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

Pile Burning Volunteer Day at Ya-Ka-Ama

  • Day: Friday, December 20
  • Time: 10am – 2pm
  • Place: Ya-Ka-Ama, Forestville

Join us for a day of community land stewardship at Ya Ka Ama, on the traditional homelands of the Southern Pomo! In collaboration with our neighbors at Sonoma Earth School, our efforts will support fire resiliency, improved access to culturally valuable resources by our Native neighbors, community building around shared values, and so much more. This will be a family friendly event with something for everyone to do!
Where: 127 acres of agricultural land in Western Sonoma County near Forestville, California about six miles west of Santa Rosa, the county seat, and 70 miles north of San Francisco. “The Land,” as it is known locally, is partially bordered on the west and northwest by the Russian River. On the north by Lake Benoist in the Riverfront Regional Park and on the south and east by the Santa Rosa Junior College, Shone Farm. Redwood forest, oak woodlands, grasslands and more than two hundred varieties of native plants thrive throughout the land.

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Winter Celebration/Celebración del invierno en Bayer Farm

  • Day/Día: sábado, 21 de diciembre; Saturday, December 21
  • Time/Hora: 3pm – 6pm
  • Place/Lugar: Bayer Farm, 1550 West Avenue, Santa Rosa

No registration needed! Just drop in anytime between 3pm and 6pm! There will also be a wreath making station! We’ll provide all of the materials and instruction! Take home a beautiful, festive wreath for the holidays!

¡No es necesario registrarse! ¡Solo tienes que venir en cualquier momento entre las 3:00 p. m. y las 6:00 p. m.! ¡También habrá una estación para hacer coronas! ¡Te proporcionaremos todos los materiales y las instrucciones! ¡Llévate a casa una hermosa y festiva corona para las fiestas!

More details/mas detalles

Winter Hike at Lafferty Ranch

  • Day: Saturday, December 28
  • Time: 9am – 11:30am
  • Place: Lafferty Ranch, Petaluma
  • Pre-registration is required for this free hike.

Take a break from holiday craziness with a calming walk at Lafferty Ranch on upper Sonoma Mountain. It should be cool and wet with low-angled sunlight in this week following the solstice. Join docent Larry Modell, a long-time advocate for public open space, to explore this unique property and discuss its future.

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Self-Guided Adventure at Rancho Mark West/Autoexploración en Rancho Mark West

  • Day/Día: Sábado, 4 de enero; Saturday, January 4
  • Time/Hora: 9am – 2pm
  • Place/Lugar: Rancho Mark West, Santa Rosa (address provided upon registration – Dirección proporcionada al registrarse)

Join LandPaths and our partner at Sonoma County Ag + Open Space for a free, self-guided adventure at Rancho Mark West. The first Saturday and Sunday of the month, Rancho Mark West will be open to the public from 9am to 2pm, please arrive by 2pm latest and return to your cars by no later than 3:30pm. Explore the trails that meander through a redwood forest, trek across open hillsides with views of oaks, madrones, and doug firs, and picnic along the pristine Mark West Creek as it flows towards the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
This is a self guided tour, but registration is required to attend.

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Stories + News

Stories of Impact

Reflections on the Queer Forestry and Fire Program

November 26, 2024

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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. 

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.

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