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/Watershed Community Organizing, Workforce Development in Holistic Vegetative Management, and Biological Monitoring/Citizen Science.
Wildlands News
Gully Stuffing Collaboration with Golden Gate National Recreation Area
In March of 2025, WATER Institute Co-Directors Brock Dolman and Kate Lundquist had the great pleasure of meeting with Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) staff to carry out a … Read more
Fuels to Flows Campaign Launch
Building on OAEC’s three decades of land stewardship and watershed restoration work, we are excited to formally launch our Fuels to Flows Campaign! The term “Fuels to Flows,” coined by … Read more
Residential Rainwater & Fire Resilience Workshop Nov. 2nd
Join us Saturday, November 2nd from 10AM-1PM for a Residential Rainwater and Fire Resilience Workshop co-hosted by the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center, Gold Ridge RCD and Sonoma County Ag + … Read more
Tending the Land for Fire Resilience in Sonoma County
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 … Read more
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
