POST acquires historic Southcoast ranch

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has acquired Green Oaks Ranch, a 13-acre former dairy ranch and flower farm near Davenport, 13 miles south of Pescadero on Highway 1. The ranch is a mile north of the main entrance to Año Nuevo State Reserve.

The property dates back to the early 1860s and is a nationally registered historic landmark. POST also acquired a three-year option to buy land offered to neighboring nonprofit Pie Ranch, LLC., a center for youth education that promotes sustainable agriculture, community food security, nutrition and land conservation.  This gives Pie Ranch more time to raise the $2.5 million they need to buy the land for their educational program.

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POST Acquires Historic Green Oaks Ranch

13-acre Former Farmstead is Nationally Registered Landmark

Menlo Park, Calif.) – The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced today that it has acquired 13 acres of an historic former dairy ranch and flower farm near Davenport along the San Mateo Coast.

Located 13 miles south of Pescadero along Highway 1, the property, called Green Oaks Ranch, is the latest acquisition in POST’s Saving the Endangered Coast campaign. To date, POST has protected 14,532 acres of open space through its 20,000-acre campaign.

Green Oaks Ranch is situated just east and a mile north of the main entrance to Año Nuevo State Reserve. POST purchased the ranch earlier this month for $1.21 million from Dr. George Griffin of Palo Alto.

Green Oaks Ranch was once known as the Isaac Steele Ranch, which dates back to the early 1860s and is now listed as a nationally registered historic landmark. POST’s purchase of this property will help protect several historic buildings as well as five acres of fertile row-crop soils and eight acres of surrounding riparian corridor and coastal landscape. The acquisition is accompanied by a three-year option to buy the land offered to neighboring nonprofit Pie Ranch, LLC., a center for youth education that promotes sustainable agriculture, community food security, nutrition and land conservation.

“POST’s purchase of Green Oaks Ranch represents our positive involvement in promoting sustainable farming through the exploration of innovative land tenure arrangements,” said POST President Audrey Rust. “The considerable historic, natural resource and agricultural values of this Coastside property will now be permanently protected as a result of this acquisition.”

Run by a partnership of three farmers, Pie Ranch is located immediately east of Green Oaks Ranch on a 14-acre, pie-shaped wedge of land. Co-director Jered Lawson and ranch manager Nancy Vail live onsite and are partners in the ranch with co-director Karen Heisler, who works on sustainable agriculture and community food security issues in San Francisco.

Since last year, Pie Ranch has hosted students from two San Francisco high schools on regular farm tours and workdays. The students are taught how to make homemade fruit pies using ingredients grown, raised or harvested on Pie Ranch.

By purchasing Green Oaks Ranch, POST gains the owners of Pie Ranch some time to raise the $2.5 million needed for them to acquire the land in order to incorporate it into their educational program.

The trio is in the process of forming the Green Oaks Agricultural Trust (GOAT) to acquire and restore Green Oaks, including the Steele family’s original Greek Revival farmhouse and several outbuildings. Pie Ranch intends to use these structures to house a center for community and classroom learning about our food system. The historic farmstead is ideally suited for teaching space, student and staff housing, and a roadside pie stand. In addition, Pie Ranch also hopes to expand the acreage of productive organic farmland on which they grow and harvest the ingredients that go into their pies.

“Our first choice was to work with POST because of their clear strength and successful track record in land conservation in this area of the Coast,” said Lawson. “It’s a winning combination of strategies to protect working landscapes and provide meaningful relationships for people with nature.”

“We were very relieved and pleased when we found out POST was interested in what we are striving to do,” said Heisler. “We have a lot of work to do, but we feel we are now able to do that in a supportive context, and we appreciate that.”

Green Oaks Ranch has a rich and colorful history. In the early 1860s, rancher Isaac Steele came to the area searching for land to expand his family’s dairy operation. He acquired 7,000 acres and, with his brothers and cousin, began building the farmstead and a dairy business that became prosperous and well known throughout California. In later years, the property was used for row crops, orchards and flower farming.

The land is situated in an area known for a diverse habitat that supports a wide variety of animal, bird and plant species. The northern edge of the property is bordered by Green Oaks Creek, a direct tributary to the Pacific Ocean. POST’s acquisition of Green Oaks Ranch will protect the natural resource values on the property associated with the creek and enhance the scenic viewshed along Highway 1. It will also create a possible connection along a future trail corridor providing additional access from Highway 1 to Big Basin Redwoods State Park.

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POST is a leading private, nonprofit land trust dedicated to preserving the beauty, character and diversity of the San Francisco Peninsula landscape. Since its founding in 1977, the organization has been responsible for saving more than 55,000 acres as permanent open space and parkland in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. Included in that total are 14,532 acres of coastal land POST has protected in the last five years through its $200 million Saving the Endangered Coast campaign.