In a huge victory for land, wildlife, and Indigenous cultural heritage, the proposed Sargent Ranch open-pit sand and gravel mine is no longer a threat to the Juristac landscape! In January, the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) announced the purchase of this property for permanent conservation, putting an end to the Sargent Ranch Quarry proposal.

This outcome would not have been possible without the thousands of people who emailed elected officials, signed the petition, attended rallies, and spoke out for Juristac. Thank you for helping make this historic win a reality!

Why Juristac Is Important

Juristac, located just south of Gilroy, is an extraordinary landscape of grassy hillsides, ancient oak groves, sycamore woodlands, freshwater wetlands, and rare natural tar springs found nowhere else in the region. Along with Coyote Valley 25 miles to the north, Juristac provides the only viable pathway for wildlife to move into and out of the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the only one that connects to the Gabilan Range to the south as well as the Diablo Range to the east.

Juristac is also the most sacred site of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band. For thousands of years, the Amah Mutsun held ceremonies on this land, which remains a living Tribal Cultural Landscape of profound spiritual, cultural, and historical significance.

The Mining Threat

For years, Juristac has been threatened by a proposed open-pit sand and gravel mining operation. The Sargent Ranch Quarry would have destroyed more than 400 acres of habitat, carved three massive quarry pits hundreds of feet deep into the hillsides, generated hundreds of truck trips each day, and pumped approximately 76,000 gallons of groundwater daily for mining operations.

The mine would also have posed severe risks to Juristac’s rich biodiversity. Threatened California red-legged frogs live and breed in Sargent Creek, which flows between two hills that were slated for excavation. Juristac’s streams and ponds support threatened California tiger salamanders and western pond turtles, while steelhead trout have been observed in Tar Creek. Golden Eagles forage on the hillsides, and Burrowing Owls have been sighted in the grasslands.

Perhaps the greatest threat from the mining operation would have been its impact on wildlife movement. A 14-acre rock-crushing processing plant would have been built directly beside the region’s most important wildlife undercrossing beneath Highway 101. Heavy trucks loaded with sand and gravel would have driven constantly through that undercrossing, blocking the pathway for wildlife. With the defeat of the mine, mountain lions, tule elk, gray foxes, and other animals can safely travel underneath the highway.

The History of Juristac

Juristac is the heart of the ancestral lands of the Amah Mutsun, who lived and held sacred ceremonies there for centuries. For Mutsun people, Juristac is the home of a powerful spiritual being known as Kuksui. The name Juristac translates to “Place of the Big Head,” and Big Head dances and other healing and renewal ceremonies took place there, often attended by neighboring tribal groups. These ceremonies came to an end when many of the Mutsun people were forcibly taken against their will from Juristac to California’s missions in one of the darkest chapters in our state’s history. Juristac became known as Sargent Ranch after its mid-1800s purchase by James P. Sargent.

A Long Road to Protection

Green Foothills has a decades-long history of working to save this culturally and ecologically unique site. In partnership with other environmental groups, we successfully opposed a 1993 plan to build four “villages” of over 12,000 residents, and a proposal in the early 2000s for two golf courses and a luxury residential development. Several years later, the owner of Sargent Ranch declared bankruptcy, and in 2013, the land was acquired by creditors, including the Debt Acquisition Company of America (DACA).

In 2015, DACA proposed an open-pit sand and gravel mine on the property. In response, Green Foothills and the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band formed the Protect Juristac coalition – a diverse alliance of conservation groups, faith communities, civil rights organizations, and grassroots advocates. Together, the Protect Juristac coalition organized rallies and marches, gathered more than 20,000 petition signatures, and spoke to thousands of local residents at community events, farmers’ markets, and festivals.

Green Foothills’ role focused on gaining support from local elected officials. Together with the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and Protect Juristac coalition, we secured resolutions supporting Juristac’s protection from the city councils of Gilroy, Morgan Hill, Mountain View, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Santa Cruz, and Sunnyvale. More than 50 current and former elected officials at both the state and local levels signed on to our Statement of Opposition to Sargent Ranch Quarry.

This joint advocacy effort kicked into high gear in 2022, when Santa Clara County published a Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) on the proposed mine and invited public comment. Thanks to the Protect Juristac coalition’s massive outreach campaign, public opposition to the proposed mining project was overwhelming. Of more than 10,000 public comments in response to the DEIR, 99.99% opposed the mine.

All those years of determined advocacy have now borne fruit. Thanks to the efforts of our steadfast coalition, DACA abandoned the effort to get the mine approved, instead selling the property to POST for permanent conservation. This process took years and multiple transactions. POST’s purchase of the most critical parcel – the one where the quarry was proposed – took place in January, ending the Sargent Ranch mining proposal and permanently protecting the heart of Juristac.

A Hard-Won Success – But Still a Vulnerable Landscape

Although development threats remain in other areas of the greater Juristac landscape – the proposed Betabel Commercial Complex next to the Sargent Ranch property is one example – this acquisition is a major victory in our efforts to preserve the wildlife and cultural values of this magical place. Green Foothills will continue to work to protect Juristac’s wildlife habitat and cultural significance from all that threatens it.