We can achieve big things together
2024 has been a remarkable year for Sonoma Land Trust! Strategic acquisitions like McCormick Ranch and 100-Acre Ranch in the Mayacamas—spanning over 750 acres—advance our 30×30 climate goals, linking open spaces, preserving wildlife corridors, and protecting watersheds. But that’s not all, these places also enhance the local park systems, offering new recreation opportunities for everyone.
We invite you to learn about what we have accomplished together in our 2024 Impact Report. Starting the year with the protection of 650 acres of open space at Sonoma Developmental Center and wrapping up a critical election year with a successful campaign that will invest billions of climate resilience funding in our area. Projects of all sizes have a tremendous impact on our lives, and what we choose to invest in today will have lasting benefits for decades into the future.
With your support, Sonoma Land Trust is restoring vital ecosystems and fostering hope for the future. Thank you for being part of this transformative journey!
Eamon O’Byrne, Executive Director
Scott Hafner, Board Chair
What we achieved together for Nature
2024 was a year of transformation for Sonoma Land Trust. From groundbreaking land acquisitions to visionary projects like the Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway, Sonoma Land Trust made incredible strides this year toward protecting the places we all cherish. Together, we’re advancing bold goals like 30×30 while restoring vital ecosystems and creating more opportunities to connect with nature. Curious about how your support has made a difference? Explore highlights of the inspiring stories featured in our 2024 Impact Report or download a PDF of the full report in English or Spanish.
Small Parks That Make Big Impacts
Sonoma Land Trust has set an ambitious goal of creating new parks and protected open spaces in areas where residents don’t have adequate access to nature. We are prioritizing the purchase and preservation of land that adds or connects to existing parks as key natural climate solutions to help mitigate weather emergencies such as excessive heat or flooding. Learn more about the new parks that will soon bring Nature Nearby to even more Sonoma County residents!
Expanding Access to Nature for All:
Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway
After 15 years of tireless advocacy and collaboration, the Santa Rosa Southeast Greenway is becoming a reality! Sonoma Land Trust joined community leaders to transform an abandoned highway corridor into an urban greenway connecting downtown Santa Rosa to nearby parks. This innovative project reflects our commitment to creating open spaces where everyone can connect with nature, right in the heart of our city.
Mark West Area Community Park
This year, Sonoma Land Trust took bold steps to create new parks and open spaces where they’re needed most. One highlight: the purchase of land for the Mark West Area Community Park, a transformative project for neighborhoods recovering from the Tubbs Fire. With limited access to parks and increasing climate challenges, this new space will offer shade, cooling, and vital recreation opportunities for families.
The Mark West Area Community Park is a one-acre property located along Old Redwood Highway, just north of Santa Rosa. Purchased by Sonoma Land Trust in January 2024, this park will provide much-needed green space for a community still recovering from the 2017 Tubbs Fire. The area currently lacks adequate parks and playgrounds, with few families within walking distance of outdoor recreation. The park will help address these gaps by offering a space for recreation, while also providing vital tree canopy and vegetation to mitigate heat in a designated heat risk priority zone. Funded by Sonoma County Ag + Open Space, the Mark West Municipal Advisory Council, and others, the park is set to open in Spring 2025.
Graton Town Square
The unincorporated community of Graton just north of Sebastopol is known for great restaurants, wine tasting, antique and vintage arts, and a convenient stop along the West County Regional Trail bike route. What Graton has lacked is a public gathering space for the nearly 2,000 residents and thousands of visitors who appreciate this special place. When the last undeveloped parcel in the historic core of Graton went up for sale earlier this year, the Graton Community Services District saw the opportunity and purchased the land for a new town square! The District—which also operates the local wastewater treatment system—has the authority to purchase and manage land for public open space use.
Sonoma Ag + Open Space approved a grant to cover the majority of the $860,000 property acquisition costs, but the Community Services District needed to come up with matching funds to qualify for the grant. To help meet their fundraising goal, Sonoma Land Trust approved a grant of $25,000 in July as a match towards the purchase costs of the property. Once completed, the town square will serve the entire community as a focal point for multi-generational activities, cultural events, and local commerce/markets. The West County Trail runs along one side of the site, so project also help improves and augments recreational and community access from Sebastopol to Forestville.
Public funding to conserve, restore, and protect Sonoma County—and a historic climate bond!
We are a voice for nature, and coordinating with local and state-wide coalitions, we advocate for consistent funding to conserve, restore, and protect the natural world. During legislator education days in Sacramento and in Washington, D.C., we stressed the need for robust state and federal policy and funding action to advance 30×30 and climate resilience for Sonoma County. This fall, we advocated for the passage of Prop. 4, a $10 billion dollar climate bond, and, with your help, it passed! We are grateful to our elected representatives who have supported us in securing millions of dollars in investments for our collective mission to protect what we have left, and to restore the health of our land, water, and community. Thanks to you, California continues to lead the way in this work!
Many hands working together can have the power to make positive change. And this election season proved this to be true.
To ensure that Sonoma Land Trust’s projects and priorities had a seat at the decision-making table, we joined state-wide collations to advance the priorities of nature and climate resilience. For a second consecuctive year, we participated with the Power In Nature collation, which has nearly 200 organizations working around the state to advance the 30×30 goals. In addition, in 2024, we initiated the creation of a Bay Area chapter of the Power in Nature collation focused on securing funding and awareness for projects that matter most to our region. Learn more here: https://www.powerinnature.org/region/bay-area/
End of Year Challenge Update: Your Support is Making a Difference!
As we near the close of 2024, we are deeply grateful for the generous support we’ve received so far in our End of Year Challenge and on Giving Tuesday. Thanks to your contributions, we met our Giving Tuesday goal of raising $100,000, and we’re thrilled to share that we’ve raised $862,777 towards our $1.7 million End of Year Challenge goal.
Issued by our Board of Directors, this challenge is critical to meeting Sonoma Land Trust’s urgent 2025 priorities. Your donation will help us achieve the following:
- Advance one of California’s largest land restoration projects, protecting wetlands in the Sonoma Baylands, improving climate resilience, and reducing flood risks for the Bay Area.
- Expand Monte Rio Redwoods Regional Park by protecting 319 acres of ancient redwoods and Douglas fir forests.
- Support Sonoma Land Trust’s Conservation Council program, empowering local high school students to become the next generation of conservation leaders.
- Connect more people to nature near their homes, including supporting the community of Graton in their plans for a new town square with green space and recreation opportunities.
Every gift, large or small, brings us closer to our goal. We invite you to help us finish strong by donating today and supporting the future of our community and the natural places we all cherish. Thank you to those who have already given, and to everyone who will join us in these critical efforts. Together, we can make a lasting impact.
Free Language of the Land Webinars
Language of the Land: Forest Bathing
December 18, 7-8:30pm
Jenny Harrow-Keeler will share how forest bathing can be a powerful tool for stress relief and well-being. This mindfulness practice was developed in Japan and uses simple sensory awareness techniques to foster a deep connection with nature.
Spanish interpretation will be provided.
Language of the Land: Climate Change in California
February 26, 6-7:30pm
Dr. Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, will discuss how climate change is increasing the risks of extreme weather (also known as “hydroclimate whiplash”) and what it means more broadly for the Golden State and Sonoma County in particular.
Watch On Demand: Dragonflies of California
In this webinar, authors Kathy Biggs and Sandra von Arb share their passion for dragonflies – and the 73 species of them found in California. This talk highlights key information about where they live, what kinds of habitat they require, and other interesting things about the lives of dragonflies found in their new book, Dragonflies of California.
Free outings
Join us out in nature this month! In addition to our monthly bilingual Familias al Aire Libre/Families Outdoors outing, we’re hosting a series of weekend hikes from the mountains to the bay.
Many of these hikes are in partnership with Sonoma County Ag + Open Space.
