Program:
Redwood Trees & Groves
- Budget:
-
$59,000
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
Through Sempervirens Fund, donors can plant a tree, dedicate a redwood tree, or dedicate a grove of redwoods. Sempervirens Fund has a special arrangement with the California Department of Parks and Recreation through which donors to Sempervirens Fund can create personalized redwood tributes in the state parks of the Santa Cruz Mountains, helping create special memories while also preserving California’s redwood forests. http://sempervirens.org/tribute.php
Program Long-Term Success:
The long-term goal of this program is to protect the remaining coast redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountain range today and for future generations.
Program Short-Term Success:
Through Sempervirens Fund's tribute program, we hope to engage the public on a very personal level as they plant or dedicate trees and groves to honor their loved one or a special occasion, while at the same time helping Sempervirens Fund to protect and enhance the redood forests in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Program Success Monitored by:
Sempervirens Fund's Forest Programs Manager
Program Success Examples:
With the help of our donors, Sempervirens Fund has planted more than 23,000 trees and protected over 25,000 acres of redwood forest lands in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Program:
Partnerships & Outdoor Activities
- Budget:
-
$325,000
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
Sempervirens Fund partners with public agencies and local nonprofit organizations in order to fulfill our mission of encouraging public understanding and appreciation of coast redwoods. We partner with organizations to complete research about coast redwoods; we support public initiatives that will help to protect redwood forests and parklands; and we offer outdoor hikes and other education activities in the redwoods for the public in order to cultivate the next generation of redwood stewards.
Program Long-Term Success:
The goal of our partnerships and outdoor activities program is to educate the public, and particularly youth, about the coast redwood forest of the Santa Cruz Mountains and to encourage public use and enjoyment of this amazing local resource. To reach this goal, our program includes research, advocacy, and education activities. We believe that it is through education about the redwoods and through experience in the redwoods that the next generation will grow to appreciate the magnificent Sequoia sempervirens and, ultimately, continue the work of Sempervirens Fund and other similar organizations.
Program Short-Term Success:
We are partnering with Save the Redwoods League's Redwood Climate Change Initiative, a multi-year collaborative project that is designed to improve our understanding of the impact of global warming on California’s redwoods. We are supporting two California state initiatives that encourage redwood conservation throughout the state. We offer free docent-led hikes on trails in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Program Success Monitored by:
We survey our hike and outdoor education participants in order to understand the strenghts and weaknesses of our programs.
Program Success Examples:
In fall 2009, we took a group of 45 students from Andrew P. Hill High School in San Jose on an outdoor education field trip to Big Basin Redwoods State Pak. For many students, this trip was their first experience in a redwood forest. Sempervirens Fund's volunteer docents led the students on educational hikes on park trails and introduced them to the redwood forest and all of its wonders.
Program:
Land Acquisition and Management
- Budget:
-
$3,193,000
- Category:
-
Environment
- Population Served:
-
General Public/Unspecified
Program Description:
Founded more than a century ago with the formation of Big Basin Redwoods State Park, Sempervirens Fund is a leader in the redwood conservation movement. We are committed to preserving and restoring the natural character of the Santa Cruz Mountains and the habitat and the health of its forests, watersheds, rivers, and wild lands.
To date, Sempervirens Fund has purchased and protected more than 25,000 acres of redwood forests. Most of this forestland has since been transfered to California Department of Parks and Recreation as additions to the redwood parks of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Some of the land - 1,926 acres - still remains in our care. We own and manage redwood forests properties as an interim step between when we purchase the land from private landowners and when we transfer it to public agencies for permanent protection. During that time, we maintain the forests and engage in restoration activities to enhance the land’s natural and recreational resources.
Program Long-Term Success:
Sempervirens Fund's guiding vision is a Great Park: an area of protected lands spanning San Mateo, Santa Cruz, and Santa Clara Counties. Our goal is to connect and combine Big Basin Redwoods, Butano, Portola Redwoods, Año Nuevo, and Castle Rock State Parks, along with Pescadero Creek County Park, Long Ridge, and Saratoga Gap Open Space Preserves, Sanborn County Park, Coast Dairies, Wilder Ranch, and Henry Cowell State Park.
Creation of the Great Park will protect the rich natural and recreational resources of the Santa Cruz Mountains and keep the forest a place for all life forms to thrive today and in the future. By linking the redwood parks, forests, streams, and other watershed lands in the coastal mountains, birds and other animals that require large territories will benefit from safe corridors; the public will have new opportunities to explore and experience the magical coast redwoods; and the natural character of the greater regional ecosystem will be preserved.
Program Short-Term Success:
Over the next year we hope to transfer almost 1,000 acres of redwood forestlands to the California Department of Parks and Recreation as additions to Big Basin Redwoods State Park and Portola Redwoods State Park.
Program Success Monitored by:
Our first measure of success is the total number of acres we are able to protect, the number of wildlife corridors and park linkages we establish or enhance, and the new opportunities created for public appreciation of the coast redwoods. We also evaluate the relationships created, maintained, and deepened with the property owners, State Parks, donors, partner organizations, appraisers, and others involved in each of our acquisition projects. Successful relationships are central to our organization’s success, and each project allows us to develop further these connections and create new opportunities for conservation.
Program Success Examples:
For over a century, Sempervirens Fund has worked diligently to preserve the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains and to create public access to these special places. Our work began in 1900 with a campaign to acquire 3,800 acres of redwood forest for the establishment of Big Basin Redwoods State Park — California’s first state park. Over the years we have also helped to create and expand Castle Rock, Butano, and Portola Redwoods State Parks, protecting 25,000 acres of coast redwood forests.