National Park Service/GGNRA: General Management Plan

ETRAC’ Equestrian Organizations Are Partners in Planning for Public lands South of San Francisco

Folger Stable will get face-lift

National Park Service/GGNRA: General Management Plan
The General Management Plan will guide the use in the areas that are currently stables or horse trails.

Andrea Lucas (Landscape Architect/GGNRA) created an informal table of horse trail and stable use (click here to view as pdf) from the information in the recent General Management Plan Newsletter #4. To learn more about the GMP preliminary alternatives, and the color coding indicated in the above table, please see the maps and other information from GMP Newsletter #4 by clicking here. Download Newsletter #4: "Part 6 Preliminary Alternatives for San Mateo County" and "Summary of Management Zones for Park Planning insert" . Color-coded maps for San Mateo County are found on pages 44 through 46.

A reminder to get your comments and suggestions in to: goga_gmp@nps.gov
- the earlier the better so the GMP team can start looking at them!

‘ETRAC’ Equestrian Organizations Are Partners in Planning for Public lands South of San Francisco
The National Park Service (NPS) is currently working on two separate plans that could impact equestrian recreation in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). Both projects have started their environmental review processes and have opened their respective public scoping periods.

GGNRA managed parks include Tomales Bay, Olema Valley and Bolinas Lagoon (abutting to Point Reyes National Seashore), Marin Headlands, Presidio, Ocean Beach, Fort Funston, Milagra and Sweeney ridge in Pacifica, Phleger Estate in Woodside.

‘Ten equestrian organizations are members of ETRAC, an umbrella organization for horsemen in San Mateo County. San Mateo County Equestrians have been attending all of the public meetings on this subject and have provided extensive input into the process. As part of ETRAC, the CHAT, or Coastside Horse Action for Trails, will be creating a vision statement for ETRAC which will attempt to plan and track both N-S and E-W equestrian trails opportunities, including horse camps from Wilder Ranch in Santa Cruz to McNee State Park in Pacifica.
http://www.etrac.us/

ETRAC would like to have a write-in network available should public comment become necessary.
-Adda Quinn www.californiastatehorsemen.com/envirohorse.htm 650.255.3241


Folger Stable will get face-lift
Committee members still need to raise over $1 million
By Julia Scott / MediaNews
In its glory days, the Folger Estate Stable provided a pedigreed home to the finest of horses. When it was built as part of the estate of coffee magnate James Folger II in 1905, the carriage stable was equipped with the greatest refinements: pink marble baseboards, grand crystal chandeliers and skylights. The stable was one of the first electrified buildings on the Peninsula and boasted not one, but three fireplaces for the Folger family to warm their feet after a long day of riding.

Today, little remains of the luxurious legacy of the Folgers. Horse owners pay up to $750 a month to bed down their animals in simple stalls, some with doors coming off. Two of three skylights have been boarded up. The eaves that underhang a portion of the building's back side are falling off, and water damage has required the installation of thick rubber tubing to bypass the storm drains in heavy rains.

The Folger family sold their 942-acre Woodside estate, now known as Wunderlich Park, to developer Martin Wunderlich in 1956. Having failed to develop it into housing and a golf course as they had hoped to do, the Wunderlichs donated the property to San Mateo County in 1974.

The county could not care for Folger Stable as well as the previous owners, and it fell into disrepair, according to Jill Daly, co-president of Friends of Huddart & Wunderlich Parks. By the time the nonprofit took note of the stable's condition in 2002, it was at risk of being shut down by the county because of the safety hazard it posed.

"It was in a terrible state," Daly said. "There were small children's swimming pools collecting water up top."

Unwilling to see the building disappear, a group of dedicated horse lovers launched a fundraising campaign for renovations. In October, the Folger Estate Stable Committee announced it had reached its goal of raising $3.3 million toward repairs, which will begin this spring and last up to one year. Committee members still need to raise over $1 million to establish an endowment devoted to increasing public access to the grounds, especially for Peninsula schoolchildren.

Other than its history, the Folger Stable is also significant for its architecture and its architect, Arthur Brown Jr., who went on to design the San Francisco Ferry Building, City Hall and Coit Tower. The redwood-paneled stable, painted to look like mahogany, is described as a combination of Craftsman, Gothic Revival, and Normandy styles. In 2004, the Folger Estate Stable Committee succeeded in having the stable and accompanying buildings listed on the National Register of Historic Places -- an achievement that forestalled any attempts to tear the building down, according to Daly.

The improvements will include a new roof, new windows and skylights, refurbished wood paneling and repairs of all the water damage. The pink marble baseboards remain, and they will be buffed to a shine. New coach lights and chandeliers will be installed where the old ones used to be.

Situated a stone's throw from a major earthquake fault, the building will need to be retrofitted and also pass muster under all modern fire and electrical codes.

The endowment will allow children to come on-site for docent-led tours of the refurbished stable grounds, including a look at an old-fashioned horse carriage. Schoolchildren will be taught about horses and how to interact with them, and riding lessons will be established.

"They'll be able to see what a private estate stable looked like at the turn of the century," Daly said.

For those who know it well, the Folger Stable is more than a rare historic landmark in a town with few old buildings. It is one of few surviving places for horse lovers to board their animals and know they'll be well taken care of.

Most of the 24 stalls at Folger Ranch are filled with horses and ponies belonging to families in Woodside and other local towns, said Judith Schwartz, a board member of the parks committee, who walked her Arabian, Hercules, on the trails around Folger Stable on Sunday.

The satisfying hollow clip-clop of hooves on the cobblestone entryway, a remnant from the past, lent a cheery and productive air to the dimly-lit environment.

"The loss of stable properties for people to keep horses in this area has been dramatic. Woodside is one of the few places where you can see horses walking down the street," said Schwartz, who lives in Palo Alto.

Although up to 10 public stables still exist in Woodside, many others have been lost to new property owners who didn't own horses and tore down the stables they inherited, said Schwartz. The ones that are left are "nothing compared to the number of people who want horses," she said.

For more information about Folger Stable and Wunderlich Park, visit
www.parksupport.org.