Foothills Forever has raised $1 million for a restoration endowment, officially closing out its $20 million campaign to preserve the San Marcos Foothills West Mesa near Santa Barbara.
The organization raised the funds to purchase the West Mesa after a 90-day campaign in 2021 to permanently preserve the land from development, and add it to the 200–acre San Marcos Foothills Preserve, a county-owned parcel managed by the Parks Division.
“The generosity and the shared passion for this land is incredible,” said Nancy Weiss, co-chair of the fundraising campaign and member of the Foothills Forever leadership council. “I’ve never seen anything like it. I’ve certainly never been part of anything like it.”
There is a variety of projects eligible to receive funding from the endowment, she said, including: restoring and establishing native plants; Chumash ethnobotanical and interpretative programs; enhancing the preserve as a public open space for recreation and education; provide opportunities for research on biodiversity and climate change; and stabilizing or enhancing natural elements or trails when altered by storms or environmental conditions.
It cost $18.6 million to purchase the 101-acre site west of Highway 154 from the Chadmar Group, a developer planning a 20-unit housing project on the preserve. In February of 2021, demonstrators stood at the gate of the Chadmar Group’s housing development to stop construction crews from entering the site.
Foothills Forever then reached an agreement with the Chadmar Group and with the help of more than 5,500 donors and $2 million from the county, they were able to secure the funds to purchase the land in just 90 days.
Weiss told Noozhawk that the campaign organizers met for an hour every day because of how fast the campaign grew and to keep track of the multiple fundraising efforts.
“I think with the pandemic we all needed something positive,” Weiss said. “It was a discouraging time and I think it’s so great for lots of community members to do something together, especially for open space, which all of us appreciated even more.”
The Santa Barbara Foundation will be the investment manager for the Restoration Endowment, and the Foothills Forever Board of Directors will oversee endowment distributions through an annual funding program.
Foothills Forever started as a pop-up campaign but has now incorporated and will advise the county on stewardship of the land, according to Weiss.
