Protect the Land
Protecting What We Love
Honoring the closing of Sonoma Developmental Center after 127 Years in operation.
Vote Yes on Measure M
New!
Report: Adaptive Management for Stewardship of Recreation to Maintain Wildlife Habitat Connectivity
Sonoma Land Trust Riders’ Guide
Welcome new board chair
Allison Sanford!
Allison has been on our board since 2009 and has been named the new chair of our board of directors, replacing Neal Fishman.
NEW!
Bay Nature feature on
Sonoma wildlife corridor
WHITE PAPER: San Pablo Baylands: Ensuring a Resilient Shoreline
Recommendations to ensure the Highway 37 redesign is consistent with conservation and restoration goals.
Read it here
SR 37 – Baylands Group
Future of Sonoma Developmental Center is in our hands
Sign up to stay informed and involved through our Transform SDC Blog.
2016−2020 Strategic Plan
We invite you to review our long-term vision and goals, and the conservation initiatives that your land trust will be working to complete over the next five years.
Download the Strategic Plan
Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor
Grant expands wildlife corridor work
The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation recently granted us $2.1 million to extend our efforts all the way to Napa and Marin. Read more here:
Press Democrat
Sonoma Index-Tribune
Kenwood Press
Results of the Wildlife Corridor underpass report
Wildlife Corridor Mgmt & Monitoring Strategy
Video about Stuart Creek Run creek restoration
Watch the video (3 min.)
Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC)
Brochure about building tidal marsh
What’s New?
Pole Mountain and Jenner Headlands Preserves NOW OPEN
Both preserves open for hiking daily from 8am—sunset.
Learn more
View trail map
Read Press Democrat article
Read about hiking to the Pole Mtn summit
More background info
Watch OpenRoad TV story!
Views from Pole Mountain
We had a great summer at Bay Camp!
A big thank you to our funders and participants.
Read more
Sonoma-Index Tribune Bay Camp article
We’ve acquired a new property with redwoods and steelhead in the wildlife corridor!
(SANTA ROSA, CALIF., March 29, 2018) — Sonoma Land Trust has closed escrow on a 40-acre property next to Hood Mountain Regional Park that contains the last stand of redwoods in the upper Santa Rosa Creek watershed, and that is part of a major regional wildlife linkage.
Injured hawk rehabbed and released at Sears Point Ranch
After the fires, our Baylands manager found a badly injured hawk trapped in burnt fencing at Sears Point Ranch. Thanks to Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, the bird was rehabilitated and able to be released over the holidays. Watch the video above and read the full story in our Mountains + Molehills blog.
Sonoma County Region Fire History 1939 to 2017
Sonoma County Region Fire History 1939 to 2017 is an interactive animated map showing prior fires in and around Sonoma County over the past eight decades.
Sonoma Land Trust donates 1,665-acre ranch to Regional Parks
Doubles size of Tolay Lake Regional Park
March 3, 2017 — In November of 2007, Sonoma Land Trust purchased a 1,665-acre property in southern Sonoma County at risk of subdivision and vineyard development and named it Tolay Creek Ranch. The acquisition of Tolay Creek Ranch also completed the protection of a 7,500-acre wildlife corridor extending from the foothills of Sonoma Mountain to the bay. With sweeping views of San Francisco Bay, dazzling wildflower displays and plenty of space for hiking, the ranch was well suited to becoming a park — particularly since it is situated adjacent to 1,737-acre Tolay Lake Regional Park. Today, after nearly 10 years of resource assessments, habitat enhancement and creek restoration activities, Sonoma Land Trust has donated Tolay Creek Ranch to Sonoma County Regional Parks, a move that will double the size of Tolay Lake park.
Read Press Democrat story
Read press release
Towering old-growth forest … protected forever
Old-growth redwoods at Howlett Ranch.
April 19, 2017 — The project has been completed. Howlett Ranch is now protected for all time!
February 21, 2017 — Back in 2014, Sonoma Land Trust began working to help a family on the North Coast protect their 1,380-acre property that includes one of the last remaining intact old-growth forests in Sonoma County. The property is also adjacent to Buckeye Forest, the former Preservation Ranch, and so provides desirable habitat connectivity. Thanks to the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Sonoma Land Trust provided the landowners with a loan that enabled them to keep their forest intact until they could complete the sale of a conservation easement to our partner, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District. In the meanwhile, our acquisitions staff also secured additional funding from the Moore Foundation ($1.28 million) and The San Francisco Foundation ($50,000) toward the $6.13 million easement cost. Today, we’re excited to announce that the Open Space District received approval this week from its Board of Directors (the Board of Supervisors) to purchase the conservation easement over Howlett Ranch. “Projects like this one are important because it takes generations to restore old-growth redwood habitat — so we need to protect what remains now while we have the chance,” says land acquisition project manager Ariel Patashnik.
Celebrating 40 Years of Land Protection!
We've acquired a 162-acre property in the wildlife corridor
Wendy Eliot, Sonoma Land Trust’s conservation director, takes in the peaceful surroundings of Santa Rosa Creek near its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains. Photo by Kent Porter/Press Democrat.
June 30, 2016 — Sonoma Land Trust has purchased a stunning property in the Mayacamas to add to Hood Mountain Regional Park.
Read more here
It was a glorious opening of the new Bay Trail at Sears Point!
Hundreds of people enjoyed walking along the new Bay Trail on May 15. Photo by Beth Schlanker/Press Democrat.
Read all about it:
Press Democrat
Marin IJ
Sonoma Index-Tribune
Download brochure
with map of the new Bay Trail!
DONE DEAL! Estero Ranch has been protected forever
On December 24, 2015 we closed on 547-acre Estero Ranch, offering both Estero Americano frontage and Pacific coastline from which one can see Point Reyes, Bodega Head and Doran Beach. Read more here
Read January 7, 2016 Press Democrat article
Read October 29, 2015 Press Democrat article
View aerial video (4 min.)
Breaching the Sears Point levee to restore 1,000 acres of tidal marsh (Oct. 2015)
Astonishing two-minute video of the breach
Key press coverage
Santa Rosa Press Democrat
San Francisco Chronicle
KPIX-TV Channel 5
Marin IJ
Valley of the Moon Magazine
Fun Twitter compilation by SF Bay Tide
Video about the restoration with Julian Meisler (5 min.)
Features & Media
New!
Read our new annual report
Visiting Sears Point?
Download this brochure for your visit.
Follow the Open Road with Doug McConnell
NEW!
Discover the new trail to Pole Mountain
NEW!
Fire recovery on our land
Enjoy the story on our Tolay Creek Ranch becoming part of Tolay Lake Regional Park
And this interview with our executive director, Dave Koehler
And last season’s stories:
Sonoma Valley Wildlife Corridor (“Highway of Hope”)
Sears Point Wetland Restoration
Spring newsletter
Learn about our new acquisition for wildlife, the opening of Pole Mountain and the Jenner Headlands, living with fire, protecting the Russian River, and more!
NEW!
Learn about our new Business Partner program
Conserving the Sonoma County Wildlife Corridor
A one-minute video produced by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, funders of our work to protect the wildlife corridor.
Watch it here
VIDEO: The Marsh — Baylands in Transition
This 11-minute video sheds light on the Bayland’s vast history of native use, economic incentive, agricultural productivity and land preservation.
Land-to-marsh transition at Sears Point
Enjoy this outstanding 4-minute video. Caution: You WILL get carried away by the visuals!
MOUNTAINS + MOLEHILLS
Stick your head in our
fun
blog, and get the dirt on stewardship happenings on our land.
Read it now
In-depth interview about Sonoma Land Trust from KSRO-Radio
Featured Video:
“A State of Harmony”
Our stewardship manager Tony Nelson is featured in this six-minute video about the important work being done by land trusts and resource conservation districts.
Watch the video
