Peninsula Open Space Trust Receives Landmark $5.25 Million Packard Foundation Grant Funds Will Go Toward Final Purchase of Rancho Cañada del Oro, Other Threatened Properties in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties
April 7, 1999
MENLO PARK, CA – The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) today announced its receipt of a generous $5.25 million grant from The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. This is the largest foundation grant POST has been awarded.
POST, one of the nation's leading local land trusts, will apply the grant specifically for land acquisition. Of the $5.25 million, $3 million will be used to complete the purchase of Rancho Cañada del Oro, a 2,428-acre ranch located on the west side of Santa Clara Valley. The remaining $2.25 million will be used over the next several months toward the purchase of additional San Mateo and Santa Clara County properties.
"We are thrilled with the Packard Foundation's overwhelming support for land conservation on the Peninsula," said Audrey Rust, President of POST. "The Packard Foundation understands that POST relies on a wide variety of funding sources — individual donors, foundations, and public agencies — to realize our mission. We are pleased that the Foundation has faith in our ability to match and leverage their generous grants with additional contributions. Now, we hope that others follow the Foundation's lead by joining the effort to preserve vital open space."
Located just one half-hour from downtown San José, Rancho Cañada del Oro is a true signature California landscape. Its features include riparian woodlands, grassland meadows, rolling foothills, and canyons surrounded by oak covered ridges. The property also provides habitat for the threatened Bay checkerspot butterfly, tiger salamander and California red-legged frog.
"The Packard Foundation is pleased to support the preservation of open space through this grant to POST," said Jeanne Sedgwick, Director of the Packard Foundation's Conservation Program. "With pressures on land use mounting every day, land conservation efforts on the San Francisco Peninsula are more crucial than ever. Through the purchase of Rancho Cañada del Oro, and other key properties in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties, POST is creating a legacy that will benefit generations to come."
The purchase of Rancho Cañada del Oro is part of POST's land acquisition campaign, Completing the Vision: The Campaign to Save Essential Open Space, which to date has won permanent protection of more than 12,500 acres in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
POST acquired the property from Crummerland Limited for $6.25 million this past January. In addition to the $3 million gift from the Packard Foundation, POST has gained support for the purchase of Rancho Cañada del Oro from a wide range of funders, including $1 million from the City of San José, $1.25 million from Santa Clara County Open Space Authority, and $1 million from the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department, which will eventually take over ownership and management of the land.