Page 20 - Sonoma County Gazette 6-20

of the California
Coastal Act, approved
by voters in 1976, is ensuring and providing for public access to the state’s shoreline and ocean.
trail
donation to create Gualala Point Regional Park.
The Sonoma County Coastal Trail
The 2020 Coastwalk Guided Hikes have been canceled due to the pandemic, which is impacting the financial well-being of the organization. Coastwalk continues to work with state, county and nonprofit organizations to support California Coastal Trail implementation.
There are remaining gaps to completing the Coastal Trail in Sonoma County.
By Richard Retecki The primary goal
Negotiations with Sea Ranch in the early 1980’s provided five neighborhood trails and beach access, a three-mile-long bluff top
for public use, and a 120-acre
One of the dreams imbedded
in that goal is the creation of a continuous trail along the coast from the Oregon border to Mexico, the California Coastal Trail.
It’s a breath-taking dream.
The Coastal Act mandated that each coastal county and city, as part
of developing their own Local Coastal Plan, include the planning and implementation of the California Coastal Trail through their jurisdictions.
Enormous thanks are due to the local citizens’ groups, regional and state parks agencies, nonprofit organizations and public funding agencies, whose hard work has brought us this far.
Ranch trails. Building this trail would require a considerable
The California Coastal Trail (CCT),
when completed, will rival the famed
Appalachian Trail in the eastern U.S.
Roughly 1150 miles long, it would encompass
800 miles of coastline with twists and turns,
swift rises with equally swift descents, braided
together through beaches, bluffs, roadways, stairways and
boardwalks. The CCT will provide a ribbon of protection for coastal access and preservation of coastal resources along the California Coast.
are wary of losing their privacy to hikers.
Another difficult area to implement is the seven- mile-long Highway 1 segment through Ocean
One of the leading organizations in that effort was, and continues
to be, Coastwalk/California Coastal Trail Association, the statewide advocacy group for the Coastal Trail, formed in 1980, and headquartered in Sebastopol.
Richard Nichols, a former Coastwalk Executive Director, and author
of “Hiking the California Coastal Trail,” was instrumental in raising CCT awareness, securing planning funds, coordinating coastal county progress and yearly hikes, and two Coastal Trail thru-hikes from Oregon to Mexico.
Una Glass, a Sebastopol City Council member and former Coastwalk Executive Director, pushed and prodded Coastal Trail development through the lean years following the 2008 recession.
Completion of the Coastal Trail would require a through trail 12 miles long (see map) from Gualala Point Regional Park south to
connect with the proposed Kashia Coastal Preserve and Stewarts Point
change in stance from Sea Ranch, where homeowners
Cove and Fort Ross (see map). Highway 1, in places, is narrow and winding, and in
numerous locations property owners have built into the highway right-of-way,
complicating any planning process. A concerted planning effort was undertaken here, but natural and
Sonoma County has done so since the mid-1970’s, with considerable success. About two thirds of the county’s 65 miles of the California Coastal Trail
has been completed, and planning for the remaining gaps is included in
the current Draft Local Coastal Plan.
For the foreseeable future, Highway 1 will continue to
manmade complexities stalled the effort.
be the Coastal Trail.
TRAIL cont’d on page 21
The current Coastwalk Executive Director, Cea Higgins, is a coastal resident and avid surfer.
Cea is working to address impacts on the CCT such as sea level rise, and create opportunities for underrepresented communities to experience the CCT. Cea is also working to solve the current financial and social problems of Coastal Trail implementation.
20 - www.sonomacountygazette.com - 6/20