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Local environmental group Save Mount Diablo has started 2020 with ambitious strides in its environmental conservation efforts, and recently announcing a signed option agreement to permanently preserve approximately 154 acres on the north face of Mount Diablo’s North Peak.
Cited as one of the most strategic and important properties remaining on Mount Diablo’s main peaks, Save Mount Diablo staffers say the $50,000 option agreement — signed on Dec. 31 — gives the land conservation nonprofit two years to raise $1.04 million so that it can purchase the land currently owned by the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Association.
Save Mount Diablo officials said the property, located east of Clayton, stretches across the north face of North Peak from the pastoral Three Spring area almost to the Falls Trail, including beautiful Cardinet Oaks and upper Young Canyon.
“This property has been a high priority for us since 1971. We give a standing ovation to the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association for giving us an opportunity to permanently protect another important section of Mount Diablo,” Ted Clement, executive director of Save Mount Diablo, said in a statement. “Mount Diablo has been a very special and sacred mountain for peoples of this area for eons so we are hopeful that our communities will help us raise the necessary funds to protect this land.”
Classified as a conservation easement, once the proposed property has been acquired, Save Mount Diablo will perpetually protect the area’s open space from future development.
Funds used to acquire the land will be raised through Save Mount Diablo’s “Forever Wild Capital Campaign,” which has the goal of raising $15 million for land acquisition and costs associated with environmental stewardship. To date the organization has raised $12,963,485 of the $15 million goal, and has been used to complete strategic land acquisition projects such as the Curry Canyon Ranch and North Peak Ranch projects.
“Forever Wild Capital Campaign” funds have also enabled the group to build a sizable permanent stewardship endowment fund for ongoing maintenance costs.
A substantial wildlife habitat corridor in the Mount Diablo area, officials say the land provides “stunning scenic vistas” to community members who pass by on public roads such as Marsh Creek Road, and to the public recreating in the region.
Views on the property stretch from the Carquinez Strait and Suisun Bay to Lassen Peak and the Sierra Nevada Range, which is steep and rugged and contains a very high biodiversity supporting dozens of rare plant species like the Mt. Diablo globe lily and rare wildlife such as the Alameda whipsnake.
Members of the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association have also reported seeing the occasional mountain lion on the equestrian trails that cross the property.
Further highlighting the environmental benefits of the agreement, Save Mount Diablo officials say the oak woodland and grasslands on the property act as a carbon sink, which mitigates against climate change in lasting ways.
“For example, forests and other undeveloped lands absorb greenhouse gases, thereby acting as carbon sinks, keeping those gases out of the atmosphere,” Save Mount Diablo staff said in a statement.
While the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association will keep about 47 acres, where the association’s buildings are located, as a part of the deal, association officials say they are happy to see that the land will be protected in perpetuity.
“We at CMDTRA are thrilled to finally move forward with making the conservation easement into a reality, preserving our treasured open space for future generations. We are so thankful that Save Mount Diablo has created this unique opportunity to not only protect the land, but also creating funding to preserve the equestrian culture in the Bay Area,” added Elaine Baker, president of the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association.
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Photo of a section of the 154 acres on the slopes of Mount Diablo that Save Mount Diablo hopes to permanently conserve by raising over $1 million within the next two years per the terms of the option agreement recently signed with the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association. (Photo by Ted Clement) -
The proposed conservation easement is surrounded on three sides by Mount Diablo State Park and contiguous with Save Mount Diablo’s conserved Young Canyon property and its North Peak Ranch acquisition project, which the organization is buying over 10 years. (Map courtesy Save Mount Diablo) -
Map showing Save Mount Diablo’s Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association, North Peak Ranch, and Young Canyon conservation acquisition projects (Image courtesy Save Mount Diablo)
