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.

Land Acknowledgement

Our community gardens, office, and preserves throughout Sonoma County are located on the ancestral homelands of the Southern Pomo, Coast Miwok, Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, and Mishewal people, past, present, and future. We recognize them as the first people 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

Veteran's Potluck Celebration at Bayer Farm

  • Day/día: Friday, November 15; viernes, 15 de noviembre
  • Time/hora: 5:30pm – 8pm
  • Place/Lugar: Bayer Farm, 1550 West Avenue, Santa Rosa

Please join us for an evening of food and celebration with veterans from the community. All Veterans and families are welcome to join. The evening will be a potluck celebration so bring your fall treats, drinks, and dishes. No registration is required.

Únase con nosotros para una noche de comida y celebración con nuestros veteranos de guerra de la comunidad. Todos los veteranos y sus familias son bienvenides. La noche será una celebración compartida, así que traiga sus postres, bebidas y platillos de otoño. No se requiere inscripción.

Learn More

Garden Day at Ocean Song Preserve

  • Day: Sunday, November 17
  • Time: 11:30am – 3pm
  • Place: Ocean Song Preserve, West County

The pollinator and habitat garden at Ocean Song/Myers is a truly magical place. You are invited to experience the land as you help tend the garden, a home for myriad blooms, bees, and birds (so many birds!)
Activities depend on the season, and might include invasive species removal, pruning, mulching, mowing and other seasonal needs. We’ll cater the task to your ability! Volunteer land stewardship days like this are the best way to experience Ocean Song Preserve, which is closed to public access. The day will be led by LandPaths’ wonderful volunteer garden steward Jan Lochner.

Register Here

Late Fall Hike at Lafferty Ranch

  • Day: Saturday, November 23
  • Time: 9am – 11:30am
  • Place: Lafferty Ranch, Petaluma
  • Pre-registration is required.

November usually brings cooler days and rain to upper Sonoma Mountain, along with a sense of relief after the long dry season. Join docent Larry Modell, a long-time advocate for public open space, to explore this unique property and discuss its future.
This 270-acre property is the only publicly-owned land on the west side of Sonoma Mountain. Under contract with the City of Petaluma, Landpaths has been leading hikes on the land to introduce groups to its history and natural features since the summer of 2022. The hiking terrain ranges from broad, gentle meadows to steep challenging hillsides with a narrow path.

Sign Up Here

Docent Program Training

  • Day: Sunday, November 24 + Sunday, December 8
  • Place: Sonoma County – location information sent out after registration

Join our two-day training to become a Docent with us! Docents are critical to increasing access to the nature preserves through creative and inspiring outings on the land, and you’ll get to explore the preserves on your own as an added perk! Sunday November 24th from 10am to 1pm and Sunday December 8th from 10am to 4pm.

SIgn Up Here

Stories + News

Stories of Impact

What Happens Now? A Letter from Executive Director Craig Anderson to Friends of LandPaths

November 14, 2024

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The results of the U.S. presidential election, one week ago, sent shockwaves through our community, neighborhoods, and families. It makes a person pause, and it certainly should. At a time when it seemed there was momentum to move ahead, for many people what seems a U-turn has emerged, surrounding us. Click one of the tags above to read the entire post.

Community Gardens Internship  

November 11, 2024

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Are you interested in learning all about what it takes to run a successful community garden? Consider becoming a community garden intern with LandPaths! Bayer Farm, Santa Rosa’s Roseland neighborhood, and Jeff Bodwin Community Garden, in southwest Santa Rosa, together contain 120 garden plots adopted out to community members in addition to a teaching garden for students to learn about growing food and nutrition. The internship is offered on a part-time basis, unpaid, up to 20 hours per week, with an option of work in exchange for course credit. Click on one of the tags above to learn more.

Caring for the Land at Ya-Ka-Ama Indian Educational Center

September 12, 2024

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Stewardship is a strengthening of the relationship between person and land. When we steward, we connect directly with the plants and animals, fungi and watersheds, but we also connect with history. This is because for tens of thousands of years people have lived on this land and cared for it, as we try to now.

In Sonoma County, these people are the Pomo, Coast Miwok, and Mishewal Wappo. They are represented through various federally recognized and unrecognized tribes. On August 31, we had the privilege of joining community stewards and Sonoma Earth School in an amazing day of stewardship at Ya-Ka-Ama Indian Education and Development, Inc. Click one the tags above to read the entire story.

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