News Subscribe to Our Newsletter Sign up for Email Updates CGF In the News Press Inquiries Past Articles Calendar			From the Executive Director... by Zoe Kersteen-Tucker As the year draws to a close, what better time to reflect on the unique milestone this 40th anniversary year represents for the Committee for Green Foothills? Last year, our Board of Directors set out to make 2002 a year of celebration from start to finish. To that end, we invited all of the Committee's past Board members to join the yearlong celebration by becoming part of our 40th anniversary Honorary Committee. Our Board members and a talented array of wonderful volunteers executed a series of special events aimed at thanking our members and welcoming new members. We honored our esteemed environmental partners during the year with special resolutions of appreciation. And to cap the year in grand style, we celebrated 40 years of open space protection and advocacy high atop Montebello Ridge at the sold-out Umbrellas Over Time fundraising event at Ridge Vineyards. While our members and friends were busy hiking, cycling and celebrating through the year, the Committee's advocates turned up the heat on local city and county governments in San Mateo and Santa Clara Counties. We saw a decisive victory for the Devil's Slide Tunnel with the signing of the federal Record of Decision. We increased the pressure on Stanford University, which has yet to make good on an agreement to develop and dedicate two public recreational trails as partial mitigation for the right to develop an additional 4.5 million square feet. The Committee successfully challenged the proposed development of a 34,000 square foot private school complex in one of Woodside's most scenic, rural areas. Thanks to the Committee's effective advocacy and staunch community opposition, Wavecrest Village - the sprawl-inducing, blufftop development in Half Moon Bay - was sent back to the drawing board. And we continued to advocate strong protections for the rural and scenic hillsides of Santa Clara County. Because you, our members and supporters, are our most powerful tool for environmental advocacy, we also made a concerted effort during this year to better involve you in our ongoing advocacy efforts. We successfully expanded our email action alert program, reaching more than 800 households with our weekly (sometimes twice weekly!) action alerts. The outpouring of letters and phone calls to elected officials generated from these action alerts has been truly gratifying and a great testament to the power contained in those grass roots. 2002 has truly been a year to remember. It's been a year of good friends sharing memories of battles new and old, a year of being mindful of all that we have to be thankful for, and a year to begin our next 40 years of environmental activism. The Committee is blessed with an exuberant Board President, Mary Davey and a smart, devoted Board of Directors who deeply respect the need to honor the many amazing individuals who have come together over the years to protect the open lands we all love to love. This Board knows that by looking back with appreciation we gird ourselves for the challenges to come. Our wish, during this very special year, has been to touch each and every one of you with thanks for your commitment to the preservation of our local environment. The open spaces we all treasure are still open because of you. On behalf of everyone at the Committee for Green Foothills, I offer each and every one of you our most heartfelt thanks for making this 40th anniversary celebration such a success. Indeed, we thank you for making the Committee's last 40 years such a success. Your faith in our work gives us strength and the abiding hope that we can leave a bit of this precious earth unsullied for future generations. Published October 2002 in Green Footnotes. Page last updated September 13, 2010 .