Early 2000s
|
|
2000 Giant Sequoia National Monument is designated by President Clinton (04/15/2000); it encompasses 353,000 acres and protects 33 Giant Sequoia groves, almost half of the groves that remain after extensive logging destroyed many of them in the 1800s and early 1900s. The government of Tulare County strongly opposes the creation of the Monument, fighting it all the way to the Supreme Court. (On 10/18/2002, The U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against the County; the Supreme Court declined to review the case, so the lower court decision upholding the Monument stood.)
2000 Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust is established in November through the merger of the Four Creeks, Kaweah, and Tule Oaks land trusts (the consolidated land trust is renamed Sequoia Riverlands Trust in 2003). 2000 James and Carol Herbert sell 725 acres of wetland prairie habitat at a below-market price to Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust (now Sequoia Riverlands Trust), to become the James K. Herbert Wetland Prairie Preserve (v). 2000 Bravo Lake Botanical Garden (v) is established by Manuel and Olga Jimenez and the volunteers of Woodlake Pride, with help from a small grant, the City of Woodlake, and local businesses, service clubs, and advisors. 2000 Dillonwood and Dillon Mill are added to Sequoia National Park; Senator Dianne Feinstein secures a $5 million appropriation for the purchase and Save-the-Redwoods League raises the remainder from foundations, individual donors from all 50 states, and the State of California, with support from the Goldman Foundation, the Packard Foundation, Oracle Foundation, San Francisco Foundation, and the Wildlife Conservation Board. 2000 Sequoia Field-Visalia-Dinuba School of Aeronautics (near jct. of Ave. 368 and Rd. 112, 9 mi. N of Visalia) is listed on the National Register of Historic Places (June 9, 2000). 2000 The Urban Tree Foundation plants its first trees in Tulare County, in the vicinity of the Fox Theatre in Visalia. 2001 WildPlaces begins as a working project initiated by a handful of dedicated volunteers and private funders working to restore the environment in the Southern Sierra by engaging volunteers in land and water stewardship and advocacy. 2003 Sequoia Riverlands Trust (SRT) is the new name given to the Sierra Los Tulares Land Trust (formed in 2000 by the merger of the Four Creeks, Kaweah, and Tule Oaks land trusts). 2004 The Mineral King Road Cultural Landscape (Sequoia National Park) is added to the National Register of Historic Places (October 24, 2003). 2004 The Portland Cement company donates a 152 acre former gravel quarry to Sequoia Riverlands Trust; working with experts from around the state, SRT plans to restore the quarry area, providing the first example of an ecologically-based aggregate mine reclamation in Tulare County. The restored area becomes the land trust's Dry Creek Preserve (v). 2004 Sequoia Riverlands Trust purchases the 1,819 acre Homer Ranch Preserve from Stephanie and Richard Homer, whose great great grandparents homesteaded in the area in the late 1800s; the property becomes the land trust's Homer Ranch Preserve. 2005 Sequoia Riverlands Trust purchases part of the Golden Sierra Ranch and conserves it as the 928 acre Blue Oak Ranch Preserve near Springville. 2008 SCICON celebrates its fifty year anniversary. 2009 Jim Moore (in July) and Paul and Ruth Buxman (in September) enter their land into the first farmland conservation easements in Tulare County, keeping their properties in farmland in perpetuity. Sweet Home Ranch (v) is open to the public two days per year. 2009 The Omnibus Land Management Law incorporates 159 land management bills and their revisions into one law and also establishes the National Landscape Conservation System. 2009 Tulare County encourages the public to attend the Mooney Grove Park Centennial Celebration on October 17. 2011 CSET (Community Services Employment Training) is awarded Proposition 84 (Urban Green Project Grant) funding for St. John’s Riparian Corridor restoration. 2011 Sequoia Riverlands Trust opens Dry Creek Preserve (v) and Homer Ranch Preserve to the public, in May (north on J21 off Hwy 216, near Lemoncove and Woodlake Sa)Prserv to the public on the 2016 Sequoia Riverlands Trust opens Blue Oak Ranch Preserve to the public on the first Saturday of each month (except closed in summer). 2016 Bearpaw High Sierra Camp is listed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 21. 2019 In 2019 this preserve was renamed Sopac McCarthy Mulholland Blue Oak Ranch Preserve. |
J. K. Herbert Wetland Prairie Preserve
Fox Theatre
Dry Creek Preserve
P. Buxman, Sweet Home Ranch
Homer Ranch
|
Photos on this page by: John Greening, Laurie Schwaller
|