Big Win In 10-Year Fight To Protect Premier Surf Spot
For more than a decade the Sierra Club has fought a proposed 16-mile toll road through San Onofre State Beach, one of California's most popular state parks. The campaign realized a major victory on December 18 when the U.S. Commerce Department ruled to uphold the California Coastal Commission's rejection of the project.
The Foothill South toll road would have despoiled more than half of the park, including a popular campground, a land conservancy, a sacred Native American burial site, and a pristine watershed feeding into the renowned Trestles surf beach. Below, Club volunteers tabling at Trestles Beach at the Mobile World Championship Surf Tour. Trestles is the only North American stop on the tour.
Photo by Ed Schlegel
"This is a victory for all our state parks," says Club staffer Robin Everett, who serves as organizer for the Club's Friends of the Foothills campaign. "If this road had been approved it would have opened the door for development in other state parks."
The fight against the toll road started more than ten years ago in the home of Orange Country Sierra Club volunteer Paul Carlton. In 1999 the Club became the first organization to hire staff and start a formal campaign against the project. "It grew from a small group of motivated Sierra Club volunteers meeting in living rooms to a grassroots movement of over 8,000 activists," recalls Club staffer Brittany McKee, who served as campaign organizer from 2000 to 2007.
Photo by Al Sattler
Above, McKee (left) and Robin Everett (right) are pictured at a February 2008 Coastal Commission hearing attended by more than 7,000 people, the most ever at a Commission hearing. Below, San Diego Sierra Club organizer Micah Mitrosky, McKee, and Everett put together postcards and surfboards to present to the Commission.
Photo by Al Sattler
"We began this fight with a march of 40 people in downtown San Clemente, and ended with thousands of people at the final hearings," says Club activist and Friends of the Foothills Task Force Chair Bill Holmes. "This victory proves that when people come together and don't give up, we can really make a difference."
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Posted by: RANDY | January 01, 2009 at 07:46 AM