Unsullied beaches beneath windswept bluffs are drawing a number of outdoors people onto a hotly contested preserve in Sonoma County. With Point Reyes to the south and Bodega Head to the north, the crescent bay offers a wide panorama of the California coast, but the allure is starting to wear on a nearby neighborhood.
Named Estero Americano Coast Preserve, the 547-acre estuary empties into Bodega Bay. It was off-limits to the public for a century until recently, when a nonprofit land trust called the Wildlands Conservancy liberated the coastline following 10 years of planning.
Accessing the preserve is allowed after reaching the farthest end of Bodega Harbour, a scenic coastal community of 700 homes linked within an 18-hole golf course. But once word about the hike began to spread last month, locals began saying their neighborhood was upended overnight by hundreds of cars, and a thousand visitors appeared on the busiest day.
Now, a decade spent mitigating issues like access and visitor impact appears to have been in vain as over a hundred homeowners begin banding together to oppose the nonprofit land trust, saying the Wildlands Conservancy miscalculated the preserve’s popularity and left them holding the bag…