Learn in Nature, Transform Lives

School-Based Programs

Learning in nature is transformative. 

A hike through oak woodlands to a waterfall. Hands-on lessons about compost and pollinator plants at a community garden. An exploration of the Russian River watershed by kayak. 

Our school and group-based youth programs connect your students with nature in Sonoma County. We make these opportunities not only possible, but accessible for all. Since 1999, our award-winning environmental education programs have impacted hundreds of local youth a year.  

Led by our experienced field specialists, In Our Own Backyard (IOOBY) gives your students time to explore, connect with a nearby natural space, and create a lifelong bond with nature. Teachers will be happy to know that our environmental education curriculum aligns with California’s Next Generation Science Standards, making your job easier. 

Too often, once kids leave elementary school, nature curriculum disappears. Inspired Forward, for teens and young adults, gets youth into nature, creating opportunities for wonder, leadership-building, ecological literacy, confidence-building, and an ethic of land stewardship.

Cynthia Spigarelli, 3rd grade teacher at Luther Burbank Elementary School

" One day with IOOBY is worth 30 in the classroom! "

In School Programs

In Our Own Backyard (IOOBY)

Inspired Forward

Stories + News

Stories from the Field

Reflections: Slow Restoration Community Forestry Project for Women and Nonbinary Participants

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By Lara O’Herlihy, Stewardship Field Specialist This past October, fourteen strangers met for the first time at Riddell Preserve, LandPaths’ 400-acre protected open space preserve in the …

Reflections: Slow Restoration Community Forestry Project for Women and Nonbinary Participants Read Article

What’s It Like to Participate in a Prescribed Burn?  

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by Miles Sarvis-Wilburn, Stewardship Field Specialist at LandPaths I arrived at LandPaths’ Ocean Song/Myers Preserve at 7:30am, the sun rising over a thick ocean of fog, and …

What’s It Like to Participate in a Prescribed Burn?   Read Article

Six nature campers walk on a trail through the grasslands at Bohemia Ecological Preserve. There is a forest in the background and a blue sky above.

Reflections on Interconnection in a California Coastal Prairie

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by Miles Sarvis-Wilburn Stewardship Field Specialist The grasslands at Bohemia Ecological Preserve are California coastal prairie, a protected and unique habitat that contains an incredible amount of species …

Reflections on Interconnection in a California Coastal Prairie Read Article

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