Promises vs. Realities
In 2015-16 a number of promises and claims were made by the backers of a campaign to make Coast Dairies (now Cotoni-Coast Dairies or C-CD) a National Monument. At the time FONC concluded that many of those claims were either unsupported or just plain false. Now, BLM’s Draft Resources Management Plan for Cotoni-Coast Dairies lays bare that the promises of 2015-16 are empty. Indeed Sempervirens, the chief proponent of making Cotoni-Coast Dairies a National Monument, now concludes that the Draft RMPA “proposes several things that would be harmful and damaging to the natural and irreplaceable ancient cultural resources of the monument [and that] [s]everal of these management provisions also pose substantial threats to the surrounding communities.”
Below are some of the 2015-16 promises and the reasons they were empty then, and, instead, we now are faced with harm to the very resources which FONC has fought to protect for approximately 30 years.
Promise: Cotoni-Coast Dairies will be better protected from activity harmful to its ecology, flora and fauna if it is a national monument.
Reality: It was unnecessary for C-CD to become a National Monument in order to be strongly protected. Very strict deed restrictions and other safeguards already were in place that adequately protected C-CD. Now, with National monument status C-CD will attract many more visitors, who will have a much greater impact on C-CD’s ecology, flora, and fauna. Furthermore, BLM’s Draft RMPA would open up half the area to hunting (with enhancement of game species), allow aerial broadcast spraying of pesticides, allow dogs off leashes in certain areas, allow off-trail hiking and dispersed camping, and generally fail to provide the protections required by its neighboring San Vicente Redwoods.
Promise: The County Board of Supervisors and the City of Santa Cruz each adopted a Resolution in 2016 recognizing that “it is important to the citizens of Santa Cruz County that the Coast Dairies Ranch be declared a National Monument only if conditions are included to mitigate any adverse community impacts … and to assure adequate future management of the property [and] … RESOLVED … [the County/City] supports the designation … as a National Monument if the following conditions are met:
Promise: Visitation won’t increase by nearly as much as Ft. Ord did (360,000 additional visits a year) because it isn’t surrounded by a heavily populated area like the Monterey-Salinas metro area.
Reality: About 8 million people live within a 90-minute drive of Cotoni-Coast Dairies, including many hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians and birdwatchers. As DNCA’s Comment Letter points out if we use Wilder Ranch as an example, the acreage, trail length, adjacency to Highway One, and availability of multi-use opportunities of Wilder are very similar to the physical attributes of BLM’s Alternative C. BLM projects 250,000 annual visitors for this Alternative, while Wilder Ranch currently has 472,809 visitors per year. BLM’s visitor calculation for C-CD is 53% of Wilder’s current use. Not even close. How can the public have any reassurance that the visitor projections are accurate when there is so little justification for the basis of BLM’s projections?
Promise: There will be more public and private money for visitor facilities, trail construction, maintenance, patrols and stewardship.
Reality: The Draft RMPA/EA simply makes “Assumptions” that there will be adequate funding and personnel for the expansive visitation contemplated. As County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty states in is Comment Letter to BLM, this is unsupported by evidence and unrealistic, as is the underlying implicit assumption that local government can handle all the first responder needs which will be generated by such expansive visitation. Additional funds are not guaranteed, and in fact, under the Trump Administration, The BLM’s funding has been cut, many of its lands have been ordered to focus on allowing mining and oil drilling, and its new director, with strong ties to the oil industry, believes the federal government should sell all its protected properties. Since it has become a national monument, the BLM will have access to one additional source of money for Coast Dairies but will have to compete with other national monuments every year to get it In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the federal government to borrow trillions of dollars to support the very weakened economy, making adequate funding for land stewardship a very low priority. Private foundations which support outdoor recreation and preserved lands donate money to build facilities and trails, not to fund ongoing operations. The trend in recent years is for those foundations to reduce their funding because publicly owned lands are starving for money and can’t properly maintain facilities. The maintenance budget for the BLM’s parent, the federal Interior Dept. was estimated to have an $18 billion backlog.
Promise: There will be adequate services to cope with the increased visitation, including police, fire and emergency personnel, both on the North Coast and inside Cotoni-Coast Dairies.
Reality: Each year there are hundreds of incidents on Santa Cruz County’s North Coast that require emergency personnel. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff, the County Fire Chief, the captain of the Bonny Doon Fire Team, and County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty have all expressed their concern about how they will provide the additional services made necessary by hundreds of thousands of additional visitors. There is no additional funding expected for these services, which are already shorthanded.
Promise: The Bureau of Land Management has adequate funds and personnel to steward and manage the property.
Reality: The BLM has only 4 rangers to cover nearly 300,000 acres of land under its control on the Central Coast, and must annually compete for very possibly shrinking funds with other BLM areas. Now that Cotoni-Coast Dairies is a National Monument, The BLM will still have to compete for funds every year with about 140 other monuments. It seems certain that the coronavirus’s impact on the economy and the federal budget will have a big impact on the available funding over the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, as pointed out above, BLM’s Draft RMPA/EA simply makes “Assumptions” that there will adequate funding and personnel for the expansive visitation contemplated. As County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty states in his Comment Letter to BLM, this is unsupported by evidence and unrealistic.
Promise: Visitor accommodations, including parking, will be established at the shuttered cement plant in Davenport.
Reality: This plant is still owned by Cemex, and adequate money to purchase it may not be forthcoming. In the 3 years since Cotoni-Coast Dairies was proclaimed a national monument several alternatives for redevelopment of the cement plant have been proposed, in conjunction with using it as a visitor center and trailhead. Santa Cruz Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, whose district includes Davenport, has estimated that more than $100 million will be needed to purchase the property from Cemex, clean up the contamination from 100 years of cement production, and redevelop the property under any of the proposed alternatives, which include a hotel or motel, restaurant or café, retail stores, light manufacturing and even senior citizen or affordable housing.
Failure to Promise: Our roads are capable of handling the additional traffic brought on by national monument status.
Reality: The backers of the monument campaign did not promise adequate handling of traffic generated or its cumulative impacts since it is a problem whose solution is so daunting and expensive. Traffic on Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Davenport is already heavy on good weather weekends. In the years since the National Monument Proclamation commuter traffic noticeably increased on Highway 1, probably because of Silicon Valley commuters using it as an alternative to the often congested and always dangerous Highway 17. The Mission Street portion of Highway 1, narrow and winding through the City of Santa Cruz, is already at a crawl on warm weekend days. Monument visitation could bring complete gridlock. In San Mateo County Highway 92 is similarly choked on sunny weekends.
Below are some of the 2015-16 promises and the reasons they were empty then, and, instead, we now are faced with harm to the very resources which FONC has fought to protect for approximately 30 years.
Promise: Cotoni-Coast Dairies will be better protected from activity harmful to its ecology, flora and fauna if it is a national monument.
Reality: It was unnecessary for C-CD to become a National Monument in order to be strongly protected. Very strict deed restrictions and other safeguards already were in place that adequately protected C-CD. Now, with National monument status C-CD will attract many more visitors, who will have a much greater impact on C-CD’s ecology, flora, and fauna. Furthermore, BLM’s Draft RMPA would open up half the area to hunting (with enhancement of game species), allow aerial broadcast spraying of pesticides, allow dogs off leashes in certain areas, allow off-trail hiking and dispersed camping, and generally fail to provide the protections required by its neighboring San Vicente Redwoods.
Promise: The County Board of Supervisors and the City of Santa Cruz each adopted a Resolution in 2016 recognizing that “it is important to the citizens of Santa Cruz County that the Coast Dairies Ranch be declared a National Monument only if conditions are included to mitigate any adverse community impacts … and to assure adequate future management of the property [and] … RESOLVED … [the County/City] supports the designation … as a National Monument if the following conditions are met:
- Provide that stewardship, access, traffic, and safety concerns are comprehensively addressed prior to intensive public use;
- Assure that local fire and rescue services are not overburdened by increased use, that watersheds and natural resources are sustainably managed, and that potential traffic hazards and impacts to adjacent private properties are intentionally addressed;
- Negotiate a fee for service for emergency services that occur on the property similar to the fee for service for fire protection services, and consider costs that occur off the property as a result of its public use;
- Explicitly develop a plan to coordinate emergency and law enforcement services across federal, state, and county entities;
Promise: Visitation won’t increase by nearly as much as Ft. Ord did (360,000 additional visits a year) because it isn’t surrounded by a heavily populated area like the Monterey-Salinas metro area.
Reality: About 8 million people live within a 90-minute drive of Cotoni-Coast Dairies, including many hikers, mountain bikers, equestrians and birdwatchers. As DNCA’s Comment Letter points out if we use Wilder Ranch as an example, the acreage, trail length, adjacency to Highway One, and availability of multi-use opportunities of Wilder are very similar to the physical attributes of BLM’s Alternative C. BLM projects 250,000 annual visitors for this Alternative, while Wilder Ranch currently has 472,809 visitors per year. BLM’s visitor calculation for C-CD is 53% of Wilder’s current use. Not even close. How can the public have any reassurance that the visitor projections are accurate when there is so little justification for the basis of BLM’s projections?
Promise: There will be more public and private money for visitor facilities, trail construction, maintenance, patrols and stewardship.
Reality: The Draft RMPA/EA simply makes “Assumptions” that there will be adequate funding and personnel for the expansive visitation contemplated. As County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty states in is Comment Letter to BLM, this is unsupported by evidence and unrealistic, as is the underlying implicit assumption that local government can handle all the first responder needs which will be generated by such expansive visitation. Additional funds are not guaranteed, and in fact, under the Trump Administration, The BLM’s funding has been cut, many of its lands have been ordered to focus on allowing mining and oil drilling, and its new director, with strong ties to the oil industry, believes the federal government should sell all its protected properties. Since it has become a national monument, the BLM will have access to one additional source of money for Coast Dairies but will have to compete with other national monuments every year to get it In 2020 the Covid-19 pandemic has forced the federal government to borrow trillions of dollars to support the very weakened economy, making adequate funding for land stewardship a very low priority. Private foundations which support outdoor recreation and preserved lands donate money to build facilities and trails, not to fund ongoing operations. The trend in recent years is for those foundations to reduce their funding because publicly owned lands are starving for money and can’t properly maintain facilities. The maintenance budget for the BLM’s parent, the federal Interior Dept. was estimated to have an $18 billion backlog.
Promise: There will be adequate services to cope with the increased visitation, including police, fire and emergency personnel, both on the North Coast and inside Cotoni-Coast Dairies.
Reality: Each year there are hundreds of incidents on Santa Cruz County’s North Coast that require emergency personnel. The Santa Cruz County Sheriff, the County Fire Chief, the captain of the Bonny Doon Fire Team, and County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty have all expressed their concern about how they will provide the additional services made necessary by hundreds of thousands of additional visitors. There is no additional funding expected for these services, which are already shorthanded.
Promise: The Bureau of Land Management has adequate funds and personnel to steward and manage the property.
Reality: The BLM has only 4 rangers to cover nearly 300,000 acres of land under its control on the Central Coast, and must annually compete for very possibly shrinking funds with other BLM areas. Now that Cotoni-Coast Dairies is a National Monument, The BLM will still have to compete for funds every year with about 140 other monuments. It seems certain that the coronavirus’s impact on the economy and the federal budget will have a big impact on the available funding over the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, as pointed out above, BLM’s Draft RMPA/EA simply makes “Assumptions” that there will adequate funding and personnel for the expansive visitation contemplated. As County Supervisor Ryan Coonerty states in his Comment Letter to BLM, this is unsupported by evidence and unrealistic.
Promise: Visitor accommodations, including parking, will be established at the shuttered cement plant in Davenport.
Reality: This plant is still owned by Cemex, and adequate money to purchase it may not be forthcoming. In the 3 years since Cotoni-Coast Dairies was proclaimed a national monument several alternatives for redevelopment of the cement plant have been proposed, in conjunction with using it as a visitor center and trailhead. Santa Cruz Supervisor Ryan Coonerty, whose district includes Davenport, has estimated that more than $100 million will be needed to purchase the property from Cemex, clean up the contamination from 100 years of cement production, and redevelop the property under any of the proposed alternatives, which include a hotel or motel, restaurant or café, retail stores, light manufacturing and even senior citizen or affordable housing.
Failure to Promise: Our roads are capable of handling the additional traffic brought on by national monument status.
Reality: The backers of the monument campaign did not promise adequate handling of traffic generated or its cumulative impacts since it is a problem whose solution is so daunting and expensive. Traffic on Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Davenport is already heavy on good weather weekends. In the years since the National Monument Proclamation commuter traffic noticeably increased on Highway 1, probably because of Silicon Valley commuters using it as an alternative to the often congested and always dangerous Highway 17. The Mission Street portion of Highway 1, narrow and winding through the City of Santa Cruz, is already at a crawl on warm weekend days. Monument visitation could bring complete gridlock. In San Mateo County Highway 92 is similarly choked on sunny weekends.