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