The Santa Maria Valley has a great friend in the recently formed organization known simply as “Santa Maria Valley Open Space”.  North Santa Barbara County until very recently has had NO public hiking trails, and without the efforts of this group, still would have none.

What is Santa Maria Valley Open Space?

The Santa Maria Valley Open Space is a community based, volunteer organization that works directly with the SB County Parks Department to fund, create and maintain our local hiking trails.

Prior to May 2011 the were no public trails in the Santa Maria Valley. Today we have about 8 miles, all on Key Site 12 – Rice Ranch.

San Luis Obispo County has about 40 miles of public trails.

Santa Barbara has about 67 miles of public trail.

For the sake of simplicity, the quote below is directly from the website.  Please visit the website — read about the group’s mission — and contribute your time if you can, a small monetary contribution if possible, and at the very least — tell your friends and neighbors!  There is nothing like word of mouth to spread good news!

Orcutt Trails

“’Open’ is an important element to developing passive and spontaneous recreational resources for the community.  The trails must be open 7 days a week, sunup to sundown, and without trail-head fees to access them.  A place where you can stop at home on a Wednesday night after work, grab a water bottle and your dog, and be on a trail and heading up the hill 5 or 10 ten minutes later. For public trails to add value and happiness to the community, access to the trail system must be able to be integrated with daily routines, activity, and schedules spontaneously.”

Whether you are a hiker, jogger, walker, cyclist or just a concerned citizen, be aware that a group like Santa Maria Valley Open Space, working cooperatively with local landowners and local government, creates a positive image for our beautiful piece of the Central Coast.  Every bit of publicity that causes folks to visualize the Santa Maria Valley as an environment enriched with nature and harmony, rather than riddled with gangs and crime as our area is so often wrongly depicted in the press, is for the common good.

I’ll leave you with this thought for the day: ACCENTUATE THE POSITIVE!  Kudos to our friends at SMVOS and to Luis Escobar who got the project started, and thank you for 8 miles of public trails!!!