COASTWALKER the NEWSLETTER of COASTWALK Leading the Way on the California Coastal Trail Spring 2008
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Photo courtesy Phil Hann COASTWALKER THE NEWSLETTER OF COASTWALK Leading the way on the California Coastal Trail Spring 2008 Message from the Name this coastal place! President By Fran Gibson I feel both privileged and challenged to serve as your Presi- dent of Coastwalk for the coming year. We face some critical battles—as do all environmental non-profits in our state—as we pledge to continue in our 24-year tradition of promoting coastal access and preservation along our 1,200 mile coastline. We ALL have a critical part to play in the year ahead. Just how well do you know our coast? If you think you know, or Coastwalk has adopted its first strategic plan which will be the have a good guess, email [email protected] with a subject line touchstone of our work. A major part “Name this Coastal Place!” Be sure to name the place itself, as well of our plan is the promotion of the as the county. Two names will be randomly pulled from the correct Inside: California Coastal Trail, which is 65% answers, and will each receive a Coastwalk tee-shirt! Tides & Trails ... 3 complete today. Judy Rosales, our Trail Steward, is busy up and down Coastwalk is volunteer-run—no doubt Signing the CCT 4 the state working with local jurisdic- about it. Our amazing cadre of volun- teers does everything from running the CCT builds community tions ready to sign the CCT segments in Big Sur ........ 5 in their communities. (see page 4). Coastwalks to installing insignia on the Coastwalk helped unveil the first CCT, and everything in between. Oc- Save our State Parks casionally, one volunteer really stands ................... 5 insignia for the CCT in all Los Angeles County in Hermosa Beach on March out, even among this unbelievable Celebrating summer 14, and we commend our new Board crowd, and we find that we must offer ........... .. ............ 7 member George Schmeltzer for some special recognition.. Meet Volunteer Extraordinaire Lou Wilkinson... pg. 3 Printed on recycled paper President, continued page 6 Coastwalk Is... Welcome to our New THE COASTWALK MISSION: To ensure the right of all people to reach and responsibly enjoy Board Members the California coast. Based in Southern California, Timothy D. Naegele is an attorney THE COASTWALK VISION: with an extensive legislative and financial regulatory background. A well-stewarded California coast, highly prized as an ir- He has served as counsel to the U.S. Senate Committee on replaceable commons, open to all. Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs, and as chief of staff to a STAFF: U.S. Senator. He has also served as special consultant to the Judy Rosales, Trail Steward FDIC and the states of California and Maine, having recodified Julie Sicaud, Administrative Assistant Maine’s banking laws. He authored and has written about several Leila Rand, Communications Director important pieces of legislation. Rixanne Wehren, Mapping Coordinator Amy Purvis has been involved in Coastwalk since she was nine Layout & Design: Leila Rand year old; currently she studies Environmental Economics at UC CONTACT INFORMATION: Berkeley. On campus she works on Climate Change/Ocean leg- Coastwalk islation and awareness with CalPIRG and EnvironmentCA. She 825 Gravenstein Hwy. North, Suite 8 loves the outdoors and spends as much time as possible hiking, Sebastopol, CA 95472 camping, skiing, running, and traveling. (800) 550-6854, (707) 829-6689 Fax: (707) 829-0326 Mike Reilly is a Sonoma County Supervisor representing 54 www.coastwalk.org miles of the California Coast. He has served on the California www.californiacoastaltrail.info Coastal Commission for the past twelve years including two years as its Chairman. Mike also served for two years on the Board of the Coastal Conservancy. George Schmeltzer is the former Mayor and long-time resi- Good News! dent of Hermosa Beach, CA. He has walked large parts of the California coast even before learning about Coastwalk, and would Our friends at the Rockey Fund have been supporting Coast- walk the entire CCT if his wife would join him. He’s a big fan of walk for years with matching grants—incentives for members the Backbone Trail. His goal is to make Coastwalk an even more and friends to donate. Over the past 8 months we have been successful organization. working on a $20,000 matching grant and it is with great excitement that we announce that the match has been met! A Fond Farewell to Jeff Norman The $20,000 we raised instantly became $40,000, funding Many Coastwalkers had the pleasure of knowing Jeff, an avid our important work on the CCT, advocacy in defense of state naturalist whose lifelong passion was preserving the integrity parks, and education for coastal stewardship. of the Big Sur coast. He lived remotely, in a handsplit redwood Our hiking adventures provide less than a third of the cabin with no road access, on Big Sur’s south coast for 28 revenues we need for our ambitious program. The balance years, and was a biologist, cultural historian and author whose comes from a variety of other sources like membership dues, knowledge of Monterey County was unsurpassed. He passed donations, sales of t-shirts and books, and grants. Over the in October, 2007. past four years the Rockey Fund has been a very significant Longtime Coastwalker Steve Jones d.a. remembers: “In ‘92, supporter, and a true partner in our work . We owe a special Jeff led us (Monterey Coastwalkers), up Limekiln Creek at a debt of gratitude to Tammie Fraser, a coastal steward in her time when it was known that it would be, but was not yet, a state own right, for facilitating these Rockey Fund grants for us. park. From then on Jeff was leading us in one way or another How can you help? Volunteer, get a friend to join Coast- on each summer walk and on our two whole coast walks..Jeff is walk, make a donation, or give a gift for Coastwalk in your one of many many people in the Big Sur community who have will or trust. No gift is too small—it will take all of us working led, fed and otherwise supported Coastwalk all these years together to save our coast for following generations. since 1991.” 2 www.coastwalk.org Coastwalk Meet Volunteer Extraordinaire Lou Tides Wilkinson &Trails Born in 1926 in New York City, Lou, after graduating high Morro Bay CCT Improvements school in 1944, joined the Navy and trained as a medic, serv- The City of Morro Bay is improving the waterfront with pedestrian ing with the Marine Corps. He graduated from the University and bike paths to Morro Rock to make the area more appealing to of Virginia and eventually found his way to San Francisco. In walkers and bike riders. The final goal is to connect the rock with the 1956 he married, and moved to the house in Sausalito where Embarcadero and create a leg of the California Coastal Trail. he and his wife have lived for 52 years. After 35 years in phar- maceutical sales, Lou retired in 1985. Oxnard Teen Makes a Difference “The concept of helping to create a contiguous trail from Oxnard teenager Erica Fernandez was alarmed to hear that a giant Oregon to Mexico is what inspired me to get involved with natural gas terminal was being proposed off the Ventura County Coastwalk in the first place. I see the ‘signing’ of the Coast coastline. The terminal would generate an estimated 500 million Trail as evidence of the success of Coastwalk’s efforts. tons of air pollution a year. She was concerned not only about the “I ran the Coastwalk in Marin for about 25 years. During coastline but about her father’s respiratory problems. those years I created and managed ‘trail maintenance Erica decided to take action, and became one of the leaders in the work parties’ twice a year for both the Point Reyes National effort to convince state officials that the terminal was a bad idea. She Seashore and Tomales Bay State Park. These are the two rallied her community to oppose the project, and spoke passionately parks that we walked through and camped in during the at the Coastal Commission hearing before the Commission decide to Marin Coastwalks. Doing the work parties for both parks kill the proposal. – from the Sierra Club maintains a good relationship with the parks and has ben- Montaña de Oro State park, San Luis Obispo County efited Coastwalk in a number of ways. A new CCT extension, the Point “I think my favorite thing I have done for Coastwalk has Buchon Trail, is now open from the been helping to create and perpetuate the Marin Coast- south end of Montaña de Oro State Did You Know? walk—it has given a great deal of pleasure and knowledge Montaña de Oro State Park onto PG&E land around the Dia- to a great many people over the years. Park is one of the 48 blo Canyon nuclear power plant. The “It seemed like the other volunteers—cooks, etc., were state parks slated for Coastal Commission required PG&E so happy performing their roles, and the trip members closure under Gover- to open the area north of the Diablo seemed so pleased with their experience, that it was easy nor Schwarzenegger’s Canyon nuclear power plant to the to continue to create the trips year after year. It was a mat- proposed ‘08-’09 budget. public in exchange for permits to build ter of sharing knowledge about a beautiful area with other Learn more about this a storage facility for the plants’ radio- people.