California Coastal Conservancy
The California Coastal Conservancy is a state agency in California established in 1976 to enhance coastal resources and access.
The agency's official goals are to:
Since its conception, the Conservancy has completed over 2,400 projects along the California coastline and San Francisco Bay, protected over 390,000 acres of coastal land and restored over 33,000 acres of coastal habitat, built over 210 miles of new trail and spent over 1.4 billion dollars on projects. It works in partnership with other public agencies, nonprofit organizations and private landowners, employing 75 people and overseeing a current annual budget of 53 million dollars. The Conservancy was created by the legislature as a unique entity with flexible powers to serve as an intermediary among government, citizens, and the private sector in recognition that creative approaches would be needed to preserve California's coast line.
The Conservancy has six main program areas:
The conservancy has completed more than 2,400 projects along the California coast line and in the San Francisco bay. These projects have included preserving almost 20,000 acres (81 km2) of wetlands, dunes, wildlife habitat, recreation lands, farmland, and scenic open space, building hundreds of miles of access ways and trails along the coast line, and assisting in the completion of more than 100 urban waterfront projects. The Conservancy is currently involved in over three hundred projects in the San Francisco Bay and up and down the California coast, including:
Once completed, the California Coastal Trail (CCT) will extend 1,200 miles (1,900 km) from Oregon to Mexico, making it one of the longest trails in the United States. While informal trails along our coast have been used for centuries, CCT was initiated in 1972 when Californians passed Proposition 20 recommending that a trails system be established along or near the coast. In 1999, the CCT was designated at the state and federal level as Millennium Legacy Trail, and in 2001 state legislation called for its completion. Roughly half of the CCT was complete in 2009.
Enacted in 1976, the State Coastal Conservancy Act (Division 21 Section 31000 et al. of the Public Resources Code) calls for the Coastal Conservancy to have a principal role in the implementation of a system of public accessways to and along the state’s coastline, including development of the CCT. The Coastal Conservancy pursues this mandate in part by awarding grants to public agencies and nonprofit organizations to acquire land, or any interest therein, or to develop, operate, or manage lands for public access purposes to and along the coast, on terms and conditions the Coastal Conservancy specifies. In addition, the Coastal Conservancy works with other state agencies including the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the Coastal Commission to coordinate trail development.
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