Program areas at Peninsula Open Space Trust
Land acquisition & transfer:in fiscal year 2022, post completed and assisted a total of 5 transactions that protected 167 acres while advancing several other longer-term acquisitions and transfers.land transactions- supported the santa clara valley Open Space authority in protecting 80 acres through two transactions that expand abutting Open Space preserves in or near coyote valley.- acquired two properties totaling 85 acres in the mid coyote valley area that secure wildlife connectivity along the fisher creek... corridor and enable future floodplain and wetland restoration.- amended and expanded a conservation and trail easement along an important coastal farm, adding two acres for future development of the California coastal trail.
Community outreach and education:to further our community growth and engagement efforts, in fiscal year 2022, the organization continued our content marketing and engagement programs which grow our community and engage prospective donors. Between new pieces and revisions to existing content, we distributed at least 50 informational pieces such as guides (which were updated to a new web friendly format), numerous blog posts, hundreds of social media posts (both paid and organic), 3 annual magazines and numerous press releases. As a result, we attracted over 38,000 new community members to our email list which is steady at over 120,000 active contacts. (continued...)we continued to implement digital donor acquisition campaigns using our crm, social media and marketing automation platforms to renew existing donor support, convert community members into donors, and deepen engagement across our entire community. Our august 2021 500 donor challenge campaign generated 981 donors and over $115,000 in revenue. Similarly, our three year-end digital campaigns which took place between giving tuesday (the first tuesday after thanksgiving) and december 31 generated over $1,000,000 in revenue and over 3,400 additional donors. Donor support remained very strong through the fiscal year end, with post achieving annual operating fund revenues and donor counts of over $7.294 million and over 10,500 respectively. Community members and donors continued to stay connected to post throughout the year via our monthly newsletters and outreach events. We provided a robust schedule of 62 events including virtual, in-person events in formats both large and small. With the lessening of covid we were able to reinstate our ambassador-led hikes, delivering 4-5 in person hikes per month Open to all members of the community. We also executed our largest in person event ever with dr. robin wall kimmerer which had (total virtual and in person) 5,027 registrants and 4,200 attendees. In total, over 14,000 people registered for our events with 8,000+ people attending, 52% of whom were new to our list. We have continued to run our multi-faceted digital awareness campaign called the find your place which is aimed at growing awareness for post and generating email list sign ups and growing engagement with broader, more diverse audiences. Early in the year we worked with our marketing agency to better define top, middle, and bottom of funnel strategies. This fine tuning created more engaging ad content with more frequency across platforms. We saw improved performance and introduced some new things as well. From its inception through june of 2022, the program reached 2.4m people with 13.9m impressions on the facebook platform. A click through rate of .67% and conversion rate of 22.7% are both above industry benchmarks. Youtube ads contributed an additional 700,000 people reached with 2.5m impressions, a click through rate of 1.09% and a conversion rate of .2% and growing. We also introduced instagram influencers this year as well as better amplification of the post created guides across the middle and bottom of funnel strategies.post produced and delivered two issues of our landscapes magazine this year and one edition of our annual impact report both of which were distributed to over 14,000 recipients. Additionally, post worked across our network of partners to coordinate media preparedness in reaction to the draft environmental impact report on juristac a large, contiguous property in southern santa clara county that is both vital to our wildlife linkages work as well as a site of immense cultural significance for the amah mutsun tribal band. Post has led the coordinated media message development against the development of a sand and gravel mine on this property.
Land management:post currently holds 20,199 acres in fee ownership and holds conservation easements and deed restrictions on 14,463 acres. The organization has an established stewardship program for the lands it owns that includes resource conservation planning and management, along with active uses of land for conservation grazing and agriculture, sustainable forest management and restoration where appropriate, and development of compatible recreational opportunities. Post works to protect and manage lands in its possession through site-specific stewardship plans for the natural resources on each... property. Post staff and volunteers actively monitor the acreage on which post holds easements or restrictions. Volunteers also assist with stewardship projects on post-owned land. In total, post land volunteers contributed an impressive 1,920 hours of work time on post-protected land including conservation easement monitoring, participating in highway clean-ups, and mapping and treating invasive plants that degrade natural systems. These are some of the most impactful projects we implemented in order to care for the lands we protect:fy22 projects - san vicente redwoods and filice ranch: - continued post-fire clean-up and restoration from the czu fire - post-fire road maintenance including rehabilitation of stream crossings; - planted 20,000 redwood seedlings in the upper big creek and san vicente creek working forest reserves; - began operation of 3 air curtain burners to safely consume accumulated dead woody biomass and reduce risks from future wildfires; - archaeological and botanical surveys including of rare fire-following plants. - completed construction of 1.5 miles of shaded fuel breaks on ridges in the deadman restoration reserve; - removed lower mill creek dam in the san vicente creek watershed to restore access to over a mile of habitat for anadromous fish.- initiated new agricultural leases on 3 farms in san mateo county encompassing over 160 acres of formerly fallow coastal farmland - completed the coyote valley road ecology study with partners pathways for wildlife and the santa clara valley habitat agency. This study will assess wildlife movement between protected areas in north coyote valley and provide recommendations to reduce wildlife-vehicles collisions and maintain or enhance habitat connectivity.- with san mateo county parks, completed 75% of the designs for new park at tunitas creek beach and advanced the permitting process.- partnered with san mateo county parks rx program to provide equitable access to nature therapy at post's audrey edna cabin.