Click here to share your comments and ideas about Annadel.
Thanks for your interest in our beloved Annadel State Park!
Annadel is community treasure - a classic example of a public wildland park that functions not only as a place for destination-bound hikers, equestrians, and mountain bikers, but also as a place for daily respite. Before work or after work, it's close enough to downtown to provide access to nature within 15 minutes.
In the words of LandPaths' Executive Director, Craig Anderson, "given its proximity to an urban area, the wildness of its interior and the volume of its use, it's one of the most precious state parks in all of California!"
Naturally, LandPaths supports full funding for all public parks - State and Regional - so that both people and resources are safe and stewarded with the utmost care.
There are many groups working to steward Annadel as a place for both passive public use and for its natural values - including the Sonoma County Trails Council, the Mounted Assistance Unit, neighbors, and State Parks' dedicated staff. If Annadel were to become threatened with closure in either the coming weeks or years, we at LandPaths would wager that there would be strong and swift response from these groups and other volunteers in order to avoid total park closure.
That said, please know that a very similar situation: a state park threatened because of budget cuts - was why LandPaths was born in 1997. In fact, it is during these times that LandPaths begins to swim with broad tail strokes in order to provide for parks to stay open, creeks to be stewarded, and school groups to have access to the land outside their classroom walls. We do this in several ways:
1) Developing and running models for "interim public access management" so that new parks coming online can be opened for public use in a timely manner.
2) Enlisting volunteers to work with us in powering needed park improvements, ecological restoration projects and monitoring trail conditions for public safety.
3) Forming partnerships with local businesses, other nonprofits, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District, California State Parks, Sonoma County Regional Parks and others to ensure that land protected for parks is accessible as soon as humanly possible.
Click here for more on 'Community-Powered Parks'- including Willow Creek, Bayer Farm, and the Grove of the Old Trees.
Whether Annadel is ultimately threatened with immediate closure or not, we welcome your ideas, suggestions of partnerships and other input per how we can all do right by our State Parks in Sonoma County - so that they not only continue to be available to all - but actually thrive!
Click here to share your comments and ideas. Let us know if you'd like to be added to a list for contact if Annadel truly becomes threatened with closure.
At its core, LandPaths is about connecting to people to the land. Our primary means of accomplishing that is to get all people outdoors, often and where they live. A community of people that acts with nature in mind is a community we want to live.
LandPaths is a 501c3 nonprofit organization supported by community donations, foundation grants, fee-for-service work and the incredible network of volunteers and partnering organizations that enable us to live our mission.
Thanks again for your interest in Sonoma County's Big Outside!
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