So what’s going on along the California coast and around San Francisco Bay these days? I’ve been visiting the Coastal Conservancy’s 250 active project sites for about three years now, and four trends seem to be accelerating at dot-com megahertz speed:

• There is a lot more money, public and private, for conservation than there was just a year ago.

• Costs for coastal lands, habitat restoration, and paths to the beach are climbing fast.

• Stronger land use regulation by the Coastal Commission tries to hold
the line.

• Virtual and ersatz nature and outdoor experiences may increasingly substitute for the real thing.

These are exciting times.

First, money: thank you, thank you fellow voters, for supporting by a two-thirds majority the first state parks and natural resources bond issue in 12 years—a whopping $2.1 billion, passed last March. The coast is still a popular investment in California, with the Coastal Conservancy named for $250 million. The feds are poised to add tens of millions, and private donors such as the Packard Foundation and the Wendy P. McCaw Foundation are augmenting our public conservation funds.

But costs are up: wealth creation in California since the early 1990s recession has been spectacular. Some people want ocean views and can pay whatever is needed to secure a coastal homesite. Whether that site is an 80-foot-long strip of riprap in Malibu or 300 acres on the far North Coast, the price is at least a million bucks and climbing fast. So we and our land trust partners are bidding against people for whom price is no object. Landowner expectations of value are up 25–50 percent in the last few years. So $250 million is not much—maybe enough, in effect, to buy 250 lots on the 1,100-mile-long coast. The Coastal Conservancy bond funds will be mostly spent in a year. We hope you will support another bond act soon.

In the coastal zone, the major factor that keeps landowner expectations from zooming into space is the California Coastal Commission, created by the Coastal Act of 1976. While the courts have weakened the Commission’s ability to require public access, the legal requirement to protect wildlife habitat is now even stronger. That helps us and our local government and land trust partners to acquire properties and easements that are scenic and valuable for wildlife, especially endangered species like the red-legged frog. Endangered species protection laws and regulations are prompting ever more public investment in habitat restoration as well as moderating landowner expectations.

Sometimes, in darker moments, I can’t help thinking all this may be irrelevant. Easy substitutes for experience in nature are being offered, and many people find them more user-friendly than the real thing. Why preserve coastal wetlands and redwood groves if you can go to Disneyland’s soon-to-open $1.4 billion 55-acre California Adventure? A tour bus will take you in minutes from the Sierra to the coast, where you will see 135 smog-resistant Aptos Blue and Soquel redwoods (cultivars) brought to Anaheim from Santa Cruz for $500,000, so tourists to California will not have to drive up the coast highway to see the coast redwoods. And they can munch a Wolfgang Puck pizza right after the tour before heading back to the car.

One deep breath of ocean air dispels such dismal musings. With further public and private coastal conservation investments and a continued strong Coastal Commission, we can preserve our living coast.

—Bill Ahern, Executive Officer