For the Hafner family, conservation is a way of life

What does multigenerational conservation look like?

For Kate Bernal-Hafner, growing up in Alexander Valley looked like exploring oak woodlands, hiking local trails, and finding wildflowers. “We did a lot of bike riding and spent a lot of summers playing in the creek,” she recalls. “My parents made sure nature was part of my sister’s and my everyday life.”

That storybook childhood imparted on her an indelible impression. After leaving for school and work on the East Coast, she returned in 2012, drawn back by the Sonoma County way of life, one she describes as “intertwined with nature and agriculture.”

Today, that harmonious relationship with nature and agriculture guides her approach to work. Bernal-Hafner is part of her family’s vineyard and winery, where she works with her uncle Scott Hafner, Sonoma Land Trust’s current board chair, and focuses on marketing, sales, and cultivating long-term relationships with customers, many of whom have been buying wine from their winery for generations. But the work is also tied to the land itself, where farming decisions are not solely based on output, but rather on the long-term resilience of the land, considering factors like soil health, water systems, and ecological balance.

Her husband, Martín, also works in the wine industry and shares the same approach. Like Kate, the seeds of his love for this work were also planted young and passed on by elders. As a kid in Bogotá, Colombia, he gardened with his grandfather on their apartment’s balcony. After a period working finance and marketing jobs in New York City, Kate and Martín worked a wine harvest in France to see if they might be interested in the wine business. They worked another harvest in Argentina and discovered that they were hooked. This brought them back to Sonoma County, and he now works at a winery in Hopland focused on regenerative farming with a deep appreciation for land conservation.

Bernal-Hafner’s conservation ethic has deep family roots. Her grandmother Mary Hafner served on the board of Sonoma Land Trust for 14 years, including at a pivotal time in the organization’s history. Her uncle, Scott Hafner, currently holds the title of board chair. “My grandmother was definitely a role model to me,” Bernal-Hafner reflects. “Conservation wasn’t just something she talked about—it was so deeply rooted in her beliefs, and it was just part of our family.”

In Bernal-Hafner’s household today, conservation remains part of her family’s values that she works hard to ingrain in her kids.

“We talk a lot about our carbon footprint and what we can do in our everyday lives,” like eating seasonally, reducing waste, paying attention to where food comes from, she says. Over time, that builds an understanding that we are all of the earth, part of this interconnected web of life.

Bernal-Hafner carries the next generation of her family’s conservation legacy and sees the future of conservation in her kids, who are already peppering her with ideas on how we can save the planet, like making sure to eat all of our food so it doesn’t go to waste. Every seasonal produce box her kids open up is a fun opportunity for her them to notice how nature provides for us as long as we care for nature.

“I want to leave this place better for my kids,” Bernal-Hafner says, “and it’s our job to make sure that the next generation is also able to better the planet.”