Today, the Foundation for America’s Public Lands, the official Congressionally chartered charitable partner of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), announced the launch of a new stewardship endowment to support the Cotoni-Coast Dairies of the California Coastal National Monument. For the first time in nearly a decade, the public will have access to the newest public access unit of the California Coastal National Monument and nine miles of new trails. In support of these beautiful public lands, the Foundation will raise $1 million dollars from private donations to establish this endowment.
“For too long, federal land managers have managed public lands and recreation access on a shoestring budget,” said I Ling Thompson, CEO of the Foundation of America’s Public Lands. “Managing land forever comes with a price tag, and stewardship endowments have been powerful, common practice supporting private lands conservation for decades. So why not use that model to connect beloved places – like Cotoni-Coast Dairies – to private philanthropy to provide much-needed financial resources to meet modern-day recreation demands and land management challenges on public lands.”
As the largest manager of public lands in the United States, the BLM is also the hardest working with responsibility for 1 in 10 acres – totaling 245 million acres – across the country and 81 wild and scenic rivers. BLM supports jobs and tourism that generate over $250 billion to local communities and support the employment of nearly 950,000 people. They provide food, fiber, and energy for the nation; offer unparalleled opportunities for outdoor recreation to 81 million locals and visitors a year; and provide important habitats and connectivity for fish and wildlife. Yet, BLM receives the least amount of funding compared to other federal land agencies. Financing models like the Foundation’s Stewardship Endowment Fund create an ongoing source of funding to support the BLM’s management and operations of places like Cotoni-Coast Dairies that are working lands that are open to the public for outdoor recreation.
Cotoni-Coast Dairies lands are unique because they are managed for multiple uses from ranching to outdoor recreation activities like hiking and biking. Privately owned as farmland for more than a century, Cotoni-Coast Dairies was made possible by nonprofits, including the Trust for the Public Lands that donated to the BLM in 2014, and has long been regarded as a hidden gem within the California Coastal National Monument which sits along the Central Coast north of Santa Cruz.
