POST 2020-2021 Impact Report

IMPACT REPORT Peninsula Open Space Trust 2020 – 2021 Fiscal Year

THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY With your incredible support, POST had our best year ever despite the challenges of the pandemic and wildfires that devastated our area, including POST-protected San Vicente Redwoods.

We gained unprecedented insight into forest management and wildfire resilience, welcomed more donors than ever before, completed our multi-year Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) plan and protected even more land in Coyote Valley.

In fact, our ongoing work in Coyote Valley, in partnership with the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority, has reset the vision for the last largely undeveloped portion of the Valley of Heart’s Delight. What was once destined to become a sprawling development is being reimagined as a multi-benefit natural landscape — critical for wildlife, water resources, agriculture and the well-being of our growing population.

This project has tremendous positive impacts for our region, and policy changes underway through the City of San Jose are reinforcing this new vision.

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© Hall and Hall / facing © Drew Bird

Now, we’re entering an exciting master planning phase to explore how to bring out the valley’s many benefits. We hope you will engage in this important public process — visit OpenSpaceAuthority.org/CVCAMP to learn more. We have been working on the conservation of Coyote Valley for many years. Little did we know that it would be a perfect example of how the state and federal 30 by 30 initiatives can be put into action locally.

With the bigger picture of these initiatives in mind, and with your continued support, POST’s unique ability to provide leadership will help set the standard for a climate resilient region.

Warm regards,

Walter T. Moore President

P.S. You’ll find more stories and our financial information at OpenSpaceTrust.org/ImpactReport.

ON OUR WAY TO 30x30 The president and our governor recently announced 30x30 initiatives to protect 30% of our land and water by 2030.

Science has confirmed that land preservation is among our greatest tools for mitigating the effects of climate change and slowing species extinction. Our landscapes provide the means with which to safeguard both our regional resilience as well as the planet’s future.

POST’s work in Coyote Valley, for example, provides a model for how the 30x30 initiatives can be achieved — a multibenefit approach to local land conservation.

MISSION MILESTONES

Finalized a

MULTI-YEAR DEI PLAN, published our Equity Commitment and began implementing organizational changes

The combination of donor generosity, collaborative partnerships, a knowledgeable staff and a flexible approach to the work at hand made these accomplishments possible from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021:

Hosted over Surpassed

80,000 ACRES of total land protected

STRENGTHENED RELATIONSHIPS with Indigenous groups

10,000 PEOPLE

Welcomed a record

3,266 NEW DONORS

Engaged over

37,000 NEW EMAIL SUBSCRIBERS

at our virtual events, featuring everyone from wildlife experts to iconic activists like Dolores Huerta

who began supporting our mission

101 THOUGHTFUL INDIVIDUALS

Kicked off a major advertising campaign called

WILDFIRE RECOVERY & RESILIENCE FUND

“FIND YOUR PLACE”

in response to the CZU fire: OpenSpaceTrust.org/ WildfireFund

shared that they have POST named in their will or trust

with exciting content

to engage new and diverse community members

Launched the

L A N D C O N S E R V AT I O N HIGHLIGHTS

3,176 ACRES PROTECTED Our spectacular local landscapes provide habitat for wildlife, access to nature so that people can recharge, fertile farmland and a natural infrastructure that helps reduce the effects of climate change. At POST, we recognize that both land preservation and ongoing care are essential to the health of our region.

Here is a sampling of what we accomplished in the last fiscal year.

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© Hall and Hall / bottom photos © Teddy Miller

LAND TRANSACTIONS • Conserved an additional 235 acres of the North Coyote Valley Conservation Area, expanding protected land in the valley for wildlife and water resources

• Added 182 acres to the El Sereno Preserve by acquiring land, then transferring it to Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (Midpen)

• Protected 331 acres in Mid Coyote Valley through three transactions in our efforts to preserve a wildlife linkage across the landscape

• Supported Save the Redwoods League’s acquisition of the 564-acre Cascade Creek redwood property

• Assisted the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency in protecting the 1,861-acre Tilton Ranch, which will eventually be incorporated into the Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve

• Transferred a 54% interest in South Cowell Ranch to Midpen in a step toward enhancing the protection and public benefit of this 600-acre property

SCENIC ADDITION TO EL SERENO PRESERVE

COWELL- PURISIMA TR AIL OPEN SEVEN DAYS A WEEK

STEWARDSHIP AND OTHER MILESTONES These are some of the most impactful projects we carried out to improve the lands we protect: • Tracked regrowth, repaired roads, planted trees, evaluated fire resilience efforts and more at San Vicente Redwoods as it begins to recover from the CZU Lightning Complex fire

• Received approval from the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors on initial park designs for Tunitas Creek Beach, developed in partnership with Santa Mateo County Parks (SMCP)

• Announced a partnership with the Farming is Medicine collaborative, a BIPOC-led agroecology project at POST-protected Ma Da Dil farm that provides healthy food for low-income, BIPOC communities

• Began preparing for the restoration of the Laguna Seca in Coyote Valley by drilling wells and installing instruments to monitor groundwater

• Restored the main barn at Ma Da Dil in San Gregorio, setting the farm up for future success

SAN VICENTE REDWOODS AF TER THE C ZU COMPLEX FIRE

• Worked with SMCP to open the popular Cowell-Purisima trail on weekdays for public enjoyment seven days a week

REPAIRED BARN AT MA DA DIL FARM

• Launched the Coyote Valley Road Ecology Study with Pathways for Wildlife, the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority • Worked in support of the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission’s recent approval of a new six-mile segment of the Bay Area Ridge Trail

GROUNDWATER MONITORING IN COYOTE VALLEY

30x30 AND POST

A MOVEMENT FOR OUR TIMES We are on the cusp of a new era of land conservation in America. Recently, both President Biden and Governor Newsom committed to protecting 30% of our national and state land and water by 2030. Known as the 30x30 initiative, this goal is a rallying cry for our nation to come together under a shared vision.

To help explain 30x30 and the role of land trusts like POST, we turned to long-time environmental writer for the San Francisco Chronicle, Peter Fimrite. Fimrite dug into the initiative, interviewed key players and wrote an insightful piece to help you better understand 30x30 and the impact our work has had — and will have — toward fulfilling this initiative.

© Yuval Helfman

Read the full exclusive special report at OpenSpaceTrust.org/30x30andPOST and get a taste with this excerpt:

The goal of the 30x30 initiative is to inspire state governments to halt the destruction of the forests, mangroves, marshes, seagrasses and grasslands that store, or sequester, carbon dioxide that is responsible for the warming of the planet.

Some 1.3 million square miles of wildlands have been lost throughout the world over the past 20 years, a swath of land about the size of India, according to researchers. The loss of habitat, along with increasingly polluted air, dirty waterways and a warming ocean, is forcing wildlife, fish and marine mammals to squeeze into smaller spaces, migrate or die.

It is estimated that between a third and half of the world’s species — about a million in all — will face extinction by the end of this century if the current trajectory of habitat loss and global warming continues. Scientists estimate there has been an average 70% decline of vertebrate species over the past half century... ...“The impetus for 30x30 is that if we are going to solve the climate crises, the biodiversity crisis is intricately linked,” said Kim Delfino, the founder and president of the environmental group Earth Advocacy, who is working with California officials on the 30x30 initiative. “You cannot solve one without the other. You have to have a healthy ecosystem to ensure climate resiliency.”

HERE AT POST, WE HAVEN’T BEEN WASTING ANY TIME. Since our founding in 1977, we have safeguarded more than 80,000 acres of land — 3,176 in the last fiscal year alone. The year also challenged us to think critically about how land is managed in the face of climate change, and we’ll continue to adapt our practices to bring out all of the landscapes’ benefits.

Our work locally is foundational in the 30x30 context, and your continued support makes it possible. The initiatives provide the policy support we have long needed in order to amplify the many benefits of land conservation to the broader public. Now is the time to come together and take an uncompromising stand for our collective future. It's the movement of our time, and the momentum is building.

WE’RE IN THIS – TOGETHER The Bay Area is an extraordinary place to call home, but extremes caused by climate change, including drought and severe wildfires, are hard on wildlife, trees and farmers. POST protects and restores open spaces to improve the resilience of our local ecosystems and provide more places for people to enjoy the outdoors.

Thank you for your past generosity — please donate again today to support our work. Visit OpenSpaceTrust.org/Give for many ways to help, including stock gifts, donor-advised fund grants or monthly contributions.

QUESTIONS? Contact us at (650) 854-7696 or giving@openspacetrust.org so that we can help.

POST is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, and our taxpayer identification number is 94-2392007. © Drew Bird

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