Claude "Tony" Look is a conservationist and trail advocate who
has spent decades working on the establishment of hiking trails and
preservation of natural lands throughout the Santa Cruz
mountains.
In 1968, developers were preparing to build homes on Mt. McAbee,
the geographic center of Big Basin park. The landowners offered 320
acres to the state, but unfortunately the state was financially
unable to meet their terms. A development was planned whose
entrance road would pass right through a campground. The
Sempervirens Club that had formed in the early 1900s had become
inactive, so a new group, led by Tony and photographer Howard King,
organized themselves as the Sempervirens Fund. Their "May Day Campaign" was
successful not only in saving the threatened Mt. McAbee, but in
establishing a conservation group which has become instrumental in
securing endangered parcels for parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
Tony served as the executive director of the fund for 18 years.
| "I saw what happened when they bought trees for a park, but
not the watershed. Logging and fires caused erosion below, and
trees started falling. Then I saw that development was beginning in
the Santa Cruz Mountains, and the same thing could happen
there."
- Tony Look, founding Executive Director of
Sempervirens Fund, 1971. |
In 1969, Tony founded the Santa Cruz Mountain Trails Association
and began their annual Trail Days. His efforts with the first Trail
Days grew into the 26-mile Skyline to the Sea Trail. Over several
years he played a key role in recruiting, training, supervising and
feeding some 2,500 volunteers involved with completing this
nationally renowned trail. Eleven years after the first Santa Cruz
Mountains Trail Days, the event went statewide and ultimately led
the first National Trail Day in 1992.
He served on the California Recreational Trails Committee from
1980 to 1995, for several of those years as its Chair.
In 1991, Tony was appointed to the Santa Clara County Parks
& Recreation commission. While serving as a member, he found
time to help a group of citizens start The Friends of
Stevens Creek Trail.
In 1995, the American Hiking Society honored Tony as the Trail
Volunteer of the Year in California.
In June 2001 the Santa Clara County Parks and Recreation
Department honored Tony by dedicating a section of the Stevens
Creek Trail in his name.
I really enjoyed the trail. It's a fitting tribute to someone
who worked so hard to preserve the great outdoors we enjoy
today.
(Sources: stevenscreektrail.org, sempervirens.org,
santacruzstateparks.org)