Online Resource Launched for Land Stewards

September 11, 2024 (Sonoma, CA) – Three trusted nonprofit partners launched a new, free in-depth online resource for Sonoma County land stewards.

Tending the Land for Fire Resilience in Sonoma County is a website guide for anyone who plays a role in stewarding land in Sonoma County to achieve a variety of goals, from fire resilience to conserving water, enhancing wildlife habitat, and more.

The newly launched website, Tending the Land, is a guide for land stewards to increase fire resilience, improve wildlife habitat, and achieve their own goals. Pictured here: Sonoma Ecology Center staff removing invasive, flammable roadside French broom near Glen Ellen, Sonoma County. Credit: Sonoma Ecology Center.

While Sonoma County is full of experts in land management, this expertise has been scattered and overwhelming for users until Tending the Land summarized it in one easily accessible and understandable resource. Distilling deep regional expertise into a step-by-step process for planning and caring for the land, the new website explains in plain language how to achieve multiple land stewardship objectives over time.

Anyone who stewards land can use this resource, from landowners, volunteers, and non-profit organizations that help care for open space, to land management professionals. Because of its accessible language and format, the new resource bridges the gap between professionals and the public.

“We hope Tending the Land will be the first resource that land managers of all kinds will reach for when approaching the stewardship of a site in Sonoma County,” says Eric Schoohs, Sonoma Ecology Center Land Management Planner and Tending the Land’s Project Manager.

Among many useful topics covered by Tending the Land include the benefits of forest thinning, prescribed fires, case studies of successful ecological land management, and Indigenous land gardening knowledge.

“As a longtime education and demonstration center for regenerative land stewardship, the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center is proud to share this much-needed resource for land owners and managers in Sonoma County seeking to take an active role in tending resilient landscapes. Rich with case studies, ecological principles, and planning resources, Tending the Land offers accessible management strategies that reduce wildfire risk and also provide co-benefits like wildlife habitat, soil health, beauty, and biodiversity,” says Hannah Wilton, Development & Program Manager at OAEC.

The Tending the Land website guides all types of land stewards on how to take care of land in Sonoma County. Pictured here: a mosaic of Sonoma County vegetation communities, showing grassland and hardwood forest with Douglas fir forest in the distance, at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park. Photo Credit: Sonoma Ecology Center.

Devyn Friedfel, Assistant Preserve Manager at Pepperwood Preserve, shares his excitement, “It is great to have a community resource that incorporates so much nuance of Sonoma County ecology. Tending the Land has value to all land stewards in our county, whether they are professionals, land owners, or interested community members.”

“It’s been an honor to make this guide with so many dedicated people, getting their expertise into one coherent information resource. They are amazing experts and amazing human beings,” shares Caitlin Cornwall, Sonoma Ecology Center’s Senior Project Manager who oversaw this project.

This project was accomplished through joint efforts among Sonoma Ecology Center, Pepperwood, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, and dozens of contributors from organizations including CAL FIRE, Resource Conservation Districts, Sonoma Land Trust, LandPaths, Permit Sonoma, UC Cooperative Extension, and Indigenous knowledge holders.

Tending the Land was funded by Sonoma County’s Vegetation Management Grant Program, Fire Safe Sonoma, the Redwood Chapter of Sierra Club, and a generous anonymous donor.

About the partners

About Sonoma Ecology Center:

Sonoma Ecology Center’s mission is to work with our community to identify and lead actions that achieve and sustain ecological health in Sonoma Valley and beyond. Since 1990 we have worked to increase appreciation and stewardship of Sonoma Valley’s natural heritage and create measurable benefits in areas of land, water, climate change, community, and biodiversity. Learn more at www.sonomaecologycenter.org. 

About Pepperwood Preserve

Pepperwood manages a 3,200-acre biological reserve and the Dwight Center for Conservation Science. The reserve serves as a living laboratory hosting researchers from around the world, and has become a hub for ecological education and a conservation think tank. Learn more at www.pepperwoodpreserve.org.

About Occidental Arts & Ecology Center

The Occidental Arts & Ecology Center (OAEC) is an 80-acre research, demonstration, education, advocacy and community-organizing center in West Sonoma County, California that develops strategies for regional-scale community resilience and the restoration of biological and cultural diversity. Learn more at www.oaec.org.