This Week on the Central Coast…
Sandy the Whale turns 41, the Estrada Ranch is preserved, and the short play festival returns to Santa Cruz.
Monterey
Sandy the Whale celebrated her birthday
On Saturday, the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History celebrated the 41st birthday of Sandy the Whale with “birthday cupcakes, sea-themed activities, and a special reunion from participants of the ‘Buy a Pound of Sandy’ fundraiser.”
Sandy is a life-sized forty-foot gray whale which sits in front of the museum. She was created by Larry Foster in the 70’s and traveled all around California before finally being purchased in 1982 and settling at the museum.
The Monterey Museum of Art back to showing local art
A new exhibit at the Monterey Museum of Art is showcasing underappreciated works of the area. All the art is pre-1945 and “highlights underrepresented artists or people who were working in ways that maybe were different from what we were accustomed to”.
One piece, created in the ‘30s by Armin Hansen, was discovered in Europe. It is one of many works that haven’t been publicly available in decades.
“The exhibit is open through the end of April. Tickets are free for kids and teens 18 years and under, students with ID, active military with ID and SNAP participants with EBT. General admission tickets are $15.”
Santa Cruz
8 Tens @ 8 Short Play Festival makes a return
The Santa Cruz Actors’ Theater is finally offering its short play festival after the pandemic forced them to cancel for the past three years. The festival will present sixteen short plays presented in two parts, showing eight each day. The article provides a review of the first eight plays.
“Playing January 20 through February 19, 2023.
Thursdays, Fridays & Saturdays @ 8 pm
Saturdays & Sundays @ 2 pm
Tickets: $32 general, $29 students/seniors, with special two-for-one pricing on Thursdays, and a package deal to see both shows for $58/$54.”
Estrada Ranch preserved by the Peninsula Open Space Trust
Estrada Ranch is a large piece of land that has been owned by the family ever since it was first purchased in 1863. Jose Antonio Estrada and Loretta Estrada moved from Baja, Mexico to California after the Mexican-American War. Over the years, the Estradas have turned down offers to buy it (the space is large enough to fit up to fifty luxury homes) and chose to keep it in their family.
Until now. The Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has purchased the property in order to preserve its 839 acres. The trust was founded in 1977 and since then, it has helped preserve over 82,000 acres in San Mateo, Santa Clara, and Santa Cruz counties.
Under the deal, POST will allow the Estradas to continue to manage the land and keep it private. This “working landscape” has been a growing movement in California, allowing large portions of private land to be preserved rather than making the area public. “Local and state parks managers have been reluctant in recent years to acquire some new lands due to the high costs of operating and maintaining them.”
The Estradas’ long family history shows just how effective this type of preservation can be. The family owns a herd of eighty black angus cattle. The ranch also contains acres of redwoods, which the family works with Big Creek Lumber to responsibly cut - only fifty acres at a time, a few times each decade. “We’re just over the hill from Silicon Valley,” (Greg Estrada) said. “If it were sold, fencing would go in, and there goes the wildlife.”
While the sale is a first for the Estradas, it is a move that will preserve the natural ecosystem for many more decades.