Living Landscape Lives Large in South Bay
Even with state park closure looming, South Bay land trusts and philanthropists are thinking big with a major new initiative to protect 80,000 acres from San Benito County to San Francisco.
Category: Stewardship
The San Francisco Bay Area is bejeweled with hundreds of parks and open space preserves as well as a rich set of laws and policies meant to ensure the survival of vulnerable species and ecosystems. Real people made this happen through a dedicated call to stewardship.
Private Land, Public Access in Sonoma County
Sonoma County’s 832-acre Bohemia Ranch has been eyed as a potential public park since the 1990s. With park funding hard to find, it seemed like access was a long way off until the land’s owners decided to partner with the nonprofit LandPaths to open the land to the public.
Sowing the Seeds of Restoration
Save the Bay turns 50 years old this year, and their native plant nurseries prove the organization is as vital as ever, with volunteers putting in thousands of hours growing native plant seedlings for the group’s restoration projects.
Ron Felzer’s Struggle to Stay in the Field
Longtime Merritt College teacher Ron Felzer helped blaze the trail of environmental education with hundreds of field seminars he's taught since the 1970s. Felzer is semi-retired now, but he and other field educators at Merritt are facing the hardest budget struggles Felzer's ever known, with fewer and fewer classes making it onto the college's schedule.
Brent Plater Takes Aim at Sharp Park
For a decade, San Francisco environmental attorney Brent Plater has been standing up for the rights of wildlife and wild places, first as Bay Area program director for the Center for Biological Diversity. Now, as head of the Wild Equity Institute (WEI) based in San Francisco, he continues to battle threats to endangered species and lands, as well as defending the people most impacted by these threats.
Thank a Trail on National Trails Day
With over 200,000 miles of hiking trails to choose from, Americans have plenty of reason to celebrate National Trails Day on Saturday, June 4. Help maintain these amazing resources by participating in the 19th annual edition of this American Hiking Society-sponsored event. Here in the Bay Area, opportunities abound to get your hands dirty in honor of your favorite hiking trail. We've got highlights!
Love Peninsula Parks? Thank Audrey Rust!
After 24 years as executive director and president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, Audrey Rust will retire on June 30. During her tenure, she built the organization into one of the most respected and influential local land trusts in the nation while protecting over 53,000 acres of natural and agricultural landscapes in San Mateo and Santa Clara counties.
State Park Officials Release Closure List
In what's become an annual crisis, the California Department of Parks and Recreation today released a list of 70 parks across the state slated to be closed. This time, though, it looks like it's for real.
A Vision for Open Space
Bettina Ring is Executive Director of the Bay Area Open Space Council, a group of 60 organizations dedicated to protecting and maintaining the Bay Area's network of open space lands, including its parks, trails and agricultural lands.
Solano Land Trust Aims to Buy 1500 Acres
The Bay Area may gain 1,500 acres of protected open space this year thanks to a pending acquisition by the Solano Land Trust of Rockville Trails Estates, northwest of Fairfield. The former ranch boasts rich biodiversity and impressive vistas that could become a public asset, if the trust can raise the funds by August 31.
