FIVE YEARS OF PROTECTING WILD PLacES AND WILDLIFE ALONG CALIFORNIA’S CENTraL COasT 2004-2009 COMMUNITY REPORT Los Padres ForestWatch is the only nonprofit organization dedicated solely to protecting wildlife habitat and wilderness landscapes in the Los Padres National Forest. Founded in 2004, ForestWatch has safeguarded more than 88,000 acres of these public lands along California’s Central Coast, from the famed Big Sur coastline OUR REGION . 2 to the Santa Lucia Mountains and the Carrizo Plain, to the rugged backcountry of OUR BEGINNINGS . 3 Santa Barbara and Ventura counties and beyond. We have also organized more than OUR GROWING SUCCESS . 4 a dozen habitat restoration projects, improving the health of our region’s largest open spaces and the communities that depend on them. OUR COMMUNITY. 10 OUR VISION FOR THE FUTURE . 11 In five short years, ForestWatch has become one of our region’s premier conservation OUR PARTNERS . 12 forces, combining education, advocacy, and science skills with innovative strategy OUR TEAM . 14 and field work. With a solid track record of success, we work tirelessly on behalf of our region’s wild forests, free-flowing rivers, untrammeled chaparral, and the creatures that inhabit these spectacular places. Join us as we share our story… 1 Monterey OUR REGION BIG Sur ADVOCACY KinG City RESToraTION OUTREacH Dear Friends, The great scientist and writer Aldo Leopold urged us to look beyond ourselves when he wrote, “A thing is right when it CAMBRIA tends to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.” As Leopold knew well, the world of scientific complexity, CarriZO PLain competing land uses, and shifting politics often makes it hard San Luis ObisPO to see how things tend. Yet the truth of his land ethic remains— Cuyama we are part of a community that includes plants and animals, VALLey streams and mountains, and the ecological systems that knit FraZier Santa ParK them all together. Maria I see Los Padres ForestWatch as a response to this ethical imperative. With a clear vision for the integrity, health and beauty of our public lands, LPFW works tirelessly to evaluate Santa YneZ VALLey forest plans and environmental impact reports, to monitor proposals to extract and use resources, to educate, and to act in OJAI defense of the whole community through legal means and the Santa Barbara work of volunteers. VENTURA With the support of all of us, Los Padres ForestWatch has made a quick transition from young upstart to stable force in regional environmental policy. I invite you to read about our history and our goals with a sense for how a good organization expresses values that ground a broad and diverse community. With your continued support, we move forward with optimism and passion for the places we share. Brad Monsma, President 2 THE BEGINNING: There’s nothing quite like finding that special mountain, river bend, waterfall, grove of trees, beach, or canyon – a place you FROM BIG IDEAS TO BIG RESULTS find yourself returning to again and again, a place you get to know so well that you can almost call it your own, a place that FILLING A VOID stands the test of time even when surrounded by change. Big results often come from the smallest beginnings. It was August 2004 and we were gathered For me, that place is right here in our own backcountry, a around a picnic table, trading stories about the Los Padres National Forest. We all held a deep place that holds great opportunity in these changing times. appreciation for the wildlife, rivers, and mountains of this spectacular area along California’s Opportunity to rediscover what’s truly important in our daily central coast. lives – clean water, healthy communities, the great outdoors, a true sense of freedom. Opportunity to recognize and appreciate But we also shared a common concern that the Los Padres was not receiving the protection it our diverse community of volunteers, supporters, and partners deserved, and there was not a single organization focused on protecting it. With so much at who have guided us every step of the way. Opportunity to stake, somebody had to serve as a voice for the forest and the communities that depend on celebrate our accomplishments while looking towards the future. it. Somebody had to demand that these wild places be preserved, that environmental laws be upheld, and that development be kept in check. ForestWatch unites our communities under a common goal – keeping the wild in our That somebody, we realized that day, was us. What our region needed was an organization region’s wilderness and wildlife. We take risks, focused solely on protecting the Los Padres National Forest, one that would know every we dream big, and we tackle the tough issues canyon and mountaintop and could work hand in hand with local communities. “We needed to with real-world solutions that are sometimes be local, we needed to be independent, we needed to be focused, and most importantly, we collaborative, sometimes hard-hitting, but always effective. Imagine what we’ll be able to needed to be effective,” recalls one of the founders of the organization. Just weeks later, the accomplish over the next five years as opportunities continue to official papers creating Los Padres ForestWatch were filed with the Secretary of State. It was open around us to create lasting change. time to get to work. Indeed, fourteen years after I first set foot in the Los Padres, change is abundant. But I still get that same good old feeling KEEPING UP WITH DEMAND whenever I return to these magical lands – a feeling of hope, of Little did we know that just a short five years later we’d be where we are today, with two opportunity, of wonder, of adventure. As I look out across these full-time staff, 800 members and 1,400 on-line supporters from throughout the region, plus a lands, pondering the approaching realities of parenthood, I solid track record of success. Demand for our work continues to grow into every corner of the wonder if my child will see the same pristine mountain streams, region, from Santa Barbara and Ventura to San Luis Obispo, Monterey, and Kern counties. abundant wildlife, and untouched wilderness that I do, that we all do, today. If the past five years are any guide, I know we will be proud of what the next generation sees. And I know that Our region has a long history of everyday people working to preserve the wilderness we’ll have you to thank for it. landscapes that surround our communities. Each time a dam, road, strip mine, or other massive development has been planned for our local backcountry, citizens have joined together to ensure that these magnificent lands remain wild and pristine. ForestWatch is here to continue their good work, tackling tough issues that no other organization does and proudly serving as Jeff Kuyper, Executive Director one of our region’s most effective conservation forces. 3 THE BEGINNING: GROWING A SOLID FROM BIG IDEAS TO BIG RESULTS TRACK RECORD OF SUCCESS On the Los Padres National Forest, giant century-old projects, but ForestWatch convinced officials to prepare trees rise up above the surrounding chaparral vegetation detailed environmental studies and adopt an alternative in a series of “sky islands” that provide important wildlife approach, protecting these towering, fire-resistant giants habitat and unique places for all of us to visit. The for future generations. southernmost stands of coast redwoods are also found here, where the forest meets the sea along the Big Sur coast. From day one, ForestWatch has worked to protect PROTECTING FORESTS our region’s wild forests from destructive logging practices and unwise wildfire policies. ForestWatch also secured a precedent-setting courtroom victory in 2008, protecting Grade Valley and Alamo One of our first Mountain in northern Ventura County from a salvage victories came logging project. Our case, Los Padres ForestWatch v. U.S. in 2005, when Forest Service, allowed this area to heal from the effects ForestWatch of a recent wildfire without further damage caused by sounded the logging equipment, and was recognized as one of our alarm on a region’s top five environmental achievements. proposal to remove large Also in 2008, ForestWatch protected hundreds more old- old-growth trees growth trees on Cerro Noroeste mountain. Endangered from several California condors regularly use these trees to stop mountaintops over and rest during their long-distance flights across across the forest, including Figueroa Mountain, Frazier the forest, but these very trees were slated for removal. Mountain, Pine Mountain, Mount Pinos and Cerro ForestWatch stepped in, demanding their protection, Noroeste. Forest officials initially tried to fast-track these and these trees are still standing today. OVERVIEW T FOUNDING FORESTWATCH EARLY SUPPORT IL S A brief history Local forest advocates meet and R With early grants from Patagonia, of the agree on the need for a local nonprofit P Fund for Wild Nature, and the A organization UGU organization focused on protecting our California Wildlands Grassroots Fund, A local backcountry. Incorporation papers ForestWatch shifts into high gear. 2005 2004 are filed at the Secretary of State’s office, Our early office is located inside the and ForestWatch becomes official. home of one of our initial directors. 4 The Los Padres is the only national forest in California contacted ForestWatch for assistance after oil companies where oil development occurs, often with disastrous began knocking on their doors. We brought canyon consequences to wildlife and wilderness. More than two residents together, telling the oil industry with a unified hundred oil wells dot the landscape here, along with voice that drilling was not acceptable in the pristine a network of pipelines, roads, power lines, and other canyon.