing up, my family and I would often drive the stretch of Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and San Francisco.
We loved taking this scenic route instead of risky Highway 17 or the speedy 101 corridor. My sister and I would watch the world fly by from the back seat of our two-door Honda Civic, the turbulent Pacific Ocean on one side and sprawling prairies and dense forests on the other. I always wondered: Where do all those dirt side roads lead? What habitats lay beyond? What views could be seen from the tops of those rolling green hills? Last month, I had the opportunity to find out. For the past year, I had been corresponding with Katy Poniatowski from Santa Cruz Mountains Trail Stewardship (SCMTS), a nonprofit involved in opening sections of the Cotoni-Coast Dairies National Monument in Davenport for public access. She told me that crews had
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begun work on building trails, and wondered if I wanted to come out and see their progress. Of course, I leapt at the opportunity. Cotoni-Coast Dairies extends from the steep slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the marine terraces overlooking the Pacific. Streams cut through the land towards the sea, creating waterways that act as important habitats for native plants, animals and fish and provide fresh water for surrounding communities. For decades, local organizations worked to save the property from private development. At one point, it was slated to be the site of a nuclear power plant; at another, a housing development of 150 mansions along the coast. In 1998, the Trust for Public Land purchased the property from Coast Dairies and Land Company, with help from the Sempervirens Fund and other local groups. Hundreds of acres were donated to California State Parks, and by 2014, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) was granted 6,000. In January 2015, a week before he left office, President Barack Obama officially designated Cotoni-Coast Dairies as a national monument. On May 3 I, along with photographer Erin Malsbury, arrived at Swanton Berry Farm, where we met Poniatowski and Garret Hammack, trail and park construction manager for SCMTS. We piled into Hammack’s truck and took off up a steep, bumpy farm trail. “It’s incredible that we finally are able to show people this property,” Hammack said. “There’s just nothing else like it.” We finally came upon a SCMTS crew busy clearing a newly built trail. Crews and scores of volunteers have been working on building what will eventually
be 19 miles of trail loops through coastal prairies and redwood forests. Hikers, mountain bikers and horseback riders will be able to explore a brand-new trail system, with the earliest trails opening by the end of 2022. “I started working here less than three years ago,” Poniatowski said as we began our first hike. “Then, we were barely doing advocacy for this network. It’s wild to see, even through the pandemic and the wildfires that this project is still able to move forward.” SCMTS is currently 2.9 miles into construction and hopes to fundraise $2.7 million through its ongoing fundraising campaign, Timeless Trails, to complete the rest of the project. By early June, they had reached $2.2 million. Poniatowski said it was thanks to the community’s support that they had been able to make it this far. “Everyone who spoke up years ago is now realizing the effects of their contributions to public land,” she said. “It’s really cool to see the community’s voice turn into real, tangible trails.” The prairies of Cotoni-Coast Dairies, dipping gradually down toward the coastline’s jagged cliffs and out to sea, are a sight to behold. I found myself gaping in awe at the expansive view. It almost didn’t look real. Soon we changed course. For now dubbed “Loop 3,” this trail quickly dipped into a dense redwood forest, with sharp drop-offs on one side. Poniatowski said it will be the most technical trail on the network, skinnier and steeper, less refined. Plans to connect the upper part of Loop 3 to San Vicente Redwoods are also in the works. “This trail shows just how quickly the terrain changes because of the watersheds,” Poniatowski said. “We
SANTA CRUZ VISITORS GIUDE | GOODTIMES.SC | 2022
6/24/22 3:05 PM
