Coast Dairies State Park
Coast Dairies is a state park and BLM public land in Santa Cruz County, California, near the city of Davenport. Wilder Ranch State Park is south of the park.
The new public lands protect a stretch of coastline and about of prime coastal lands. The beaches, which can be challenging to access, are tied together by the California Coastal Trail, which runs along the top of the bluff. The beaches are Sharktooth, Bonny Doon, Yellow Bank, Laguna Creek, and Panther, although many of these beaches also go by other local and historic names.
It was purchased by the Trust for Public Land in 1998, with $44 million from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and is preserved from development. Conservation groups have proposed that it be included in a proposed new National Monument. The proposal has received Congressional support, but some local opposition. A current proposal by Senator Barbara Boxer would add the BLM-owned lands to the California Coastal National Monument.
The coastal lands on the ocean side of Highway 1 were donated to California State Parks in 2006, but remain undeveloped. The state park land spans a segment of Highway 1 north and south of Davenport. In 2014, the Bureau of Land Management bought a tract of land on the inland side of the highway adjacent to the coastal parcels. Some of the land east of the highway will continue to be used for farming, but most will become public land.
