Local Land Trust Acquires Property Near Gilroy

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced its acquisition of a 260-acre property called Triple Buck Ranch just west of Gilroy. POST, based in Palo Alto, purchased the land on November 13 for $2 million with the assistance of a generous $750,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy.

A group of business partners bought the property in 1973 to use for hunting. By 2002, one partner, Frank Della Maggiora, had assumed sole ownership of the land. He learned about POST, a private nonprofit land trust, at a community meeting in 2008 and became interested in permanently protecting the area as open space.

"I've seen a lot of land subdivided over the years, and I always wanted this property not to be subdivided,” said Della Maggiora, a native of Italy who came to the United States as a teenager and eventually settled near Gilroy. “I thought POST would be the ideal group to work with to avoid that. The land will be there forever."

Bordered on three sides by Mt. Madonna County Park, the property contains a mix of grassland, oak woodland and some redwood forest. Wildflowers flourish in the higher elevations, and half a mile of Little Arthur Creek winds its way across the landscape. In addition to its importance as a perennial waterway, the creek is one of the most productive steelhead spawning sites in Santa Clara County.

“We are happy to protect land with such diversity. Not only does it allow us to preserve redwood forest as part of POST’s ongoing Heart of the Redwoods Campaign to save 20,000 acres in the Santa Cruz Mountains, it allows us to contribute to the resurgence of the threatened steelhead trout population,” said POST president Walter T. Moore.

POST will hold onto the land until the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation Department is able to take permanent ownership of the land. The Parks and Recreation Department works with POST and other partners when mutual benefits of public access to parks and conservation can be achieved. “This beautiful piece of property will ultimately expand Mt. Madonna County Park and be a great addition to our county park system,” said Supervisor Mike Wasserman of the County of Santa Clara Board of Supervisors.

POST’s purchase of this land is also part of the Living Landscape Initiative (livinglandscapeinitiative.org), a collaboration formed in 2011 between five leading conservation groups—POST, Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, The Nature Conservancy, Save the Redwoods League and Sempervirens Fund—to protect the unique natural benefits and striking beauty that nourish Silicon Valley’s social and economic vitality. By creating a sustainable living landscape for our region, the Initiative seeks to enhance our lives by promoting clean air and water, local farming and working lands, biodiversity and habitat protection for wildlife, and public enjoyment of natural lands.

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