The Land Trust and Santa Cruz Bicycles have something in common: trails. We want to build 45 miles of new trails in Santa Cruz County and Santa Cruz Bicycles wants to see mountain bikes on some of them, equestrians and hikers on others—and help pay for their construction.

That’s why when Santa Cruz Bicycles contributed $500,000 to help build trails at San Vicente Redwoods (matched by our No Limits Challenge), we realized we could be launching a new trend in trail-building. Despite a drop in government funding for public access in recent years, we can build new trails, and help take care of them, through partnerships.

That really describes all four projects in the Great Land & Trail Campaign. The $20 million the Land Trust is trying to raise will mostly go toward doing things government used to do and isn’t doing now. Private funds are increasingly supplementing public funds for things that are public goods and services. (More on this topic in last week’s Story of the Week).

It’s been a long time since anyone built 45 miles of new trails in Santa Cruz County. And we can’t think of any major public trail networks built on land that isn’t state park—which is to say the Land Trust and its partners are doing something unprecedented.

Santa Cruz Bicycles CEO Joe Graney said, “The Land Trust’s plan to build trails for cyclists, equestrians and hikers serves the outdoor community well, and the whole project potentially presents a whole new model for public lands acquisition, management and stewardship.”

The Land Trust and its non-profit partners protected San Vicente Redwoods back in 2011. Each group brings its own expertise to the table, protecting the land for its redwoods, waterways—which serve the City of Santa Cruz and Davenport—and for wildlife. The Land Trust is tackling the access component.

You can read more about Santa Cruz Bicycles’ generous gift in this press release.