POST Purchases 21 Acres on Pillar Point Bluff

Pillar Point Purchase Expands California Coastal Trail

March 20, 2015

(Palo Alto, Calif.)—Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced its purchase yesterday of 21 acres along Pillar Point Bluff in El Granada. POST previously purchased adjacent Pillar Point Bluff properties in 2004 (119 acres), 2007 (4 acres) and 2008 (17 acres), and transferred them to San Mateo County in 2011. The new property sits between two of these parcels, and will complete the segment of the California Coastal Trail that runs along the bluff.

“This is the fulfillment of a decade-long dream to preserve Pillar Point Bluff,” said POST President Walter T. Moore. “This is a spectacular piece of the California coast and we are thrilled that people can now take an uninterrupted hike on this property and enjoy the incredible scenic beauty of this place.”

Pillar Point Bluff is known for its spectacular views of the ocean and reefs of the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve below. The property is characterized by coastal scrub and coastal terrace prairie. It is provides habitat to the threatened California red-legged frog and the endangered San Francisco garter snake, and may be a nesting site for raptors.

POST is working with San Mateo County Parks to transfer property ownership to them later this year. The organization will work to extend the coastal trail on the property. “We are so lucky for our ongoing partnership with POST to acquire parklands in San Mateo County,” said Marlene Finley, San Mateo County Parks Director. “I look forward to taking this to the Board of Supervisors to consider adding to county parks’ stewardship at Pillar Point Bluff, welcoming the public to more access and exploration.”

The Pillar Point Bluff area was originally part of the 12,000-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra, which was divided into three separate land grants in the 1800s. From 2001-2003, POST worked to protect the 4,262-acre Rancho Corral de Tierra property that lies east of Highway 1, and transferred most of it to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area in 2011. Development plans had been drawn up for both the Rancho Corral de Tierra land and the Pillar Point properties before POST stepped in to save the land.

POST has received funding to support habitat protection and facilitate public access on the property from the state Coastal Conservancy and a grant made through the Living Landscape Initiative Challenge Grant Program of Resources Legacy Fund, which is funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

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POST is a leading private, nonprofit land trust that protects and cares for open space, farms and parkland in and around Silicon Valley. Since its founding in 1977, POST has been responsible for saving more than 70,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties.

Press Contact

Michelle Mellon
Public Relations Manager
Phone: (650) 854-7696 x341
Email: mmellon [at] openspacetrust [dot] org
www.openspacetrust.org