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.

www.LandPaths.org

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.

 

 

The folk-roots-Americana band Cahoots that I play with provided entertainment at a local food summit in Marin County late Sunday afternoon, August 14. The event "in support of locally sourced and healthy school lunches & community gardens" focused on more urban gardens and legislation mandating school lunches of locally-sourced produce.

United States Senator and Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture Debbie Stabenow was a large part of the event and at the end of our set she approached the stage and told us of her singing in coffee houses as a young woman - to which I invited her up to the stage to sing "Teach Your Children Well" with us. As you can see, she did! A rousing rendition with Senator Stabenow on harmony vocal had the crowd on their feet. A nod of appreciation to community change agents for good Susie Tompkins Buell, Quincey and Dan Imhoff who made this all happen.

~Craig, LandPaths executive director

 

For more information on Senator Debbie Stabenow you can visit her website at: http://stabenow.senate.gov/ 

 

 

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.
 

 

 

Every Thursday in August, Fork Catering (along with a few others) have food trucks placed at O’Reilly Media’s parking lot in Sebastopol from 11:30 - 2:30 PM. 10% of the proceeds from the food sales go to a different non-profit organization. LandPaths has been chosen to be the lucky recipient each Thursday during the month of August.  Each Thursday, we’ll put the donations toward a different program:

Thursday, August 4^th - The Grove of Old Trees;

Thursday, August 11^th - Bayer Farm

Thursday, August 18^th – IooBY

Thursday, August 25^th – Willow Creek

 

More info:

http://sebastopol.towns.pressdemocrat.com/2011/05/news/food-truck-gathering-finds-new-home/

 

 

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

It is summer again at Bayer Farm and we are once again thrilled to have awesome volunteer-run programs in partnership with great fellow community-serving organizations!

One example is the amazing new resource installed at Bayer by the Sonoma County Free Bookmobile, a mobile library stocked full of books!!  This mobile library is on a long-term loan from SCFB and is an amazing resource that is now available to our community.  We hope you will visit their website http://www.sonomacountybookmobile.org/ and help them out with their new matching grant!

We agree with ED Glen Weaver who states, “We are just thrilled that the families in this low-income neighborhood will have continual access to high quality free books, and that this long-term loan of facilities will essentially double our presence in the county.  It helps address one of the most serious problems created by recent cuts to education: access to literacy materials.  The Free Bookmobile will continue to seek creative solutions to this problem, and we welcome your support.” Thanks Sonoma County Free Bookmobile, the kids really love their new books!!

By working in collaboration with partner organizations we are able to maximize our impact!  None of it could happen, though, without the dedication of our amazing community volunteers.  Although too numerous to list here individually, our volunteers are amazing people who find time to make the world a better place for themselves and their neighbors by volunteering at LandPaths’ Bayer Farm.  We are so thankful for their participation and dedication to all that is positive and wonderful in the world!!

We would like to also thank partner organizations St. Joseph’s www.stjosephhealth.org/Services/Community-Outreach-Programs and Redwood Empire Food Bank www.refb.org for their work with the Free Lunch Program – we are honored to once again host the program at Bayer Farm and to amplify all of our impact by working together.  The coordination and delivery of the hot lunches to the children of the Roseland neighborhood by REFB, coupled with the volunteer support and coordination offered by the Neighborhood Care Staff of St. Joseph’s, makes this program stable and effective, and allows us at LandPaths to work with volunteers to program garden and outdoor activities that offer enrichment, education, access to open space, and community building.

Here’s to another summer of community, the outdoors, gardening, fun and health!!

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
  

Sponsor an Owl Camper!

"I just want to say that my kids LOVE Owl Camp...nature is the BEST way to go! Thank you so much for making this happen and the sponsorship provided has helped so much! Please extend my gratitude to LandPaths, the landowners and the sponsor. I am one thrilled parent because my kids are SO stimulated when they come home, and they sleep like champs (eat like champs too!)! Thank you, thank you, thank you."

~Parent of two Owl Campers returning this year

Help send a child to Owl Camp this summer! Donate Today!

Donate today and keep Owl Camp - and summer - for all kids!

Scholarships are offered to campers on need, and first-come, first-serve basis. Parents apply for a scholarship by filling out a simple application (available in Spanish & English.) We rarely offer complete scholarships to Owl Camp; instead we ask parents to pay the maximum possible, and offer partial scholarships for one week of camp.

Parents are asked to also assist with car-pooling and other camp logistics. This is a simple way of entering into a real collaboration with families in order to make camp a meaningful and important experience for them.

With your support we will:

• Offer 32 scholarships to Owl Campers in 2011, out of a total of 84 camper slots (38% of all campers!)

• Keep Owl Camp open and available to ALL kids in Sonoma County, regardless of social background and/or financial hurdles

• Reserve 30% of all Owl Camp slots for kids from Spanish-speaking or other minority families

• Allow Owl Campers and their families to participate in a diverse, non-segregated program that reflects ALL of the people who live in Sonoma County

Thank you for helping to keep Owl Camp open and accessible to all kids!

Please donate today.

 

Owl Camp is a nature-based day camp open to young people aged 5-12. Camp is located at Ranchero Mark West in Northeast Santa Rosa, off St. Helena Road-- a 120-acre preserve with a pristine creek, pond, redwood forest and miles of trails all ready for exploring. Location is about 20 minutes from downtown Santa Rosa.Activities include: storytelling, tracking, creek exploration, archery, swimming, music, keeping a nature journal, building things from nature, music, nature games, learning bird calls, hiking, canoeing, exploring redwood & salmon habitat, woodworking and organic gardening.

Help make a rich, nature-based experience available to ALL children. Please donate today! $150.00 will allow one child to experience Owl Camp and time in nature this year.  Every little bit helps!

We rely on donors to help in creating a scholarship fund. This year's scholarship goal is $4800. We have already secured $3600 thanks to support from the Sunrise Rotary Club and the Tina Hannon Scholarship Fund. With your support, we can raise $1200 and meet our goal of 32 scholarships.