Peninsula Open Space Trust

Filing Period

Jul 1, 2009 to Jun 30, 2010

Signed

Feb 2, 2011

Return Version

2009v1.7

Gross Receipts

$71,772,921

Mission

Major Activities

Activity 2

POST currently holds 28,280 acres in fee or under easement. The organization has an established stewardship program for the lands it owns that includes resource planning, water management, conservation grazing and agricultural considerations. POST works to protect and manage lands in its possession through individualized stewardship of the natural resources on each property. POST staff and volunteers actively monitor the acreage on which POST holds easements or restrictions. Volunteers also assist with stewardship projects on POST-owned land, contributing an impressive 1,130 hours of work time in FY10. Due to the state budget crisis in California and resulting bond freeze, POSTs work to install the Cowell-Purisima Trail along the San Mateo Coast, a project funded by the California Coastal Conservancy, was put on temporary hold in FY10 . However, as of September 2010, the final phase of construction has resumed including installation of three bridges this fall, and the trail is due to be completed and opened to the public by the end of 2010. POST also continues to play a leadership role as part of a working group of organizations and agencies addressing the threat posed by Hypericum canariensis, a highly damaging and aggressive invasive exotic plant that is spreading along the San Mateo Coast. The group succeeded in petitioning the California Department of Food and Agriculture to upgrade hypericum's rating as a Class B noxious weed, triggering additional requirements for landowners with properties impacted by Hypericum to take steps to control and/or eliminate the weed.POST continues to hold and manage Cloverdale Coastal Ranches, a 6,391-acre land complex acquired by POST in 1997. A resident ranch manager is on site to manage erosion control, coordinate fuels reduction projects, perform habitat restoration activities, manage non-native plant species removal projects, and operate a public trail. In the past fiscal year, POST secured federal stimulus funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as funding from the San Mateo County Weed Management Area to continue elimination of the invasive exotic weed Hypericum canariensis from the property. In addition, the federal funding helped support POST's work to control Pampas grass and improve critical pond and wetland habitat for threatened and endangered species on the land, including California red-legged frog and San Francisco garter snake. In FY10, POST also continued its efforts to control erosion prone areas on the property.

Activity 3

To further its community outreach and education efforts, in FY '10 the organization hosted three speakers as part of its 17th annual Wallace Stegner Lecture Series, which is open to the public. This year's series featured author and farmer David Mas Masumoto, travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux, and venture capitalist and "green" entrepreneur Vinod Khosla. Attendance for all three lectures totaled 1,490 people, an increase of 290 attendees as compared to the 2009 series. POST also developed and mailed three issues of its donor newsletter, "Landscapes," to approximately 10,000 families and other interested people. In addition, POST continued its participation in the California Council of Land Trusts, an association of land conservancies throughout California. Also, as part of the GoMindego Campaign, POST established a donor recognition site on the Mindego Hill property as a gathering place for hikers and to commemorate the lead donors that made protection of the property possible. Construction of this installation was completed during FY10.

Filer

EIN

94-2392007