New national monument proposed for Santa Cruz coast

Coast Dairies, a 5,843-acre expanse of rolling hills, redwood forests and scenic trails that stretches for six miles along the north coast of Santa Cruz County, was preserved from development in 1998 when environmentalists purchased the land with roughly $40 million from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. Now Bay Area conservation groups want to raise its profile. They are launching an effort to have President Obama declare the property a new national monument this year. The plan, which would establish the Santa Cruz Redwoods National Monument, could bring national attention to the bucolic oceanfront land along Highway 1 between Santa Cruz and Davenport. On Feb. 12, Bruce Babbitt, who served as U.S interior secretary under President Bill Clinton, will travel to Santa Cruz for a free public event at 6 p.m. at the Kaiser Permanente Arena to kick off the campaign and answer questions. Sempervirens Fund, which takes its name from the Latin word for coast redwood, has preserved more than 33,000 acres of redwood land since its founding in 1900, including much of Big Basin, Castle Rock and Butano state parks. The organization joined the Nature Conservancy, Save the Redwoods League, the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County and the Peninsula Open Space Trust to form a coalition to push for the new monument. Last week, the group established a website: http://santacruzredwoods.org. It has also set up a group called Friends of Santa Cruz Redwoods National Monument, funded with a $50,000 donation from Sempervirens Fund. To manage the effort, monument supporters have hired Steve Reed, a Santa Cruz port commissioner and former campaign manager for Santa Cruz County Supervisor Bruce McPherson...more

Same MO here - they formed a Friends Of The Organ Mountains.  Wonder where they got their money?