An innovative approach to keeping wild land wild while providing public access has come to fruition with LandPaths, the Sonoma Land Trust and private landowners teaming up to create a new 554-acre nature preserve at Bohemia Ranch. 

"This is truly an "it takes a village" effort like none LandPaths has seen to date" says Craig Anderson, LandPaths Executive Director.  "And while this village helped LandPaths make a promise to steward the land with the public for generations...this promise will be fulfilled only with the help of the good people of our community." 

Beginning this month, you will have an opportunity to (re)discover Bohemia and help us fulfill the promise via guided hikes and volunteer stewardship projects.  Part of that promise is respecting the sensitive habitat, surrounding private property owners land AND being patient with LandPaths as we work to find means to provide access to the land in the safest and most creative ways possible. Thank you!  Here's how you can get involved...    

NOTE: Due to demand for these tours, many are already full.  But don't fret, we'll be adding more dates soon!  

In the meantime, if you are on Facebook, you can follow Bohemia Preserve here.  

Explore Bohemia Preserve, Guided hiking tours

• February 12, 10am and 2pm
• March 3, 10am and 2pm 

Lend a Hand at Bohemia Preserve

• February 20
• March 16

Contact us for more details...

hope for 2012

Support Health, Land, and Youth

Contribute to LandPaths 2012 Challenge

You may ask why LandPaths should be on the top of my giving list.

Simply put: Because LandPaths has a dramatic positive impact on health, the land, and our youth.

• Health- LandPaths'Bayer Farm, an urban farm and community garden in Santa Rosa, engages people in growing and healthy eating. LandPaths works with health care providers to prescribe walking and a guide to nearby parkland to promote active lifestyles. LandPaths offers over 100 free hikes and fun events on 6,000 acres of parkland in Sonoma County - the majority of those acres open to public use because of LandPaths.

• Environment - Our land conservation and stewardship projects result in cleaner air and water and lessen the impacts of global climate chaos. Our work with biologists, naturalists, agriculture and wildlife experts and volunteers help curtail negative ecological impacts.

• Youth - Our school-year outdoor nature classroom (In Our Own Backyard) and summer camp (Owl Camp) give students scientific education and experience to equip them for their future as citizens and informed voters. Over 80% of our students are low-income and with budget cuts, students need the outdoor nature education provided by LandPaths even more. Studies show that student academic achievement improves with outdoor classrooms and promote positive well-being in our youth. LandPaths provides these educational programs as well as scholarships. We hear from teachers that In Our Own Backyard is the only science that many students experience.

Support LandPaths Today!

We understand that the quality of our future is dependent on connecting land and people - that powerful positive change is possible when all people forge a personal connection to the land and through the land to each other. Our mission is to"foster a love of the land" by connecting people with nature.

Contribute to LandPaths and you help keep our community active and healthy. Your support protects land and educates youth who will successfully adapt to the future.

LandPaths provides connections with our programs and to our parklands in:

• West Sonoma County - Willow Creek, Bohemia Ranch, Carrington Ranch, Grove of the Old Trees
• Santa Rosa area - Bayer Farm, Taylor Mountain, Ranchero Mark West
• North Sonoma County - Riddell Preserve, Healdsburg Ridge Preserve, Cooley Ranch.

Your contribution will keep our land and our community healthy. With LandPaths, we can all nurture our community, our FUTURE and ourselves by taking a walk, spending time in the garden or forests, breaking bread together after a fruitful workday, sitting by a pond and listening to the birds and the sounds of our communities. We connect with nature and we invite you to join us.

Help us, help our land. Give generously to LandPaths.
Thank you.

Craig Anderson
Executive Director

P.S. Evolution of Parks. LandPaths is leading by example. Willow Creek and Bayer Farm are successful models to counteract park closures. LandPaths is working to keep parks open and with your support we will keep parkland open to the public. And, the phone just rang last week requesting our help and approach at keeping open another priceless State Park in our community.

LandPaths is happy to announce a new position and the hiring of Jean F. Marquardt as Director of Development.  Jean returns to Sonoma County after a 15-year career of nonprofit development in New Mexico at the Taos Center for the Arts and Santa Fe Indian Market. She was the former executive director at the Sonoma County Bar Association. She has over 30 years of fundraising in major gifts, planned giving and corporate giving.

"I am totally enthralled with the mission of LandPaths as I see it as the bridge between our connection to the land and our personal and civic growth," states Jean. The mission of LandPaths is "to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County".  By providing access to public lands and educational programs for our community and youth, LandPaths creates ways for people to experience the beauty in Sonoma County.

Our work involves stewardship activities, education, outings, hikes and ecological research. By hiring a development director, LandPaths will seek support for youth nature education programs, Bayer Farm, stewardship and public outings to benefit all people in our community.

For more information, contact Jean at (707) 544-7284 x 24 or jean@landpaths.org.

POSITION ANNOUNCEMENT | Printable PDF here

Communications and Outreach Coordinator

Position Summary

LandPaths is seeking a self-motivated, energetic, and creative individual who excels in a fast- paced creative environment and thinks both strategically and logistically. The Communications Coordinator provides assistance with many communication and outreach efforts for the organization. Reporting to the Communications Director and working closely with the Development Director and other senior staff, the Communications Coordinator will assist with structuring and implementing an integrated community engagement and public relations program.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

Overall:
• Enhance and improve public understanding of LandPaths' mission, programs, and impact-telling our story.
• Work with staff to further develop a comprehensive communication and outreach program that effectively communicates LandPaths' mission, goals, and impact to new markets and diverse audiences.

Online Communication:
• Coordinate weekly eNews schedule and develop workflow schedule for gathering content from program directors.
• Grow LandPaths social media presence.
• Solicit content from program directors and assist in developing content that highlight the accomplishments and major events related to program activities.
• Oversee content for www.LandPaths.org, including blogs and online Outings Calendar.
• Develop video as a technique for telling LandPaths story.
• Integrate technologies that can be used to effectively share stories, videos, presentations, photos and other content.

Collateral Materials & Media:
• Help create and maintain print and digital portfolios of organization and individual program materials and media.
• Consult on content and design of collateral materials.
• Assist with press releases and community relations as needed.

Qualifications:
• Excellent organization, writing and oral communication skills.
• Bilingual / bicultural desirable.
• Minimum three years experience in visual media and/or communications.
• Strong skills and experience with digital media and the internet, knowledge of content management and integrated systems.
• Demonstrated graphic skills including photography and videography.
• Proficiency with desktop publishing/page layout/photo/video editing software highly desirable.
• Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively.

Compensation: Salary commensurate with experience; minimum 10 hours per week.

To Apply: Interested applicants should send a BRIEF AND SPECIFIC cover letter and resume, by Friday., Sept. 30, 2011 to: LandPaths ~ attn Jonathan - jonathan@LandPaths.org

About LandPaths
LandPaths is a Sonoma County-based nonprofit organization "dedicated to fostering a love of the land through public access, stewardship and environmental education programs" (our mission) on preserved lands. LandPaths staff and volunteers work with public agencies, community groups, individuals and other nonprofits in order to accomplish this mission. LandPaths includes 15 staff, 6 board members and scores of core volunteers. More info at www.LandPaths.org. 

Related Documents

Communications Coordinator Job Announcement 2011 Download (129Kb, pdf)

For the second year running, REI Santa Rosa  will support LandPaths' People Powered Parks initiative!  

This is not just an opportunity to run a few programs -- this is an investment in the future of local parks.  LandPaths' People Powered Parks is a model to steward local parks (a City and State Park in this case) and fulfill our mission - connecting people with the land.  People Powered Parks (P3) brings the park visitor closer to land through hands-on stewardship.  P3 also helps keep parks open by sharing the responsibility for parks with the community.  

In addition to park stewardship, we will increase collaboration among volunteer leaders at Bayer Farm and Willow Creek.  Though these parks are very different, they both offer opportunities to connect with the land, plenty of cross-project pollinating problem-solving, and community-building.  

We invite you to come along as well!  Bayer Farm hosts a workday on August 27^th in partnership with REI Santa Rosa to work on the winter gardens and begin the creation of a native/drought-resistant planting area (which is a project, incidentally, led by two of our park-powering people from Roseland, super-volunteer Gary Balcerak and Eagle Scout Taylor!)  REI staff will be there helping and giving out volunteer goodies.  Snacks are provided, and it is all-ages appropriate, so come on over and help Power this Park with us!  

REI will also help LandPaths celebrate National Public Lands Day with a big trail upgrade extravaganza on Sept. 24.  If you like to bike, hike or horseback ride, put this one on your calendar now!   

With all this People Power and outdoor stewardship fun, it is definitely going to be a great year at LandPaths!  Thanks REI!  

And a special thanks to the City of Santa Rosa (owners of Bayer Farm) and California State Parks (owners of Willow Creek addition to Sonoma Coast State Park) for working with us on this innovative approach to public access, community engagement, and land stewardship.

Here's a super easy way to help LandPaths, support local business, and get your grocery shopping done at the same time! Molsberry Market has joined the eScrip program - a terrific program that allows shoppers to designate a percentage of each purchase to LandPaths (or other non-profit). Oliver's Market has been a long-time partner with LandPaths through eScrip and we are excited that Molsberry Market will offer another opportunity for customers to support LandPaths. Visit Molsberry Market or Oliver's Market to get your Community Card and let them know you'd like to support LandPaths.
 

Wanna have some fun on Oct. 22nd? 

Celebrate changing seasons & the return of 27 native coho, listen to some great music, & learn how LandPaths is working to make the beautiful Ranchero Mark West accessible to Sonoma County forever.

WHERE: Ranchero Mark West, 7125 St. Helena Road just northeast of Santa Rosa (map and directions below)

Five smokin' hot live bands playing jazz, rock, bluegrass & more, easy creek & redwood hikes, fly fishing demos, tons of fun "LandPaths style" kids activities, Lagunitas beer, Barefoot wine, local food & much more.

Suggested donation: $20 adults ($5 kids over 7) - no one turned away for lack of funds.

Food and drinks available for purchase

RSVPs appreciated: outings@LandPaths.org or on our Facebook event page.

Performing On The Historic Barn Stage:

- Doug Lipton Trio
- Kunkel & Harris
- Mighty Chiplings
- Sweet Vintage Duo
- Cahoots

Fun For The Whole Family:

- Fly Fishing Demos led by Russian River Fly Fishers
- Hiking Tours
- Kids activities
- Food Trucks (Rosso's Pizzeria; Chicago Style Hot Dogs Ultimate Souvlaki; Foxy Cupcakes)
- Local libations by Lagunitas, Barefoot, and Sungo

WHERE: 7125 St. Helena Rd, Santa Rosa

Special Thanks to our Title Sponsor CALPINE

LandPaths' View on the Ongoing Threat to Parks in Sonoma County

Parks are our most essential "commons" and we all simply cannot allow them to be closed and made off limits to our community.  Period, end of story.

NEW! LandPaths has joined the newly forming Parks Alliance for Sonoma County to discuss the crisis and to work toward creative solutions at the local level.

While the issue will continue to morph over the coming months and years with budget allotments, federal mandates and possible park-funding legislation or bond measures, the essential story line that parks are going continue to be underfunded – with resulting reduced programs for our people and stewardship for the land – requires of us to come up with new paradigms that are solution-oriented and imbued with an old fashioned can-do attitude. 

Why are parks so important?  Right now we must all consider that a) driving farther to recreate contributes to melting our planet’s ice caps, b) our kids are increasingly obese and many would stay indoors to be hypnotized by every manner of entertainment, and most importantly, c) we know that having a connection with nature close to where we live profoundly, and in so many ways, betters us as people and aids the natural world.  This happens in no small way by the choices we make because of knowing land, water, farming and the beauty and fragility of the wilds.  Plus, more parks now means more places for wildness to exist and watersheds to function as watersheds providing clean water to all living things! 

Please, continue to pay attention and lean into that act of participatory citizenry that makes our country, this state and in particular Sonoma County great.

LandPaths and the Promise

We are working closely on this issue with our sister nonprofits, public park and open space agencies and elected officials to advocate for fully funded parks at all levels: city, county and state.  LandPaths has joined the newly forming Parks Alliance for Sonoma County to discuss the crisis and to work toward creative solutions at the local level.

It is LandPaths opinion that it’s going to take more than funding to fix parks, and that we need to not just sustain parks at their current understaffed levels…but to recreate what parks truly should be with engaging interpretive programs, school groups using them daily and as places that are safe and welcoming for people of all ages and abilities.  

Ultimately, this provides an enormous opportunity for a close collaboration between public agencies and nonprofits such as LandPaths.  That is, we will all have to bring our core competencies to the table - public park agencies with their land management might and know how, law enforcement and fire management and response – and nonprofits with their ability to provide programs to thousands of residents, rally the community in creative ways and to be the eyes and ears on the trail and beyond.  

Since the announcements were made regarding the closure of Annadel, Jack London and Sugarloaf Ridge State Parks, I have met or spoken by phone with Santa Rosa City Parks Director Mark Richardson, three of our County supervisors, Assemblymembers Michael Allen and Jared Huffman, State Senator Noreen Evans and US Representative Lynn Woolsey’s  staff.  They all share the urgency of keeping our public lands open to our people and the natural systems that provide this incredible opportunity to connect with the land healthy!  

Through LandPaths combined volunteer and staff sweat equity investments (aka "People Power") we have been able to actually open new parks (Willow Creek, Grove of the Old Trees and others) and we are humbled by the fact that we currently manage public use – and in many places provide land stewardship – at parks at the city, county and state level.  Specifically, we work with our sister agencies in providing access and volunteer stewardship on over 6000 acres alone in Sonoma County – some of those being private lands that are funded solely by the community. 

In the past 10 years in particular we have piloted the new "free permit for use in exchange for your help in stewarding."  While all of us would rather these lands be fully funded and open as parks historically were, we realize that if we did not step up to provide for these people-powered-parks that a number of these parks would never have opened in the first place.  We stepped in originally in 1997 to manage otherwise closed parks – and the need has continued to grow.  

In fact, the 3400-acre "People Powered" Willow Creek addition to Sonoma Coast State Park – which LandPaths is proud to work closely with State Parks in managing – has never been considered for the closure list.  This is because Willow Creek is supported by the local community through donations and by physical work on the land.  This is the LandPaths Promise.  

There is an up side to LandPaths’ style of park management: it connects people to land in ways that improve the quality of life.  

We at LandPaths feel that we are doing what we can to connect our community with land by providing access for boots, bikes, horses and wheelchairs – and to do that for people in our region of all ages, ethnicities, interests and means.  Thank you for your support of LandPaths and its work in our community.  

Craig Anderson
Executive Director

Jonathan Glass
Field Programs Director

Here’s what you can do right now:

• Support local parks by visiting them, paying entrance fees and purchasing annual local parks passes.  
• Find local groups like LandPaths, Stewards of the Coast & Redwoods, and other partners to get involved as a volunteer and support us financially.  We put your money right to work – and locally – and leverage it mightily in doing the peoples work.
• Make your voice heard with your elected officials – contact your County Board of Supervisors, your State Assemblymembers and State Senator, in addition to US House of Representative.   
• Stay home this weekend, invest locally in businesses in and around parks!
• Support LandPaths model of "People Powered Parks"
• Stay positive and constructive during the coming months and years and let us know your ideas!
• Stay informed - join our enews list or find us on Facebook / Twitter.
• YOU are LandPaths – which is short for “land partners through stewardship”

If you’d like to read more on the topic:

• Richard Arendt’s challenge to us all in a recent editorial printed in the Press Democrat.  Richard is president of the Sonoma-Petaluma State Historic Parks Association. 
• Fall of the Wild - New York Times opinion by Timothy Egan

Also, check out our recent press coverage of a "Cure For Closed Park Blues":

• Press Democrat Close to Home
• Sonoma County Gazette, January front page
• Go Local Sonoma County - featured news item
• LandPaths People Power - blog on our site
  
• Pledging to Keep Annadel Open - blog on our site
  

Thanks to all the volunteers who braved wind, rain, sleet and high water to steward the Laguna de Santa Rosa.  We had a grand time sprigging willows (aka "pole dancing") and pulling browse collars from other native trees and shrubs. 

The satisfying part was seeing mature trees that had been planted by volunteers years before - and knowing that the efforts continue!  Thanks to Catherine and all the folks at Laguna Foundation - and especially all you volunteers!

We also got a sneak peek at the new Laguna Trail - slated to be finished and opened later this year.  All of this was in partnership with the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation and sponsored by the Sonoma County Ag Preservation & Open Space District. 

Photos and videos are here.

Hope to see you soon in Sonoma County's Big Outside!

~Jonathan