You don’t have to be Wallace Stegner to get a bench named after you in the Midpeninsula Open Space Preserve, and a fat wallet alone won’t do it, either. In case you wondering how one gets one of those benches, today’s Mercury News has the basics:

So who’s worthy of a bench? The casual Sunday stroller is out of luck. But “exceptional volunteers” who donate time to the district’s docent program are eligible. So are district founders, who in the early 1970s fought off development. Major financial donors may be considered, but there are no guarantees.

“Just giving money doesn’t get you a bench,” said district spokesman Rudy Jurgensen.
In a process akin to a posthumous popularity contest, a three-person panel reviews your name to decide if you were truly “exceptional.” There are no criteria for the number of volunteer hours or years. If approved, it goes to the district’s full board of directors for acceptance.

So far, there’s limited seating at MidPen. Only 15 benches now exist; if officials accepted each of the four requests now coming each year, the total number of benches would double in only four years. That might not seem like a lot, but the district is dedicated to keeping the preserves as natural as possible.

You can also have a tree named in your honor, or a whole grove if you donate enough.