News Subscribe  to Our Newsletter Sign  up for Email Updates CGF  In the News Press  Inquiries Past  Articles Calendar			Efforts  to protect coastal jewel near completion Final push to fund acquisition  of Mirada Surf by Julia Bott For nearly three decades, the popular coastal bluff,  wetlands, and forested slope known as Mirada Surf has been identified  as open space on the Local Coastal Plan. Thanks to the Committee for Green  Foothills' continued defense of the 49-acre parcel from repeated development  proposals, and subsequent fundraising by the San  Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation, this jewel - reaching  from the coastal bluffs just south of Surfer's Beach to a forested slope  behind El Granada and Miramar - may soon become a County park.  Park status would preserve coastal views and allow  access improvements and completion of the Coastal  Trail. Potential trail connections to adjacent open space have also  been identified.  In 2002, San Mateo County purchased the eastern  of the two parcels that comprise Mirada Surf. Efforts to purchase the  coastal portion of Mirada Surf received a big boost in February with the approval  of grants from the California  Coastal Conservancy and the Land  and Water Conservation Fund. These grants couple with Proposition  12 funds the County had earmarked for the purchase.  A number of generous individuals have contributed  to the purchase of this parcel. The San Mateo County Parks and Recreation  Foundation is working with community leaders to raise the remaining $400,000  by the July 30 close date. If fundraising efforts are successful in these  last weeks of the campaign, Coastal residents will enjoy this park for  generations to come. Julia Bott is the Executive Director of the San  Mateo County Parks and Recreation Foundation , a nonprofit formed in  1998 to raise gifts from the community for County parks. Since its inception,  the Foundation has raised approximately $3.2 million for San Mateo County  Parks acquisition, improvements, education, and restoration. For more  information, or to help purchase Mirada Surf as a County Park, contact  the Foundation at (650) 321-5812 or Julia@SupportParks.org. Published July 2003 in Green  Footnotes. Page last updated July 7, 2003

	Photo by Barbara Kossy.