Wildlands
The Place
The 70-acre wildlands preserve honors the legacy of Coast Miwok/Southern Pomo land stewardship practices and seeks to restore ecological cycles and keystone processes of fire, carbon and life through “regenerative disturbance.” Over the past 30 years, staff, volunteers and students have been steadily working to restore healthy mixed hardwood and conifer forests, coastal prairie and riparian plant and animal communities through active stewardship and “citizen science” monitoring.
Our preserve and field campus provides a site for experimentation in trialing regenerative disturbance techniques and a training ground for sharing our learnings with others.
The Program
Through demonstration, research, education, and campaigns to legitimize holistic stewardship practices, the OAEC Wildlands Restoration Program promotes ecoliteracy and the awareness that humans must be an integral, interconnected and regenerative component of natural systems.
Core elements of the program include our “Fuels to Flows” Campaign, local Fireshed x Watershed Community Organizing, Workforce Development in Holistic Vegetative Management, and Biological Monitoring/Citizen Science.
Wildlands News
Watch Brock’s Firesafe Sonoma Talk: Fuels to Flows
Brock Dolman, Ecologist and Director of the OAEC Wildlands program, gave an online presentation for FireSafe Sonoma on May 23rd, 2023 introducing the concept of “Fuels to Flows” – turning … Read more
YES Magazine highlights Climate Justice In Sonoma County
April 24, 2023 – YES Magazine published an excellent article by our friend and photojournalist Brooke Anderson that features OAEC’s collaboration with North Bay Jobs with Justice (NBJwJ) and workers from their Farmworker … Read more
Watch OAEC’s Short Film for the UN Decade of Restoration
From “drought to deluge,” we are facing the drastic swings of the climate crisis – and grappling with how to respond. At OAEC, we hold an active and hopeful vision … Read more
Celebrating the 5 “Kindoms” on iNaturalist!
Did you know OAEC is home to over 127 species of fungi, 326 species of animalia and 290 species of plantae? Since 2003, Brock Dolman, Director of the OAEC Wildlands … Read more
NBC news – Intersection of Fire & Water at OAEC
“It’s time to take our fire fears and connect that with our water woes!” – Brock Dolman As we thin and limb our forests and landscapes towards fire fuels reduction, … Read more
