Calif. nonprofit opens coastal Bay Area preserve. Neighbors hate it.

"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."

""I don't think anybody is bad here. [The Wildlands Conservancy] acquired some land, and that's wonderful they'll preserve it. But I don't think they understood what was going to happen," Kathy Levdar, a full-time resident, told SFGATE. "I think it's going to continue to be a big situation. Even if it mellows out a bit. You can't bring that many people onto a small preserve.""

Estero Americano Coast Preserve is a 547-acre estuary that empties into Bodega Bay. The preserve was closed to the public for a century before the Wildlands Conservancy opened the coastline after ten years of planning. Public access requires reaching the far end of Bodega Harbour, a community of about 700 homes built around an 18-hole golf course. Word of the new hike drew hundreds of cars and, on the busiest day, about a thousand visitors. Neighbors say the sudden influx upended their neighborhood and more than a hundred homeowners are organizing to oppose the conservancy, arguing the trust underestimated visitor impact. Wildlife sightings, such as a bobcat at the Shorttail Gulch Trailhead, occur near the preserve entrance.

Read at SFGATE