The Loma Prietan
June/July 1999
Chapter Loses Veteran Activist
by Olive Mayer
All of San Mateo County is indebted to Ellie Larsen, former Conservation Chair of the Loma Prieta Chapter and longtime area activist, who passed away at Seton Hospital from emphysema on April 2nd.
Organizer and Strategist
It was Ellie who led the campaign to end the 380 Freeway at the intersection with 280. This protected the coast and the mountains above Pacifica from development and saved Sweeney ridge, which latter became part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.
Ellie was second to none as a political organizer and strategist and she enjoyed both roles. Without Ellie, Caltrans would have built two massive cloverleaf intersections - one on Sweeney Ridge and another connecting 380 to Route 1. Developers planned to make Pacifica the hub for the massive industrial activities required to support construction of a coastal city of 160,000 persons. Ellie put together an opposition campaign which included many local organizations and a fine team of high school students. Negotiations were long, arduous and attended over many years. Political leaders on the city, county and state levels were committed to construction and massive growth. It was a great day when the Sierra Club and their allies met for a victory party to celebrate the defeat of the 380 extension.
Ellie also led the Sierra Club in the north county campaign to acquire San Bruno Mountain as a park. She played a significant role in thwarting developers who planned to build a city of 50,000 people in the mountain saddle area - an area famous for its wildflowers and butterflies. After a long and arduous conflict, politicians bowed to public pressure, and this section of the mountain became a state park. Several thousand other acres of the mountain became a county park.
Developers also had plans to cut off the top of San Bruno Mountains, and dump it as fill in the Bay. Housing was in great demand and a new Bay front freeway, more than a mile from the shore we know today, was in the county's plans. That too was scotched.
Ellie and Sylvia Gregory, who is well know at the Conservation Center, were great buddies in these conflicts. They began their conservation careers attending city council meetings, listening and silently knitting. Ellie majored in architecture at U.C. Berkeley, and worked as a mechanical designer for consulting engineering firms. For the Sierra Club, her greatest skill was political strategy which combined with her fine sense of humor.
She spent many of her younger years painting water colors. Throughout her life one of her favorite things to do was paint water colors in the high Sierras. She met her husband, George Larsen, on a Sierra Club Base Camp trip in the High Sierras. George, who died in 1995, was an ardent kayaker, a Sierra Club trip leader, and editor of the Paddler News - a publication of the Bay Chapter River Touring Section. She is survived by her daughter, Lori, of Santa Cruz.
Ellie's love of nature led her to devoted concern for its protection. Next time you hike along Sweeney Ridge admire the spacious landscape, take in the views of San Bruno Mountain, and think of Ellie.