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The
Central Coast has a long history of conservation achievements,
borne by the vision and determination of local residents who
have dedicated their lives to protecting and defending our
region’s wild landscapes. As ForestWatch continues their good
work, we proudly present the Wilderness Legacy Award each year,
honoring the legacy of our conservation heroes.
This year's
honoree is the late Sally Reid (1919-2002), one of the most
important conservation leaders in our region for nearly three
decades. In the 1960s she was a high school biology teacher in
Los Angeles, and her first conservation role was an extension of
that profession: She organized college-credit lectures on the
environment for other area teachers. Sally and her husband Les
moved to Pine Mountain Club in the Los Padres National Forest
after they both retired, leading many cross-country ski trips
and lessons into the snowy wilderness around their home.
Wilderness in California owes much to the leadership of Sally.
Her first campaign was to get Mineral King added to Sequoia
National Park instead of having it developed as a resort by the
Disney corporation. She called the first meeting of what became
the Southern California Forests Committee at her home, and
chaired the committee for a decade. It was this committee that
developed the Southern California proposals for wilderness that
ultimately were signed into law as the California Wilderness Act
in 1984, which established the Dick Smith and Machesna Mountain
wilderness areas and significantly expanded the existing San
Rafael and Ventana wilderness areas.
To her dismay, her favorite areas in the heart of Los Padres
National Forest near her home were dropped from the bill.
Undaunted, she continued the fight for wilderness for these
areas and was ultimately successful in 1992 with the signing of
the Condor Range and Rivers Act and its creation of the Chumash,
Sespe, and Matilija wilderness areas. She made innumerable trips
to Washington, D.C., to lobby on behalf of wilderness and the
national forests. She also chaired a task force to evaluate the
removal of Hetch Hetchy Dam, among many other notable
achievements.
Previous Honorees
2009:
Robert Easton, Jim Mills, and Fred Eissler
for their efforts in establishing the San Rafael Wilderness Area
in 1968, the first wilderness area designated after passage of
the Wilderness Act of 1964
2010: Dick
Smith
a local
journalist, author, photographer, and backcountry explorer who
devoted his life to protecting our local backcountry and its
iconic wildlife, the California Condor
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