On the Front Lines of Championing Local Nature

In May of 1962, Wallace Stegner mailed his neighbors an invitation to “A Picnic with a Purpose.” The Pulitzer-winning novelist and 26 others had just lost a fight to keep the Palo Alto foothills out of the Stanford Industrial Park. They could throw up their hands in defeat or organize for the next fight. They organized. Stegner became the first Board President of what is now Green Foothills, and 64 years later, that spirit of organizing to protect local nature is still going strong.

“It’s not just about what’s in my backyard, but the greater landscape,” says Julie Hutcheson, the organization’s executive director. “Protecting nature is an act of self-preservation. We need it. Period.”

Unlike a land trust, Green Foothills does not buy land; it advocates for its protection – at city councils, county boards, and at the ballot box across San Mateo, Santa Clara, and San Benito counties. “We are the front line, holding the line,” Hutcheson says. “Land trusts purchase land from willing owners, but we’re the ones making sure that decision-makers enact policies that benefit people and nature, and protect key landscapes from harmful development.” That advocacy has helped protect more than 200,000 acres.

To see the work, you just have to drive it. Hutcheson points to the contrast between the landscapes surrounding Highways 101 and 280 as an example of how dramatically land-use decisions can shape a place. “You drive the 101, you know what it looks like. You drive the 280, you know what it looks like,” Hutcheson says. “If you have a choice, you’d rather drive the 280,” referring to the massive development surrounding the 101. “That is what the 280 could have looked like had we not stepped up.” The San Mateo coast was slated for freeways and subdivisions but Green Foothills backed the Coastal Act. It stood with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band to defeat a proposed open-pit sand and gravel mine at Juristac, resulting in that landscape’s permanent protection. And in Coyote Valley, a wildlife corridor between San Jose and Morgan Hill, Green Foothills and its partners helped shift the future of thousands of acres from development toward conservation.

“For years, Green Foothills has worked alongside partners and community members to raise awareness about what was at risk [with Coyote Valley] and give people a way to stand up for this incredible place,” says Justyne Schnupp, Director of Donor Relations.

Grassroots Action

The work is not getting easier. State housing legislation increasingly leaves nature out of the equation, and a proposed industrial facility now targets the heart of San Bruno Mountain, home to three endangered butterflies. Green Foothills’ new Líderes Rising program, built on their leadership academy that produced 300 graduates and 74 environmental wins, trains frontline community members to carry the fight themselves. “When people speak up together for nature, local officials listen,” says Jenny Green, Marketing Director. “That doesn’t happen by accident.”

Green Foothills’ victories take perseverance. Their role is to stay engaged: do the necessary research, speak up at public meetings, organize communities, build partnerships, and consistently make the case for nature to decision-makers.