Defense of Place

Defense of Place helps communities protect parks, wildlife refuges, and open space in perpetuity, advocating for the long-term management of legacy landscapes.

Defense of Place is a nimble, network-based watchdog program designed to uphold the inviolability of protected lands. Defense of Place collaborates with citizen activists nationwide to protect parks, nature preserves, wildlife refuges, open spaces, and conservation easements from sale, development, and predatory changes in use. While climate change may affect landscapes' character and species over time, Defense of Place is committed to the principle of saving land in perpetuity for the benefit of future generations. Whether it's honoring a donor's legacy or protecting a public asset, Defense of Place can help save a protected place you love.

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Defense of Place Success Stories

  • Challenge
    When Charles Garfield gave a park to the City of Grand Rapids in 1906, he stipulated in the deed that it must be maintained and owned by the City as a public park. This didn't stop the City Council from beginning secret discussions with the Salvation Army to turn several acres of the park over to the private religious organization for a new community center. The center would be owned and operated by the Salvation Army and the land that was supposed to be set aside forever as a public park would then be in private hands. A majority of the City Council was in favor of the plan, and the Salvation Army came out with very strong declaration that if the City did not sell them part of Garfield Park for the center it would get no center at all.

    Strategy
    Local citizens created a very well-organized effort to stop the sale of the park. Their organizing effort was aided by a very effective website, email distribution lists, and regular content with members of the news media who gave lots of attention to the story. This allowed park proponents to get large groups to attend city council meetings and voice their concerns. The citizens group also began evaluating their legal options for preventing the sale of the parkland and made their intentions very clear. Despite all of this, the majority on the Grand Rapids City Council pressed to move ahead with plans to sell part of Garfield Park to the Salvation Army. When Defense of Place was contacted by Friends of Garfield Park, the Friends group were not aware of the fact that by law if any part of a park received money from the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund and any part of that park was going to be sold, it would need to be replaced by a similar resource of equal size in a nearby location. The City Council was counting on the proceeds from selling part of Garfield Park to go into their coffers and there was not space available nearby that could easily replace part of Garfield Park. Defense of Place provided the background information regarding the Land Water Conservation Fund to the Friends of Garfield Park who immediately and strongly conveyed the restrictions to the City Council.

    Result
    After learning of the Land Water Conservation Fund restrictions on Garfield Park, the City Council immediately conveyed their concerns to the Salvation Army. With the need to replace city parkland nearby, the project quickly became infeasible at the Garfield Park location and the Salvation Army dropped Garfield Park as a potential site for the community center.

    Lessons Learned
    When working to save a place, learn everything you possibly can about all of the restrictions on the title, restrictions from grants, and obscure laws and rules that might prevent it from being sold.

  • Challenge
    The Wagner Ranch Nature Area has been used by generations of Orinda's school children as an introduction to the natural world and a rare opportunity to learn in a living classroom. When the Orinda Union School District sold their existing maintenance yard to a housing developer for $25 Million, they needed a new place for their maintenance yard. Despite the fact that several other sites were less expensive to develop than the Wagner Ranch Nature Area, and the local community was very opposed to the plan, the District was focused and intent on building within the preserve.

    Strategy
    Members of the Orinda Community were already incredibly upset with the proposal to build on the Nature Area when they contacted Defense of Place seeking help. Defense of Place arrived and directly addressed the School Board at the first public community meeting for the threatened nature preserve. While some steps were taken in the right direction after the meeting, several incidents showed that the nature area was still very much threatened with being turned into a maintenance yard. Defense of Place wrote an opinion piece that appeared in the regional newspaper the Contra Costa Times that garnered significant attention. The opinion piece demonstrated that the opposition to building in the preserve wasn't going to go away and was only going to get more intense (it contained the first mention of likely litigation.) Defense of Place also worked with local community activists to hone their message, improve communication to other concerned citizens, and create a website to disseminate information.

    Result
    The community concern and the threat of a drawn-out battle for the Wagner Ranch Nature Area forced the School Board to seriously consider other options. After a thorough investigation, the School District found an alternative location for the maintenance yard that spared the Nature Area from the bulldozers.

    Lessons Learned
    Nearly 8 months elapsed before there was any clarity regarding the fate of the Nature Area. During that time, Defense of Place and local activists stayed actively involved in opposing the construction within nature and made our presence known. Persistence pays off - especially when things are moving slowly.

  • Challenge
    In February 2004, the City of Millbrae, California proposed selling protected open space that has long been used as a de-facto park.

    The Spur Property was originally set aside to extend Junipero Serra Boulevard. When Interstate 280 was built instead, the state deeded the property to the city solely for the purpose of recreation, not to be used for development.

    By selling the Spur Property for residential development Millbrae officials hoped to close a budget deficit. But when local citizens raised significant opposition to the proposal, the City Council eventually agreed not to sell the land if a ballot measure to fund fire protection received voter approval. The measure passed, but city officials again asked the City Council to consider selling the land.

    Strategy
    In an effort to avoid a future sale, citizens contacted Defense of Place. With the legal counsel of Shute Mihaly and Weinberger, we notified the city that the sale of the Spur Property for development is illegal. The letter from the law firm cited the following:

    The City designated the parcels as part of a park and selling parkland would require voter approval.

    The land was given to the city by the State of California and can only be used for streets, highways, parks or open space.

    The City would need to perform an Environmental Impact Review before it could sell because previous modifications to the property required such review.

    Result
    Citizen activists initiated a petition drive and a website aimed at keeping the Spur Property in public hands as a park. We remain involved in this ongoing project.

  • Challenge
    With more than 87,000 open acres, 250 miles of hiking trails, historic Native American and Spanish habitation sites, and vast array of birds, wildflowers, and wildlife, Henry Coe State Park is a sanctuary on the edge of California’s fast-growing Silicon Valley. Sada Coe, whose family founded and operated the Coe cattle ranch in the late 19th Century donated the property to Santa Clara County in 1953 as "a gift to the people" in memory of her father. In 1958 the County gave the land to the State of California to be maintained as a park in perpetuity.

    But in 2002, the Santa Clara Water District introduced a plan to build a dam within the park, to augment supplies from its San Luis Reservoir. Several dam sites were proposed inside Coe Park, including one that would inundate a state wilderness area. At first, the water district’s meetings to consider the plan, labeled the "San Luis Low Point Problem," didn’t attract much notice. Many of those actively involved with the park weren’t even aware that the meetings were taking place. The meeting announcements gave no indication of the possible impact on Coe. But when park lovers learned what water managers had in mind, they joined forces with Defense of Place.

    Strategy
    Defense of Place worked closely with local activists, Advocates for Coe, a friends group formed in response to the threat. We advised the group on a strategy, sought press coverage, and lobbied the water district and elected officials to stop construction of a reservoir in the park. Volunteers, some affiliated with the park for decades, began writing letters and contacting other organizations about joining the fight to save Coe. Meanwhile, the water district sought alternatives for fixing the problems plaguing their San Luis Reservoir. During the next several months, the district and their consultants, Jones and Stokes, whittled the list of possible dam sites down to 16 based on engineering feasibility and cost effectiveness, but not environmental impact.

    Advocates for Coe, Defense of Place and representatives Sierra Club, Environmental Defense, Friends of the River, and other environmental organizations confronted the district about damaging a park owned by the people of California. The district responded that damaging a park was not a factor considered when evaluating sites.

    A 2003 article in the San Francisco Chronicle, "Public lands, Private enterprise" dramatically increased the visibility of the Coe issue. The article described threats to the park not only from the water district, but also from a proposed high-speed rail line proposed by the California High Speed Rail Authority.

    Result
    In May 2003 the water district withdrew its proposal for a reservoir in Henry Coe State Park. The district had issued similar statements before, but loopholes in the statements left plans for flooding parts of the park still on the table. Defense of Place and Dennis Pinion, leader of Advocates for Coe, addressed the water district’s Board of Directors asking for assurance that Coe Park not be compromised. As of the fall of 2003 concerns about flooding in Coe have been laid to rest. But threats to the park remain. Now it is being eyed for a high-speed rail line. Defense of Place remains actively involved.

    Since the showdown, the district has changed its attitude toward those who fought against flooding Coe Park. The district has brought many of the stakeholders, including Defense of Place and Advocates for Coe, into the decision-making about San Luis Reservoir. This has allowed the environmental groups to monitor and comment on the water district's plans.

  • Challenge
    Land in Los Altos Hills, located in the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains above California's Silicon Valley, sells for upwards of $2 million an acre. In 200x, the town leaders saw a chance to profit by selling land that had been given to the town to be preserved as open space. The sale would be a windfall for Los Altos Hills. Profits from the sale and the property taxes once the land was developed would generate millions of dollars for the town.

    In 1975 the town acquired 15 acres and a barn adjacent to the Byrne Open Space Preserve from a local horsewoman. When the City Council and the mayor proposed selling the 15 acres for development and moving the barn to the Byrne Preserve, a local advocacy group decided to create a political climate friendly to open space.

    Strategy
    Advocates organized meetings to discuss the future of Los Altos Hills' open space and used their newsletter to publicize the proposed sale of townÕs open space. They gathered signatures to place an open space preservation initiative on the ballot and recruited candidates for City Council who were friendly to their cause. They wrote letters to local and regional newspapers. Defense of Place published an op-ed in the San Jose Mercury News that challenged the city’s right to sell the public's land.

    Result
    In November 2003, Los Altos Hills citizens voted to elect two open space-friendly candidates to the City Council, shifting the balance on the council from pro-development to pro-open space. The newly seated council unanimously approved an initiative that requires a popular vote to approve the sale of any city-owned open space. The council decided not to pursue the idea of moving the Westwind barn and has put to rest the immediate threat to the land.

    Since the showdown, the district has changed its attitude toward those who fought against flooding Coe Park. The district has brought many of the stakeholders, including Defense of Place and Advocates for Coe, into the decision-making about San Luis Reservoir. This has allowed the environmental groups to monitor and comment on the water district's plans.

  • Challenge
    Pepperwood Ranch is a biologically rich 3,117-acre property located in the Bald Hills of Sonoma County in Northern California. The property belonged to Kenneth Bechtel, who had offered to donate the land to the California Academy of Sciences, but the Academy did not want to take the land with use restrictions at that time. Following Mr. Bechtel's death, the Academy changed its position on accepting the gift and agreed to permanently preserve the land. The deed specified that the Academy "preserve the property in its present natural state and to utilize the property for research and educational activities in the natural and environmental sciences..."

    However, the Academy later concluded that the best use of the property would be to sell the land to a "special kind of buyer" who would retain the vast majority of the land in a conservation easement while permitting the academy to continue its scientific and educational programs. In 1995 a "For Sale" sign went up on the preserve offering 37 home sites.

    Strategy
    Local supporters of the preserve and Defense of Place went to work. Their strategy centered on a publicity campaign that focused on ethics and the responsibilities of scientific institutions to maintain their commitment to landowners who donate their land for the purpose of education or preservation.

    A Defense of Place editorial "Academy of Science's sale of Pepperwood breaks a promise," published in the San Francisco Examiner mobilized long-time supporters of Pepperwood including scientists and members of the California Academy of Sciences to publicly questioned the sale. The negative publicity caused the Academy to take the property off the market.

    Result The fact that the Academy's board took Pepperwood off the market did not finally guarantee its permanent protection. While Defense of Place maintained that the Academy should be bound by its responsibility to the donor to preserve the land in perpetuity, the Academy scaled back its plans to subdivide the land for housing. Under the agreement, a single buyer will build a home on a portion of the property where development currently exists. Ninety percent of the land will be permanently protected by conservation easements. The Academy continues to use the preserve for research by graduate students and professionals, as well as adult field classes, Camp Academy, Junior Academy classes, and field trips. Defense of Place continues to monitor the agreement.

  • Challenge
    The Yuba Goldfields, some 10,000 acres of riverside land just outside of Marysville are the legacy of the California Gold Rush. Decades of hydraulic mining in the Sierra Nevada washed millions of tons of sand and gravel down the Yuba River. This sand and gravel provides the largest supply of construction-grade gravel in the West, currently estimated at over $15 billion. Over the last 50 years, private interests and government agencies have disputed who has rights to this land and its resources - gravel, water from the river, and the wildlife in the area, including one of the last genetically pure lines of Chinook salmon.

    In 1992, a Texas-based mining company, Western Aggregates, constructed a gate blocking the public road to the Goldfields. The company claimed the road to be private, although historical records clearly show otherwise. This sparked outrage among local residents and land conservationists who took the matter to court.

    Strategy The Resource Renewal Institute, a nonprofit environmental organization based in San Francisco, set out to help find a multi-use sustainable solution and proposed the creation of a salmon sanctuary. Much needed economic growth Much-needed economic growth in the area would come from the sale of the gravel on public land and the creation of recreation-related jobs.

    After extensive research and study, Defense of Place proposed a five-point plan of action and rehabilitation to meet the needs of all parties involved and "...to highlight integrated, systemic resource planning and the real successes that such forward thinking-management can achieve for society and environment," and to "be a model for public-private cooperation and comprehensive response to environmental problems."

    Result
     In mid-2003, the 3rd District Court of Appeals in California upheld an earlier ruling which deemed the road public. Western Aggregates has appealed to the California Supreme Court, which currently must decide whether or not to hear the case or uphold the earlier rulings.

    The Resource Renewal Institute, through its Defense of Place program, worked to establish a parkway, allowing public access to the river and Goldfields.

    Voters approved a measure to allow more public access to the Yuba River, including a key 9-mile stretch of river through the Goldfields. Improved public access is expected to generate revenues from increased tourism and recreation.

    There are several proposals for the Yuba Goldfields. The proposed redevelopment project includes: trails for hiking and bird watching; access to the river for rafting, canoeing, fishing, camping and picnicking; salmon rehabilitation in the form of the Carla Bard Salmon Sanctuary; resolving local hunting rights issues; reclaiming the river by curtailing water diversions; enhanced and replenished natural habitats; sustainable removal of the valuable gravel on public land at a direct benefit to the people of Yuba County. There are still many compromises necessary to please the interests involved, but there is progress.

    Defense of Place wants to ensure the land is managed for multiple uses. In addition to research and long-range planning, Defense of Place has helped in more direct ways as well. Defense of Place has provided funding for the legal motions that have ensued between Yuba Goldfields Access Coalition and Western Aggregate. Defense of Place also has been responsible for much of the publicity surrounding the controversy. Through a combination of press releases and advertisements (including a 1999 ad in the New York Times), Defense of Place has created public interest in a controversy that may have otherwise remained obscure.

  • Challenge
    With clear intent articulated by words of the heart and the terms of a contract, John and Carrie Klock bestowed Lake Michigan parkland in 1917 to the residents of Benton Harbor, Michigan, in memory of their infant daughter Jean. John Klock’s dedication rang clear: The beach is yours, the dunes are yours, all yours. It is not so much a gift from my wife and myself as a gift from a little child. See to it that the park is the children’s . . .”

    The legal language of the gift’s deed was unambiguous: “ . . .upon express condition and with the express covenant that said lands and premises shall forever be used by the said city of Benton Harbor for bathing beach, park purposes or other public purposes and at all times shall be open for the use and benefit of the public.”

    Over the years the magnet of the rare lakefront property brought several development attempts, but all were thwarted until seven years ago, when the city of Benton Harbor signed a compromise with the Whirlpool Corporation’s Harbor Shores project that allowed partial residential development of approximately 22 acres “in exchange for permanent protections of the remaining 73 acres of the park.”

    However, with the complicity of politicians and governmental agencies – even those responsible for protecting the historic and environmental designation of the dunes, wetlands and marsh – that promise was shattered. In September 2008, enabled by dubious permits and legal decisions, the developers set loose their bulldozers to breach the crest of the dunes and excavate the fragile and irreplaceable dune vegetation to carve out three holes for a Jack Nicklaus Signature Golf Course for the “Harbor Shores Golf and Beach Club."

    Strategy
    Park advocates, conservation organizations and environmental attorneys have battled through courts, commissions and the media to protest the violation of the Klocks’ deed; the developers’ claims that the golf course offers “public use” (with green fees that reach more than $100); and, that “nearby” lands selected to replace the lost Jean Klock Park acreage are of equal ecological value. Instead, the “mitigated” lands consist of widely scattered parcels known by the National Park Service to be contaminated with industrial pollutants.

    Now, even though losses to the Park have occurred, the voices on behalf of John and Carrie Klock are being heard in the higher reaches of State and Federal Courts:

    ~~~“On order of the Michigan State Supreme Court, the application for leave to appeal the January 21, 2010, judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered.”

    With this sentence, the Michigan Supreme Court renewed hope that Jean Klock Park may yet be reborn. The September 15, 2010, order by the Supreme Court has opened the door for reparation and restoration of the public park. Oral arguments for the case, which was pressed on behalf of the Friends of Jean Klock Park, by Plaintiffs-Defendants Carol Drake and Clellen Bury, will be heard on January 21.

    The application that persuaded the Court to consider a reversal of the Lower Court’s opinion articulates a thesis of Defense of Place: “It is also important as there is a greater shift from government lead conservation to movements encouraging private conservation by land conservancies or land trusts . . .People who make a gift, who leave a legacy like that of the Klocks, should know that their legacy will be protected in the future.”

    Briefs were filed in support of the Plaintiffs by the Great Lakes Environmental Law Center including signers Defense of Place/Resource Renewal Institute, Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance, Preserve the Dunes, and West Michigan Environmental Action Council; and by Friends of Michigan Parks.

    The suit alleged that Federal laws violated in the course of Harbor Shores’ permit process include the Clean Water Act, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, the National Environmental Policy Act and the National Historic Preservation Act. The Complaint was filed against the Department of the Interior, National Park Service, the City of Benton Harbor, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation. Harbor Shores Community Redevelopment, Inc., has intervened to become a Defendant, as they continue to deploy their financially and politically powerful influence.

    Descriptions of “inadequacy,” “noncompliance,” “capricious,” “improper approval, ” “no public record narrative,” “no arithmetic discussion of this volume” (thousands of cubic yards of topsoil or other fill material to re-create dune ridge mass), “no quantified data, detail or discussion of any management of waterborne chemical runoff,” and more fill the pages of the complaint.

    One key issue hinges on the truthfulness of filed documents, including the response to the question of whether project approval would have a disproportionately high and adverse effect on low-income or minority populations. Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources answered “No,” when, in fact, the population of the City of Benton Harbor is over 90 percent African-American. A “Yes” response “would have triggered the requirement of compiling an Environmental Impact Statement (which was not done).

  • Challenge
    As part of a project to restore a reach of the Upper Truckee River that flows into Lake Tahoe, California’s State Parks agency proposes to expand a golf course across the river into Washoe Meadows State Park. The park was formed in 1984 when a state law was enacted to “acquire as state lands an environmentally sensitive parcel of approximately 777 acres of land comprising wetlands, meadows, and wildlife habitat for the purpose of protecting an unique and irreplaceable watershed…” The land to the east of the river has remained a “recreation area,” and includes the Lake Tahoe Golf Course which was built in the 1950s.

    Despite the fact that the restoration of the Upper Truckee – and re-establishment of the fish-spawning streams -- is necessary due to the harm resulting from the design and maintenance of the original golf course, State agencies are forcefully promoting the golf course expansion, with an emphasis on economic factors over significant environmental threats.

    Strategy
    The Washoe Meadows Community has been organized to oppose the golf course expansion alternative of the Upper Truckee Restoration Project since the State announced its primary intent more than four years ago. The Community initiated petitions to save the Park, and its members have worked tirelessly – and in the face of delays and defiance by State agencies -- to obtain documents related to the planning and claims by the restoration project managers. Washoe Meadows activitsts attend public and government meetings and hearings; maintain a website to share information; and, coordinate the comments submitted in response to the Environmental Impact Report.

    Defense of Place participated in environmental studies and in the preparation and submission of articles, commission statements, letters to the editor, and op-ed pieces, including those written by Huey Johnson in the Sacramento Bee and the Reno Gazette.

    http://www.sacbee.com/2010/09/04/3004831/tahoes-trout-population-faces.html

    Result
    The public comment period for the EIR ended November 15. Comments submitted through Defense of Place included land and hydrology studies by natural resources specialist David Katz along with policy and principle discussions by Nancy Graalman. The Washoe Meadows advocates submitted a far-reaching examination that was a culmination of their four-year commitment to interviews, commission hearings, and document studies. The State must now fulfill its obligation to address all of the presented challenges to many of the EIR’s environmental, economic and legal positions. The responses and announcement of the State’s intent will take several months, during which time the Washoe Meadows Community and Defense of Place will continue the campaign to save the park AND restore the river.

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