La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve Now Open

REDWOOD CITY-WOODSIDE, CA - From The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District: The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District held a ribbon cutting yesterday with partners, elected officials and the public, marking the grand opening of La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve. From a new parking lot at the end of Sears Ranch Road, hikers and equestrians now have free daily access to six miles of trail through forest and ranchland with panoramic coastal views.

“Thanks to public support, Midpen is able to provide access to some of this beautiful working landscape and the many benefits time in nature provides,” said Midpen’s General Manager Steve Abbors.

New interpretive signs connect visitors with nature and local history. The preserve is only Midpen’s second area to allow cattle grazing alongside recreation as a way to continue Coastside ranching traditions and manage healthy grasslands.

The new public access is part of a long-term plan for the preserve, completed with community input in 2012, that charts a course balancing environmental stewardship, continued ranching and recreation.

Ahead of public access, stock ponds were rehabilitated to provide water for cattle and breeding habitat for federally threatened California red-legged frogs, ranch roads were repaired to keep sediment out of creeks, and Midpen volunteers and staff removed invasive plants from the preserve. The $1.2 million project was funded by Measure AA, a bond passed by local voters in 2014.

La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve began as 255 acres purchased by Midpen in 1984. With the help of Midpen’s nonprofit partner, Peninsula Open Space Trust, it has since grown to more than 6,100 acres of preserved ranchland, grasslands, forests and watersheds supporting people and wildlife.

La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve is open daily from sunrise to sunset. For more information about the preserve visit: https://www.openspace.org/preserves/la-honda-creek

Photo courtesy of Shutterstock