WARD 6 - a diverse community

Ward 6 in San Mateo County is the largest and most rural of the 7 MROSD wards stretching from the Bayshore freeway in the north, south through urban North Fair Oaks, West Menlo Park and Redwood City to suburban Atherton, Portola Valley and Woodside, then crossing Skyline Blvd on to the rural communities of La Honda and Loma Mar, and finally the agricultural communities of Pescadero and the coast.

San Mateo County has a rich and varied history going back ten thousand years to when the area was settled by Ohlone Indian tribes.  They lived lightly on the land and practiced land management and fire suppressant techniques many of which are coming back into vogue.  Rock outcroppings with acorn grinding holes can still be seen on Midpen preserves.

Some 250 years ago the Spaniard Gaspar de Portola led his group of explorers north from Baja, California.  He crossed Pescadero and San Gregorio Creeks in San Mateo County.  We now know that in 1779 he arrived on Sweeny Ridge and was the first European to view the San Francisco Bay.  Subsequent settlement in the bay area, including the sad era of the missions, can be traced to this discovery.  Then in the 1800s the Spanish and Mexican authorities made huge land grants to rancheros, or Californios, who used their land mostly for cattle and sheep grazing.  

Since then the area has been progressively divided up as more and more people arrived in the area.  Originally the land was used mostly for logging and farming, but cities and towns grew up to accommodate the burgeoning population.  The farmlands and forests, as well as the natural habitats and ecological diversity so unique to the county, began to disappear.

50 years ago the voters of San Mateo County approved a special assessment district to purchase, preserve and protect some of the remaining undeveloped and unspoiled lands in the county.  Today some 65,000 acres in the district are preserved and protected from development.  Public access to these lands is encouraged but limited to nature friendly uses, 

In Ward 6 there are protected marshlands by the bay, wide open rolling meadows and shaded forests on the hills, and open grasslands towards the coast.  I encourage you to get out on some of the many trails in these areas, and appreciate the gift we voters have given ourselves.