New TPL Consultant for Santa Barbara (CA)

Santa Barbara, CA 10/22/02—The Trust for Public Land (TPL) announced today that beginning in January of 2003, it will begin work with a new project consultant in Santa Barbara County. Carla Frisk, currently Administrative Assistant to state Senator Jack O’Connell, will begin working with TPL on its Santa Barbara County projects, including its efforts to acquire the Ellwood Mesa in Goleta.

“I can’t think of a more perfect match,” stated Senator O’Connell, whose Senate term expires this year due to term limits. “For the past 20 years, Ms. Frisk has worked on environmental issues in my Santa Barbara District Office, including every major public acquisition project in our County, such as the Sedgewick Ranch in Santa Ynez, the Kavian property in Lompoc, the Carpinteria Marsh and Bluffs, as well as the Wilcox, Rancho Arroyo Hondo and El Capitan purchases on the South Coast,” he added. Earlier this year, Senator O’Connell honored Ms. Frisk as his 2002 Woman of the Year for the 18th Senate District.

“TPL staff have already worked extensively with Ms. Frisk, in her capacity as Senator O’Connell’s Administrative Assistant, on our prior Santa Barbara conservation projects, and we are pleased that she will soon be consulting with us directly,” stated Reed Holderman, Executive Director for TPL-California. “With her experience and extensive local contacts she will be a terrific extension to our Santa Barbara Program.”

Ms. Frisk holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Environmental Studies from the University of California at Santa Barbara, as well as a Certificate in Hazardous Materials Management from UCSB Extension. Prior to her work for Senator O’Connell, she worked for the California Coastal Commission and for Earth Metrics, an environmental consulting firm. In 1983, she began working with Senator O’Connell on environmental issues, including oil development in the Santa Barbara Channel, the Casmalia toxic waste dump, the transportation of oil and toxic substances, land use planning, and land conservation and restoration.

The Trust for Public Land has already established a strong presence in Santa Barbara County through its acquisitions of the Douglas Family Preserve, formerly known as the Wilcox property, in the City of Santa Barbara and the El Capitan Ranch purchase on the Gaviota Coast. As a consultant to TPL, Ms. Frisk will provide an important local link to the organization whose main office is located in San Francisco. TPL has been actively working in Santa Barbara for over 15 years and is committed to protecting threatened properties within the County, in addition to its major initiative to save critical properties along the Gaviota Coast.

One of Ms. Frisk’s first tasks will be working with the community on TPL’s most recent conservation effort, the acquisition of Ellwood Mesa in the new city of Goleta. In August of this year, TPL entered into an agreement with real estate development company Comstock Homes and Santa Barbara Development Partners to protect this property where, every year, more than 100,000 Monarch butterflies gather during their annual winter migration.

The City of Goleta is already working with TPL on an innovative two-pronged conservation strategy to secure this unique property. TPL will launch a campaign to raise public and private funds to compensate the landowner for a portion of the property’s value and, to complete the conservation effort, the City will work with the landowner to swap an inland portion of the adjacent City park for the remainder of the landowner’s interest in the Mesa. Ms. Frisk will continue to work with Senator O’Connell until his term ends.