Craig “Sven” Anderson Announces Retirement as Executive Director of LandPaths
Category: Bayer Farm, Blog, Executive Director, News, Staff
By LandPaths Staff
July 11, 2026
After 29 years of service — including the past three as Executive Director of External Affairs alongside co-director Lee Hackeling — Craig “Sven” Anderson will retire from LandPaths later this summer. On July 1, Craig transitioned into the role of Executive Advisor. Lee Hackeling is now the sole Executive Director at LandPaths, as per a unanimous Board of Directors vote.
A little more about Craig:
Craig was hired in August 1997 as LandPaths’ second — and for a time, only — full-time employee, working out of a corner of his one-bedroom apartment in downtown Santa Rosa. On his first day, he drove out Fitzpatrick Lane in West County to scout a potential property, beginning a lifelong relationship with the land and landscapes of Sonoma County.
The years that followed saw much branching out. In 1998, at the request of the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, LandPaths launched its first free public outings to protected lands, and formed a partnership with the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council to build a section of the nearly 400-mile trail atop Sonoma Mountain. In 1999, over lunch at the old Adel’s Diner, Craig sketched a pipe dream on a paper placemat: an immersive program that would let elementary school kids not just learn about a piece of land, but steward and “adopt” it. Within the hour, a funder had said yes. That placemat became In Our Own Backyard, one of LandPaths’ longest-running programs.
People-Powered Parks
In the 1990s, a stand of ancient redwoods in western Sonoma County had been slated for logging as part of a Timber Harvest Plan — blue stripes, painted on the trees marked for cutting, still remain today as a reminder of the fate that was averted. A group of county residents known as Friends of the Grove launched a long campaign to protect the remnant stand, with one of LandPaths’ co-founders Caryl Hart playing an instrumental role in the final push. In 2000, LandPaths purchased Grove of the Old Trees with the assistance of Sonoma County Ag + Open Space, Save The Redwoods League, California Coastal Conservancy, and private individuals.
“I will never forget meeting Craig (Sven) Anderson for the first time. He walked into the room where we had been meeting potential candidates for the new LandPaths’ Director position — although I’m not even sure it had a name then. I was just bowled over by his brilliance, his honesty and his humor from the moment the interview began. And since that fateful day, LandPaths has become such a force for good in Sonoma County and beyond. Kids of all ages now roam the properties that LandPaths has acquired. Food is grown for the community, folks are inspired by towering redwoods, hikes to areas previously off-limits are now open to all, and environmental education programs make it all real and available to children who never had the opportunity to truly enjoy the outdoors.”
— Caryl Hart, Cofounder of LandPaths
And in 2002, the Willow Creek Permit Program became the first of its kind in the county, bridging the gap between land acquisition and public access on 3,000 acres that would eventually become part of Sonoma Coast State Park.
By the time youth from the Roseland neighborhood of Santa Rosa walked out into a five-acre city lot on West Avenue in the summer of 2007 to plant the first seeds at Bayer Farm, Craig had already spent a decade proving what LandPaths could be. But Bayer Farm would test his convictions differently — some donors questioned what a community garden in the city had to do with an organization built around conserving open land. LandPaths persevered, thanks in large part to Craig’s staunch belief in the transformative power of a garden in a neighborhood where parks were few and far between. What began as a weed-choked, vacant lot on West Avenue would go on to reshape not just that corner of Roseland, but LandPaths’ own sense of what conservation work could be.
“I was immediately drawn to supporting LandPaths because every interaction with the organization was focused on learning, adventure, exploration, community and friendships. My first visit to Bayer Farm inspired me to donate to that project and to admire the grass-roots simplicity and directness I observedthere. I have enjoyed supporting ALL the multi-age, multicultural, simple cuisine and great music along the way.”
— Jean Schulz, Friend of LandPaths
Bayer Farm was one of many milestones in Craig’s tenure, not the last. In the years that followed, he went on to establish the concept of People-Powered Parks and Inspired Forward, a program for middle- and high school-aged youth in Sonoma County that arose out of a promise Craig made after the devastating Sandy Hook shooting. Drawing on the importance of creating a sense of belonging for teens and young adults in our community, Inspired Forward leverages the power of time spent in nature with peers and adult mentors to combat violence, strengthen community, and empower youth to make positive life choices. Craig was also instrumental in protecting additional beloved open spaces, including Rancho Mark West, Fitch Mountain Preserve, Bohemia Ecological Preserve, and Ocean Song–Myers Preserve.
The growth in numbers tells part of the story. Twenty-nine years after starting out of a one-bedroom apartment, Craig leaves LandPaths a thriving community institution: 21 full-time staff, 2,600 acres across five nature preserves, thousands of volunteers and community partners, and programs that positively impact thousands of youth campers, Title 1 elementary school students, and adult participants each year.
The growth in community tells the rest. Under Craig’s leadership, LandPaths expanded from its origins as a conservation organization serving primarily English-speaking audiences to one whose staff is more than one-third bilingual, whose outings are offered in both English and Spanish, and whose community roots run deep into neighborhoods like Roseland that were historically underserved by conservation and parks infrastructure.
“Craig’s values, his vision, and his unwavering passion for connecting people of every background with the wonders of nature have shaped LandPaths into what it is today: a conservation organization with a huge heart — one that strengthens both the natural world and the human communities it serves, and whose impact is measured not just in the thousands of acres it has protected, but in the thousands of lives it has transformed.”
— Representative Jared Huffman, California’s 2nd Congressional District
A Transition Built Over Time
LandPaths’ Board of Directors has been part of an intentional succession planning process that began more than a year ago in anticipation of Craig’s retirement. They are confident that Craig is leaving the organization in more than capable hands.
“True leaders leave an organization in better shape than they found it. His vision has transformed our community, and the legacy he leaves behind will inspire the mission to foster a love of the land for generations to come. Indeed, Craig leaves LandPaths completely reimagined, robust, and ready for the future.”
— Dr. Brenda Flyswithhawks, Board President, LandPaths
Craig’s departure has been years in the making — by design. Lee first arrived in Santa Rosa in the late 1990s, where she began volunteering with LandPaths. Over the more than 25 years that followed, she went on to serve the organization in virtually every capacity — from volunteer and part-time staffer focused on grants and communications, to Programs Director, and ultimately co-Executive Director. She was part of the Bayer Farm effort that Craig credits as the bridge between LandPaths and the Roseland community.
In July 2023, LandPaths’ Board of Directors unanimously approved a permanent shift to a co-leadership model, elevating Lee from Programs Director to Executive Director of Operations — a move that reflected the organization’s commitment to cultivating leadership from within and ensuring a thoughtful, stable transition. In addition, the organization welcomed a new Development Director, Frances Lee, to the organization in June 2026.
As LandPaths’ Executive Director, Lee is guiding the organization across three initiatives: Youth Programs, New Audiences — which encompasses community outings in English and Spanish and a docent program — and Community Care, a volunteer-oriented land stewardship program with a thriving Good Fire component.
For Craig, the transition feels not like an ending, but a natural unfolding.
“Just as hatchlings leave the nest and acorns drop from the mother oak, it is time for me to make way for new ideas and the next evolution of LandPaths. We believe in cultivating diverse leadership and a culture of belonging, which means knowing when to quietly step aside. This transition has seen Lee Hackeling take over leadership of the vibrant community institution that is LandPaths. Lee has demonstrated her ability and commitment to continuing the powerful impacts of our work now and into the future!”
— Craig Anderson
Lee steps into sole leadership not as a newcomer charting an unfamiliar course, but as someone who has helped build nearly every program LandPaths runs today. With a leadership team that includes a new Development Director and a Board that began planning for this moment more than a year in advance, LandPaths enters its next chapter with the same steady, community-rooted approach that has guided it for 29 years. The roots Craig planted — in Roseland, in the forests and coastal grasslands of West Sonoma County, at the headwaters of Mark West Creek and beyond — run deep enough to hold what grows next.
Please join us in celebrating LandPaths’ 30th anniversary and Craig’s accomplishments and retirement at the Our True Nature Festival. A day of music, games, food, drinks, fun at beautiful Bohemia Ecological Preserve in West Sonoma County. All proceeds benefit LandPaths. Tickets on sale now! www.landpaths.org/ourtruenature/
