Every few years we define a new, big, audacious land protection goal and this becomes a specific land campaign. Campaigns go beyond our typical work, and require funding beyond our annual operating needs. With the help of our generous donors, we typically meet these goals which allows us to protect the natural face of the Peninsula and Silicon Valley forever. Here are our most recent campaigns.
Local farmland is disappearing, fast. In San Mateo County alone, we have lost over 35% of our farmland in the last 30 years. If it continues at this rate, there will soon be none left. At POST, we believe that it’s possible to save local farms for the benefit of us all. That’s why we are announcing the Farmland Futures Initiative (FFI). It’s a complex challenge that combines land acquisition, legal land protection and strategic investments in farmland infrastructure improvements. After nearly two decades of protecting working lands, POST is ready and we hope you are too. On April 30 of 2016 POST celebrated the launch of this new initiative with the Taste of the Coast event.
Our Heart of the Redwoods Campaign was launched in 2011 with a goal to raise $50 million and save 20,000 acres of the last remaining redwood forests in Silicon Valley’s backyard. These majestic landscapes are part of our region’s natural heritage and vital to the health of our land, water and air. They are also home to an astonishing variety of vulnerable plant and animal species that depend on healthy redwood ecosystems to survive.
By the end of 2014, POST successfully met our $50 million funding goal through the amazing support of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and many generous individuals who made this campaign possible. We were fortunate to work with many project partners including Midpen, San Mateo County Parks, the Coastal Conservancy and the Living Landscapes Initiative.
As of 2017, we have successfully protected 10,000 acres of redwood forest and are poised to protect the next 10,000 in the years ahead.
Mindego Hill is a stunning 1,047-acre property in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Looking out over the western-facing flank of Skyline Ridge, it lies close to Silicon Valley near the intersection of Skyline Boulevard and Alpine Road. Its 2,143-foot summit provides views of Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve, San Gregorio Creek Valley, Pomponio Creek Valley and to the west the Pacific Ocean.
POST launched our GoMindego campaign in 2007 and less than a year after the campaign began, we beat our fund-raising goal of $6.9 million and transferred the property to Midpen for permanent protection.
There were over 1,300 contributors to the GoMindego campaign. The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation led the way, followed by a challenge match from an anonymous foundation; the Silicon Valley Community Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation. A gift from the Palo Alto-based Foundation for Global Community put the campaign over the top along with gifts from many individuals and families. POST is grateful to all of them for an extraordinary effort.
Mindego Hill opened to the public on March 30, 2016.
Help us protect open space on the Peninsula and in the South Bay for the benefit of all.
Donate Now