Reflections on the Queer Forestry and Fire Program

November 26, 2024

The closest sound to me is my handsaw cutting through the wood of a small Douglas fir tree, the next sound the wind bustling in the canopy overhead and through the tall dried grasses surrounding me, more distant the sounds of laughter and conversation from those working around me, beyond that the consistent call of the foghorn from the bay. These sounds surround me as I work in the Ocean Song grassland, homeland of the southern Pomo, alongside the twenty-five other individuals who participated in the Queer Forestry and Fire Program. These are the sounds of community, connection, and care for the land and each other that we created in this program. 

Tags: community care, forestry, growing community with nature, queer fire and forestry, riddell preserve, stewardship, Volunteer

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

November 14, 2024

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.

Tags: executive director, letter from craig, outdoorequity

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

September 12, 2024

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.

Tags: growing community with nature, right relations, slow restoration, stewardship, wildfirefuelreduction

Dar y admirar: Vamos a Yosemite 2024 

August 21, 2024

El grupo de Vamos a Yosemite con LandPaths llegó al emblemático parque nacional un viernes por la tarde, justo después de una breve tormenta de verano, en […]

Tags: branching out conservation for everyone, stewardship, vamos afuera, yosemite

Giving Back and Standing in Awe: Vamos a Yosemite 2024

August 21, 2024

The Vamos a Yosemite con LandPaths group arrived at the iconic national park on a Friday afternoon, just after a brief summer rainstorm, in passenger vans rented […]

Tags: branching out conservation for everyone, stewardship, vamos afuera, yosemite

How LandPaths Gets Ready for Summer Nature Camp Season

June 24, 2024

The morning sun peeks through the coastal clouds, birds caw and sing from their perches in the surrounding oaks, and 40 LandPaths’ staff and volunteers gather in the meadow at Bohemia Ecological Preserve for a daylong training […]

Tags: Owl Camp, Rooting Youth in Nature, volunteers

Community Partnership: Worker Leaders with North Bay Jobs with Justice Create Fuel Breaks at a LandPaths’ Preserve

June 18, 2024

Community partnerships lie at the heart of LandPaths’ mission to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County. In March, we collaborated with worker leaders with […]

Tags: growing community with nature, stewardship

Remembering Lorri Duckworth

April 30, 2024

Lorri Duckworth was one of those small family farmers who genuinely loved her produce. Even more so, she loved how people from all over the Bay Area, […]

Tags: duckworth family farm, environmental education, iooby, Rooting Youth in Nature

Discover the World of Native California Grasslands!

April 25, 2024

Story by Lara O’Herlihy, Stewardship Field Specialist I’m sitting on a grassy hillside in the Coleman Valley Creek drainage that overlooks the ocean, pulling the invasive bracypodium […]

Tags: grassblast, grasslands, growing community with nature, oceansong, stewardship

Students Make More Nature and Science Connections through New Environmental Education Pathways Project in Sonoma County

February 5, 2024

Students Make New Connections WithEnvironmental Education Pathways  On a brisk and sunny day at Glen Oaks Ranch, 3rd graders from Flowery Elementary School chat merrily as they hike […]

Tags: environmental education, iooby, Rooting Youth in Nature

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

November 20, 2023

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 […]

Tags: forestry, growing community with nature, riddell preserve, slow restoration, stewardship, wildfirefuelreduction

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

October 17, 2023

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 […]

Tags: growing community with nature, stewardship