Early 2000s

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. The garden was renamed Woodlake Botanical Garden (v) in 2017.

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. In 2019, this preserve was renamed Sopac McCarthy Mulholland Blue Oak Ranch Preserve. In 2023, it was again renamed, McCarthy Blue Oak Ranch Preserve.

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.

2016          Sequoia Riverlands Trust opens McCarthy 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.