Beloved wilderness protected near Santa Cruz

The Bureau of Land Management recently took control of the 5,800-acre Coast Dairies property overlooking the Pacific Ocean, which will eventually be opened to the public. The Bureau of Land Management recently took control of the 5,800-acre Coast Dairies property overlooking the Pacific Ocean, which will eventually be opened to the public. Photo: Jim Pickering/BLM Photo: Jim Pickering/BLM Image 1 of / 7 Caption Close Beloved wilderness protected near Santa Cruz 1 / 7 Back to Gallery

Conservationists on Friday celebrated the federal government’s acquisition of a 5,800-acre stretch of wilderness and ranch land north of Santa Cruz, a move that closed a years-long battle over the revered expanse.

The property known as Coast Dairies, donated by the nonprofit Trust for Public Land, is the second-most-valuable plot gifted to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. It is valued at $40 million.

The pricey transfer bolsters continuing efforts to protect the coastal forests and salmon-spawning streams of the Santa Cruz Mountains. This summer, the state provided $10 million for a conservation easement that will safeguard 8,500 acres just north of the new federal property.

Federal officials were joined by their nonprofit counterparts Friday to offer the first tours of Coast Dairies. They were scheduled to shuttle visitors on four-wheel-drive vehicles through redwood groves and open prairie high above the Pacific.

The Bureau of Land Management plans to permanently open the property to the public for hiking, cycling and horse riding, but only after the agency has time to address safety issues on the land, such as securing old mining pits.

“We’re excited to get this property,” said George Hill, an associate field manager out of the bureau’s Hollister office. “It’s been a long haul, but we all stuck with it.”

The property, once a working dairy ranch off Highway 1, was optioned for the development of luxury estates in the late 1990s, which prompted the San Francisco conservation group Save the Redwoods League to negotiate a purchase.

The property was ultimately transferred to the control of the Trust for Public Land, which shaved off a sliver along the water to be run as a state park and another slice for farming.

With other public agencies lacking money to manage the site, the Bureau of Land Management agreed to take over the bulk of the property.

Neighbors and some environmental groups initially protested the federal transfer, worried about how the bureau, which oversees lands used for hunting, mining and logging, would manage the new property. A court decision eventually cleared the way for the feds to take control in April.

The property sits about 8 miles north of Santa Cruz and next to the small town of Davenport. It’s home to several threatened species, including the California red-legged frog, coho salmon and steelhead trout.

Will Rogers, president and chief executive of the Trust for Public Land, said his organization’s effort too preserve the plot is not yet done.

Rogers is among a group of environmentalists petitioning the federal government to recognize the property as a national monument. The designation wouldn’t necessarily afford additional protections to the parcel, because the Trust for Public Land has ensured commercial logging and mining won’t take place there, but it could add prestige.

“It gives that really special status to a property,” Rogers said. “I think people who know the property think it deserves that kind of status.”

A decision to grant monument status rests with the president and is not unprecedented in the region. In 2012, the special designation was bestowed upon nearby Fort Ord beside Monterey Bay.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander