POST Purchases Key Property in mid-Coyote Valley

Advancing Regional Vision for Wildlife Corridor  

October 24, 2017 - (Palo Alto, Calif.) Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced today the purchase of a 63-acre property at the intersection of Santa Teresa Boulevard and Richmond Avenue in the mid-Coyote Valley, near the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority’s Coyote Valley Open Space Preserve. This acquisition marks the second project that POST has completed in the Valley over the past 6 months. 

POST purchased the property from the Ramke family for $2,852,100. The property had been owned by the family for over six decades where they grew tomatoes, beans, bell peppers, and most recently alfalfa, wheat and oats. The property is of regional ecological significance due to the location within Coyote Valley, a geographic area identified in the Open Space Authority’s Valley Greenprint and recent Coyote Valley Landscape Linkage Report. The Ramke property lies within the Fisher Creek floodplain, an important component of the critical ecological connection between the Santa Cruz Mountains and Diablo Range, as described in the Linkage report. 

The report concludes that protecting and restoring priority areas within the Coyote Valley is essential to the long-term resilience and biodiversity of the region.  This newly protected property is a mecca for wildlife. It is a raptor hot spot and the creek corridor is used by wildlife as a major passage route across the valley. The property presents a major opportunity to expand riparian habitat and to restore rare wet meadows, which could provide habitat for numerous endangered and threatened species such as the California tiger salamander.  

“This purchase complements our previous acquisition of the Fisher Flats property in the northern end of the Valley and bookends what we envision will one day be a vibrant, vital passage for species of all types,” said Walter T. Moore. President of POST. The Open Space Authority is expected to assume active management of the property. 

“The Ramke property illustrates how working lands have long been contributing to both our farming economy and to the environmental sustainability of our region.” said Andrea Mackenzie, General Manager of the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority. Protection of this property honors the legacy of Henry and Martha Ramke who purchased the property in 1955 and devoted themselves to caring for it. 

Their heirs have fond memories of spending quality family time together at the ranch and playing in the irrigation ditches when it was an active orchard and are pleased to be working with POST and the Open Space Authority for its perpetual protection as open space. 

“We are incredibly happy to see the property being kept in conservation and not developed,” said Samantha Roffe, granddaughter of the Ramkes. “This is not just a piece of land to us, its where we grew up and it was life for my family, so it is special to us. We want it to be special for future generations to enjoy as open space, too.” 

This project is funded in part by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation 

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