By Ted Benhari, Friends of the North Coast
In a recent OpEd the Hilltromper.com editors Traci Hukill and Eric Johnson raise the possibility that if Coast Dairies doesn’t become a national monument it could be sold to developers to build “an exclusive enclave” of estate homes, as proposed by an entrepreneur 20 years ago. Monument status would keep that from ever happening, they write, so urge President Obama to proclaim it before Trump and his allies in Congress sell it off. Ironically, in their self-contradictory, inaccurate, and misleading editorial Hukill and Johnson quote from the deed which transferred Coast Dairies from the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) to the federal Bureau of Land Management in 2014: The property “shall be used and managed for open space and public recreation in a manner consistent with the protection and preservation of natural habitats.” The protections in that deed, which are also enshrined in a Coastal Development Permit that local citizens, including members of the Friends of the North Coast (FONC), pressured TPL to obtain, is permanently attached to the property. Both deed and permit contain several other protections that guarantee that Coast Dairies will never be developed except for trails and visitor facilities. While it is true that without monument status the federal government can sell Coast Dairies, the deed restrictions and permit will remain in force and binding on whoever acquires it, in perpetuity. Why would a developer spend many millions of dollars to buy a piece of land that can’t be used for housing or commercial activity? As Hukill and Johnson know, the “plan” that they cite, to checker Coast Dairies with expensive homes, never had a chance of being realized. It was drawn up, and promoted in a slick video, by an entrepreneur whose business model is to buy an option on environmentally valuable properties and threaten to develop them, so that environmental groups are panicked into buying them at inflated prices. The Hilltrompers also should have revealed that Sempervirens Fund, the backers of the monument campaign, is a sponsor of their website. Monument status for Coast Dairies will do little but greatly increase visitation to the property, by gearing up a worldwide publicity machine fueled by outdoor and recreation organizations, websites and publications, without any guarantee of additional funds for stewardship. Local police, fire and rescue services, already stretched thin, will be overburdened. Davenport, the town residents proudly proclaim the “Slow Coast”, will be inundated with visitors who will forever alter the ambience of that tiny community. Davenporters have repeatedly rejected plans to boost tourism. The coast from southern San Mateo through northern Santa Cruz is not only one of the world’s biodiversity hotspots, but a marvelous outdoor playground for the millions of people in the San Francisco and Monterey bay areas. Thanks to the efforts of many people and groups, including FONC, that fought hard to preserve and protect Coast Dairies, the great majority of it is now safe from development. But funds to manage this marvelous heritage are inadequate. State Parks can’t properly care for the beaches, which are being trashed, and the hills where outlaw cyclists (a small percentage of the biking community) cut new trails at will. Besides more money, what is needed is regional planning, to study and map resources and determine the best uses for the various preserved properties, so we have the least impact on animal and plant communities while still accommodating recreation and appreciation of nature. The best way to ensure that Coast Dairies isn’t impacted by too many human users is to let BLM quietly manage it, with local oversight. Monument status will just be too much of a good thing. At the least, if President Obama does issue a proclamation, it must include the conditions demanded by our Board of Supervisors, to minimize impacts. Email (www.whitehouse.gov/contact) or call (202-456-1111) the White House and tell the President that.
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On January 12, 2017, then-President Obama, under the auspices of the National Antiquities Act, proclaimed Coast Dairies a national monument. Out of respect for the history of the 5,800 acre property that stretches from Highway One up into Bonny Doon, he added the name of the Cotoni band of Amah Matsun people, who used to inhabit the area, to the Coast Dairies name.
Responding to concerns raised by the Rural Bonny Doon Association and the Davenport North Coast Association, in April 2015 the Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution that based their support for the monument on a set of conditions that would help mitigate the impacts of the increased visitation that properties designated as monuments attracts. The Proclamation fails to meet several of those conditions, starting with the inclusion of Cotoni-Coast Dairies as part of the California Coastal National Monument (CCNM), the huge expanse of water and coastal rocks that stretches along California’s shoreline. (The Supervisors resolution specifically stated, “There should be no implication in the Proclamation that the National Monument is adjacent to the California Coastal National Monument.” Instead, Coast Dairies is now part of the CCNM.) Several critical aspects of the Proclamation don’t meet the criteria set by the Supervisors for support of monument status. For example, Condition 10 is that “Long-term funding from private, as well as public, institutions should be secured to assure adequate management of the Monument.” While Sempervirens Fund, which initiated and spearheaded the campaign for monument status, has promised some funding, it is paltry compared to the amount needed for “adequate management.” More importantly, the Dept. of Interior, which manages Coast Dairies through the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), has long been pinched for funding by the Republican dominated Congress, and the Trump Administration will almost certainly be opposed to increasing Interior’s budget. In fact, a shrinking of Interior’s budget is more likely to occur. Condition 3 stated that “The Proclamation designating the National Monument shall contain a commitment that the National Monument Management Plan shall: a. Be comprehensive and specific to the land included in the Coast Dairies National Monument.” The Proclamation made no mention of that, and it seems that the management plan may instead be made part of the CCNM management plan. The Proclamation also ignores Condition 2, which calls for the management plan to be completed within 3 years. Condition 3f. said the Proclamation should direct that the management plan “Assure that local fire and rescue services are not overburdened by increased use.” No such language is in the Proclamation. Condition 3g. demanded that a fee-for-service be negotiated for emergency services, and take into consideration “costs that occur off the property as a result of its public use.” Again, not in the Proclamation. Condition 9 was that “There should be no specific reference to plant communities not specifically listed as endangered on Federal or California state endangered species lists.” The Proclamation specifically names several such plant communities. The big question now is whether there will be enough additional funding, from public and private sources, to minimize the impacts of greatly increased visitation on the flora and fauna, on the neighboring communities of Davenport and Bonny Doon, and on local emergency and law enforcement services. As for the increased traffic, especially on Highway 1/Mission St., but also on Highways 17 and 92, and on Bonny Doon and Felton Empire roads, we find it hard to come up with any viable solutions. We hope, though by no means expect, that the Supervisors will actively pressure the BLM, which most likely will continue to manage Cotoni-Coast Dairies, to live up to the conditions their Resolution demanded. Sempervirens Fund and other organizations that pushed monument status on us have a moral obligation to make this work as best as possible. Those of us who fought this designation, on the grounds that Coast Dairies was already fully protected and that greatly increased visitation would have only negative consequences, also have an obligation to try to make the best of this, through public participation in the management plan process, oversight of BLM’s implementation of the management plan, and by volunteering our time as docents on the property itself. |
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