Tiburon resident is honored for efforts to preserve open space

The Marin Conservation League has recognized Tiburon resident Jerry Riessen and the organization he heads, Tiburon Open Space, with its prestigious 2023 Green Award for Environmental Leadership.

Riessen, who accepted the award April 21 at the league’s annual dinner in Novato, has played a key role in the 35-year-plus effort to preserve undeveloped Tiburon ridgelands as open space.

First came the 122-acre expanse known as the Harroman and Jay properties. Riessen and others organized the Last Chance to Save Old St. Hilary’s Open Space Committee and persuaded voters to approve two bond measures in 1993 and 1997 to acquire those lands, which now make up the Old St. Hilary Open Space Preserve.

Since then, Riessen and the Last Chance Committee, later renamed Tiburon Open Space, have worked to acquire the adjacent 110-acre property, owned by the Martha Co. and long targeted for housing development.

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