Ocean Song/Myers is located on the ancestral home of the Coast Miwok people and the Southern Pomo people, past, present, and future. We recognize them as the first people and the first stewards of this land. We are on occupied territory and acknowledge the ongoing devastation of colonization.
This nearly 800 acre preserve stewarded by LandPaths in western Sonoma County teems with native coastal grasslands, canyons, pristine ponds and streams, mixed oak woodlands, redwoods, and a habitat garden that benefits pollinators, birds, and humans alike. A breath-taking abundance of plant and animal life call this place home.
Thanks to strong community interest, a small group of angel funders, and the promise that Ocean Song’s stunning beauty would be locally owned and protected forever, LandPaths was able to purchase the land and start cleaning up the property in November 2019.
Since then, LandPaths has continued to invest in cleaning up Ocean Song’s old buildings and resolving a lengthy list of code violations from prior to when we became the property’s stewards.
In addition, the organization has worked with adjacent landowner Pieter Myers, a person integral to the founding of Ocean Song Farm and Wilderness Center, to purchase his family’s land in order to reunite the ‘historic’ Ocean Song. Escrow went through in August 2021, uniting 800 acres.
Ocean Song/Myers is not currently open to public access. While the land’s promise as a place for future nature-based education is as grand as the view and as profound as the connection you have to Ocean Song, the current moment demands patience from us all as LandPaths works through the permit process.
Ultimately, we promised you that LandPaths would not seek to change Ocean Song, but instead would honor its wild pastoral beauty – and allow the land to change us all for the better. And we are sticking to that promise.
History
Located on the ancestral homeland of the Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok peoples, the land that became Ocean Song was purchased from a local ranching family by Pieter and Marya Myers in 1975, the result of a friendship with Bill Wheeler, who owned on the neighboring parcel.
The Myers, in partnership with the Ananda spiritual community, built homes and structures. In 1986, a “Forever Wild” conservation easement was granted on 240 acres of the property, protecting it permanently from development. In 1988, they created the Heirloom Trust, a 501c3 land trust on western parcel (now known as Ocean Song Farm & Wilderness Center), and began Discovery Day Camp with David Berman as director. By the following year, children from Sonoma County schools were making regular visits to the property for environmental education. In 1991, the Myers and Heirloom Trust created a CSA program to provide organic produce from the farm to their community.
Ocean Song Farm and Wilderness Center was officially incorporated as a nonprofit in the nineties. Ron Karp became executive director in 1993. Ann Dolin facilitated weddings and retreats. Lisa Baiter took over as the director of the Discovery Day Camp in 1992. The property was sold to Eco-Corps in 1995. In 2000, ownership was transferred to Andrew Beath, the president of Earthways Foundation.
In 2005, Discovery Day Camp was reborn as Coyote Camp, under the vision and director of Annie Klein, who also stewarded the habitat garden. Annie ran Coyote Camp for many years, inspiring a love of nature and the natural world in many children. Coyote Camp was actually an inspiration for LandPaths’ Owl Camp!
In 2019, LandPaths was able to purchase the property, thanks to generous donations from two anonymous families. We will continue the legacy of Ocean Song as a place of remarkable biodiversity and environmental and agricultural education. A community to be changed for the better by the land.
The land is part of the Sonoma to Marin “critical linkage,” allowing wildlife to move without restraint between undeveloped areas. It’s historically been a critical link for people too, as home of the beloved Coyote Camp and other human-scale endeavors aligned with nature.
