About LandPaths

LandPaths is an environmental education and conservation leader with the mission to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County. We believe everyone should have access to the awe and inspiration of nature.

Annually, we engage thousands of participants like you in joyful, caring, and transformative relationship with the land. We do this mainly through creative outings led in both English and Spanish, environmental education, nature camps, and people-powered land stewardship of local open spaces.

Learn More about the 2025 Harvest Festival at Bayer Farm 

Land Acknowledgement

Our community gardens, office, and preserves throughout Sonoma County are located on the ancestral homelands of the Pomo, Coast Miwok, Kashia Band of Pomo Indians, Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, and the Wappo people, past, present, and future. We recognize them as the First Peoples and the First Stewards of this land.

 

Initiatives

Rooting Youth in Nature

LandPaths significantly reduces the barriers and expands opportunities to get outside so that more youth are able to experience wonder, joy, awe, belonging, and connection in nature.

Branching Out Conservation for Everyone

LandPaths expands the amount of people in Sonoma County who benefit from healthy land, understand the value of nature, and cultivate a sense of wanting to care for the land that gives so much back to us.

Community Care

Growing Community with Nature

Wildfires, flooding, and other challenges have dramatically increased globally and locally because of human-caused climate change. Reciprocal and joyful relationships between people and the land is a solution to climate disruption. From volunteer land stewardship days to community gatherings in local open spaces, you’ll find a range of creative, impactful opportunities to participate with LandPaths and make a difference.

Featured Outings

Garden Day at Ocean Song Preserve

  • Day: Sunday, September 21
  • Time:10:30am – 3pm
  • Place: Ocean Song Preserve, Occidental

 

Please join us to tend the pollinator and habitat garden at Ocean Song-Myers Preserve in Occidental! Volunteer land stewardship days like this are a good way to experience the preserve, which is closed to public access.
Activities depend on the season, and might include pruning, mulching, mowing or other seasonal needs. Your ability will guide the task! The day will be led by by volunteer garden steward Jan Lochner. We are thankful to her for alll the work she does, along with dedicated volunteers like you, to maintain this iconic garden!

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Early Fall Hike at Lafferty Ranch

  • Day: Saturday, September 27
  • Time: 9am – 11:30am
  • Place: Lafferty Ranch, Petaluma

By late September, the dry season is usually still in effect while some vegetation begins to change on the Lafferty Ranch Open Space on upper Sonoma Mountain. Join docent Larry Modell, a long-time advocate for public open space, to explore this unique property and discuss its future. Join docent Larry Modell, a long-time advocate for public open space, to explore this unique property and discuss its future.

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Volunteer Stewardship Day at Grove of Old Trees

  • Day: Saturday, September 27
  • Time: 9am – 1pm
  • Place: Grove of Old Trees, Occidental

You’re warmly invited to lend a hand at the Grove of Old Trees! This 48-acre redwood grove in west Sonoma County is protected forever. A flourishing habitat that’s beneficial for plant, animal, and human communities, your stewardship action is crucial to tending the land for a healthy, thriving Grove. It’s wildfire fuels reduction time on the preserve! You will help keep our forests healthy and resilient in the chance that a wildfire comes through our preserve.

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Self-Guided Adventure at Rancho Mark West

  • Day: Sunday, October 5
  • Time: 9am – 2pm
  • Place: Rancho Mark West, Santa Rosa

Join LandPaths and our partner at Sonoma County Ag + Open Space for a free, self-guided adventure at Rancho Mark West. The first Saturday and Sunday of the month, Rancho Mark West will be open to the public from 9am to 2pm, please arrive by 2pm latest and return to your cars by no later than 3:30pm. Explore the trails that meander through a redwood forest and picnic along the pristine Mark West Creek as it flows towards the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

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Stories + News

Stories of Impact

A Heartwarming and Powerful Safe Space in Nature for LGBTQ+ Youth and Allies

July 24, 2025

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It’s the fourth day of Camp Trillium at LandPaths’ Bohemia Ecological Preserve in Sonoma County, California and the sun is shining in a clear, blue sky. Camp Trillium was […]

A photo of a prescribed burn at the Grove of Old Trees. Redwoods are engulged in smoke and orange flames are under the trees but not out of control.

Why Do We Conduct Prescribed Burns at our Sonoma County Preserves?

May 29, 2025

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Reflections from Jim & Betty Doerksen, Land Partners at Rancho Mark West

February 14, 2025

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Jim and Betty Doerksen purchased Rancho Mark West in 1967. The Doerksens have worked tirelessly, planting upwards of “one million trees,” according to Jim. They also started […]

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