FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Santa Cruz Area Residents Elected To Lead Ventana Wilderness Alliance
CONTACT:
Contact: Tom Hopkins 831-429-9010
SANTA CRUZ, CA -- May 31, 2007: Five Santa Cruz area residents have been elected to lead the Ventana Wilderness Alliance for 2007. At the winter board meeting Tom Hopkins was elected president; Jon Libby vice-president; David Jacobs, CPA, treasurer; Rich Popchak director and Julie Anne Hopkins director, all of Santa Cruz. Rounding out the roster of officers and directors for 2007 is Dennis Palm of Paso Robles who was elected secretary. The Ventana Wilderness Alliance is a Santa Cruz based all-volunteer nonprofit that works to protect the wilderness qualities and biodiversity of the northern Santa Lucia Mountains and Big Sur Coast.
The Forest Service reported that Ventana Wilderness Alliance volunteers contributed over 2,500 hours of back country trail maintenance in the Ventana Wilderness Area in 2006 which the Forest Service values at over $45,000.
The VWA also reports receipt of a $2,000 grant from Patagonia to help fund removal of several abandoned vehicles from the Willow Creek drainage along the southern Big Sur Coast. This will be the second project for the VWA in Willow Creek. In 2004 VWA volunteers backpacked over 10,000 pounds of trash and abandoned mining equipment from the newly designated Willow Creek addition to the Silver Peak Wilderness Area. For more information visit: www.ventanawild.org.
