POST is preserving coastal farmland

Mercury News/Science and Environment/Paul Rogers, 7/19/16. "California coast: Oceanfront farmland preserved along San Mateo County coast."

Permanent open space
for productive farmlands.

..... "Providing scenic oceanfront views and sitting adjacent to a state beach along Highway 1, it's the kind of property that environmentalists in the past would have added to the state parks system.
But the Peninsula Open Space Trust has purchased the Cordes property, located across Highway 1 from Bean Hollow State Beach, for $3.3 million in the latest in a series of deals by the Palo Alto-based environmental group designed to preserve farming on the San Mateo coast and open opportunities for young farmers amid sky-high real estate prices.  Read article

Blair Friedeman, a spokeswoman for the Peninsula Open Space Trust, said the purchase is part of the organization's "Farmland Futures Initiative," that has a goal of raising $25 million over 10 years to increase the number of farms on the San Mateo County coast protected from development from 11 to 33 and from 750 acres to 2,250 acres.
Since launching the effort at the beginning of this year, the group has purchased four farms totaling 153 acres so far, Friedeman said."  Read article.

Reference,  Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST), 7/14/16, "POST protects 96 acres of farmland on San Mateo coast."  ... "Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced the purchase of a 96-acre farm along Highway 1 on the San Mateo Coast, just south of Pescadero. POST purchased the property for just over $3.3 million from the Cordes family. The acquisition is a part of POST’s Farmland Futures Initiative (FFI), which aims to triple the number of farms and farmland acres permanently protected on the San Mateo Coast for open space and agricultural production.
Situated on Highway 1, directly across from the popular Bean Hollow State Beach, the property is highly visible and lies within a State designated scenic corridor. POST’s purchase of the property will ensure that the view shed afforded by the property remains unhindered. .... “Coastal farmland is a scarce commodity, and in San Mateo County the farming soils are very nutrient rich, and the climate is similar to Mediterranean, allowing year-round farming,” said Cordes. “With a growing Bay Area population and increasing transportation costs, local farm land has become an essential component of our Bay Area economy and ecosystem.”

Related, American Farmland Trust, "No farms, no food." "American Farmland Trust tackles the biggest threats to our nation’s farmland and family farmers."  The again, in Pacifica farming is limited, but NIMBIES have created an abundance of permanent open space for recreation (trails).  Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA): Calfornia, Golden Gate National Recreation Area (U.S. National Park Service).  Wikipedia/GGNRA.   Note photograph by Teddy Miller from the reference POST article; the graphic map is from the Mercury News/Paul Rogers article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh