Ventana Trails Forever

For nearly a decade the Ventana Wilderness Alliance has led the grassroots effort to protect the wilderness qualities of the Ventana Region, along the Big Sur Coast. VWA volunteers also contribute thousands of hours each year maintaining the public trails in the Ventana back country. I support their conservation work and endorse the Ventana Trails Forever campaign.

- Robert Redford, Actor, Director, Conservationist

Trails connect us to the great outdoors. They are nature’s invitation to venture forth, to take time to notice and to feel the earth beneath our feet. The trail network of the Ventana region provides over 300 miles of spectacular wilderness experiences and a natural outdoor classroom that inspires current-day and future land stewardship. Forest Service trail budgets have shrunk drastically in recent decades, leaving the agency unable to keep all of the local trails open to the public. Only a concentrated effort by land management agencies, nonprofit organizations, and the general public will save these trails from extinction.

Download the Ventana Trails Forever Map (6 mb PDF file)

The goal for Ventana Trails Forever campaign is to raise $1,000,000 to provide permanent funding for the maintenance and restoration of the public trail network of the Ventana region. The public trails in the Ventana region would cost more than $25 million if built today. By comparison, the Ventana Trails Forever campaign requires only 4% of the total asset value of the trail system it will preserve. This leveraging of private dollars for professional trail crews with the sweat equity of volunteers on public lands represents an innovative and remarkably productive public/private partnership.

One hundred percent of the money raised will be deposited in a restricted-use fund at the Community Foundation for Monterey County. Each year the Comunity Foundation makes a disbursement from the fund for immediate use by the Ventana Wilderness Alliance for maintenance and restoration of public trails in the Ventana region.

Donor Recognition

Donors providing gifts of $1,000 or more are recognized on a commissioned fine-art piece designed and built by Big Sur artist and sculptor Greg Hawthorne. This permanent monument is located at the public entrance to the Multi-Agency Facility at Big Sur Station, which is the hub of backcountry visitor activity in the Ventana Region and operated by the United States Forest Service, California Department of Transportation and California State Parks. Donors contributing at the following levels will be acknowledged:

Sta'yokale - Santa Lucia Peak $50,000
Ventana Double Cone $25,000
Cone Peak $10,000
Ventana Cone $5,000
Silver Peak $1,000

Please donate to the Ventana Trails Forever campaign. Call us at 831-423-3191 or email us at with any questions and to plan your recognition on the plaque.

Making the gift is easy!  Donate directly to the Ventana Trails Forever fund by clicking here. Or you can Download the VTF Donor Directive and Pledge Form and mail it with your donation to:

Community Foundation for Monterey County
ATTN: Ventana Trails Forever Fund
2354 Garden Road
Monterey, CA 93940