Help meet $50,000 match

Longtime Sonoma Land Trust donors Pete and Patty Mattson have pledged to match all year-end gifts when made by December 31, up to a total of $50,000. Their generous pledge and your gift will boost our efforts to protect forever the wild and beautiful lands of Sonoma County. "Sonoma Land Trust helps us be part of ensuring that Sonoma County will always be the beautiful and special place that we love. We are confident that our gift will add important acreage to Sonoma County's protected landscapes for future generations to enjoy," they said.

Donate now to protect what we love about Sonoma County

Sears Point restoration can keep pace with sea level rise

A recent article in the San Francisco Chronicle reported on the predicted fate of the San Francisco Bay's tidal marshes as sea level rises. This followed the publication of a study led by PRBO Conservation Science, which highlights the potential for vast areas of the Bay's tidal marshes to drown under the rising seas resulting from climate change. But all is not gloom. Restoration of low-lying lands now, before significant sea level rise occurs, can lessen the impact. Sears Point, our 1,000-acre tidal marsh restoration project, has the ability to keep pace with rising sea levels. Along with having access to ample sediment supplies, the property extends from the Bay shore well into the adjacent uplands, providing opportunity for the marsh to migrate if it needs to. Yes, this would require breaching a levee and finding ways to move sea water under the SMART rail line and Highway 37 — but this is not so radical. Already Caltrans is evaluating ideas for raising the highway. It may be 40 years out, but it is on the table. Sears Point, on the other hand, will break ground in 2012!

Successful forestry workshop encourages light-touch practices

The Sonoma Land Trust and Mattole Restoration Council (MRC) recently delivered a Program Timberland Environmental Impact Report (PTEIR) workshop in Santa Rosa. More than 20 attendees, including SRJC and SSU students, foresters, agency representatives and environmentalists, learned how the PTEIR process streamlines timber harvest permitting — making it quicker, simpler and cheaper — in exchange for landowners utilizing light-touch practices, such as selective harvest, wider riparian buffers and old-growth protection. The presentation was delivered by Hezekiah Allen, executive director, and Seth Zuckerman, Forest Futures program coordinator with MRC. Also presenting was Bill Wilkinson, forester with BBW & Associates.

Learn more about PTEIR

Erosion control underway at Estero Americano Preserve

Thanks to a partnership with Conservation Corps North Bay (CCNB), an erosion control project has been underway this fall at the Estero Americano Preserve. The project is intended to reduce sediment delivery from historic erosion sites across the preserve and involve installation of willow walls, brush check dams and native plant seedlings. Native grass seed was collected from the property by volunteers and interns this past spring and grown out into plugs for planting by Nature's Acres Nursery. The gully sites were initially surveyed by U.C. Cooperative Extension with support from Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District. CCNB has provided in-kind labor through Proposition 84 and the project is being supervised by Harold Appleton, an erosion control specialist with Prunuske Chatham, Inc. CCNB's Natural Resources Program offers young people a chance to enhance their academic and vocation abilities while performing important environmental work in the community.

Happy holidays to you and yours!

December 2011

On the ground at the Jenner Headlands

The Jenner Headlands continues to be a popular recreation spot for people around the county. In 2011, more than 600 people joined Sonoma Land Trust and The Wildlands Conservancy to hike, observe the spring wildflowers, get their raptor fix, learn about rocks and watersheds, and help out on volunteer workdays. Additionally, eight of our partner organizations also conducted hikes on the property, adding several hundred more hikers to the total. We have lots of new ideas for next year, so stay tuned!

Please give locally this December

The Sonoma Land Trust is your local land conservation organization and the dollars we raise are spent here in Sonoma County to hire local people, and to buy fencing and other materials from local establishments. As we manage our lands, know that your donations to your land trust are being used to support our local businesses, farmers and ranchers, which helps to keep Sonoma County's diverse economy viable, healthy and strong. Please give locally.

Learn more about the benefits of "Going local"

Bay Nature Holiday Special

Inspire your family and friends to get outside! Help them explore our local open spaces and learn about the people dedicated to protecting them with a subscription to Bay Nature magazine! Between now and Dec. 31, Bay Nature is offering a very special price on gift subscriptions:

• Get 1 subscription for
   only $17.95

• Get 2 or more for only
   $15 each — save over 30%!

Give a gift that will give joy year-round: Bay Nature magazine!

Donate from your IRA
tax free

IRA owners aged 70-½ and older can transfer any amount up to $100,000 from traditional or Roth IRAs to Sonoma Land Trust. The transferred amount will be excluded from your taxable income. Donations must be made by December 31, 2011. For more information, call (707) 526-6930, ext. 108 or email Beverly Scottland at beverly@sonomalandtrust.org