New Initiative Launched
Moore and Packard Foundations Support POST and Partner Land Trusts
A group of five leading land conservation organizations including POST are collaborating to achieve critical large-scale land protection goals in the heart of coastal California. The effort, launched in March and called the Living Landscape Initiative, includes POST and the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, The Nature Conservancy, Save the Redwoods League and Sempervirens Fund. Sacramento-based Resources Legacy Fund helped fund the effort using major support from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation. The goal of the Initiative is to protect 80,000 acres in the next 20 years in order to maintain a vibrant and sustainable living landscape in and around Silicon Valley.
The region where POST and four other leading
land trusts are working to save large-scale sustainable landscapes.
Living Landscapes Initiative
Vast open spaces, broad biodiversity, productive working lands, recreational access and dramatic natural beauty help attract an educated work force to the Valley and enhance the quality of life in the region. But as growth continues to explode and the effects of climate change accelerate, our local natural lands are at risk of disappearing altogether. The Initiative seeks to protect our region's beauty and natural benefits so we can continue nourishing the intellectual capital and social and economic engine of Silicon Valley.
The Time is Now
"Setting a large-scale vision for how nature can survive and thrive in and around Silicon Valley is the only way we can secure a viable, sustainable future for the diversity of life here," said POST President Audrey Rust. "The organizations within the Initiative have worked together on previous occasions, but in a one-off, case-by-case fashion. By coordinating our efforts more closely, we can go much further than any one group acting alone. This effort will allow us to add to the already remarkable landscape of permanently protected acres in our region." The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation has put forth a $15 million 3-to-1 challenge grant for land acquisition and stewardship over the next three years in an effort to attract matching funds to the Initiative from the public and private sectors. "We're at a critical time for translating scientific knowledge into impact at a strategic, regional scale—ensuring a human connection to our surroundings, creating linkages for wildlife, and conserving essential plant and animal habitats," said Steve McCormick, president of the Moore Foundation. "I am extremely pleased to direct the foundation's resources to this collaborative."
Next: Areas of Focus . . .