What is San Marcos Foothills?
San Marcos Foothills (SMF) is a wild 377-acre property located northeast of the junction of Highway 154 and Foothill Road just outside the Santa Barbara city limits. Although privately owned, for years it has been the special preserve of hundreds of hikers, bird watchers, artists and casual visitors of all ages.

Why Preserve the Foothills?
The land offers

• Recreation and rural escape
  
• Visual and artistic inspiration
  
• Education, elementary through adult, and scientific inquiry
  
• Extraordinary views of the Santa Ynez Mountains, Pacific Ocean, and Channel Islands
  
• Connecting corridors for wildlife to Los Padres National Forest and Goleta Slough
  
• The best remaining habitat for Grasshopper Sparrow and Burrowing Owl
  
• Feeding ground for hawks, kestrels, kites, roadrunners, coyotes, bobcats, and hundreds of other animal species

Acquisition of this property will set in motion a partnership that allows us to coordinate the stewardship of the foothills with environmental and public health improvements to the Goleta Slough and the creeks in between.

There are opportunities to develop, implement, and export science-based solutions to problems of

• Poor water quality
  
• Excessive sedimentation
  
• Storm damage
• Loss of groundwater recharge
• Loss of productive riparian, estuarine, and marine ecosystems

These solutions, and the research efforts used to implement them, will weave through our educational programs, increasing awareness and optimism that public will and new techniques can merge to solve some of our most pressing regional problems.

A Plan to Preserve, Enhance, and Use the Foothills
In 1999, the San Marcos Foothills Coalition was formed in response to the proposed 75-unit Bridle Ridge development, later denied by the County Planning Commission. After an unsuccessful attempt to purchase the land, San Marcos Foothill Coalition began work on the Stewardship Plan.

The Foothills is a model of the self-sustaining natural world from which we can learn.The Plan is a blueprint, a starting point, that may be improved or expanded as the community sees fit. The goal is to acquire the property and have it conveyed in trust for perpetual public benefit. Our group may or may not ultimately own the land, but stands ready to assist and cooperate with private and governmental regulatory bodies that will be required to develop, fund, and execute additional plans for acquisition, conservation, and management.

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