About LandPaths

LandPaths is an environmental education and conservation leader with the mission to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County. We believe everyone should have access to the awe and inspiration of nature.

Annually, we engage thousands of participants like you in joyful, caring, and transformative relationship with the land. We do this mainly through creative outings led in both English and Spanish, environmental education, nature camps, and people-powered land stewardship of local open spaces.

Land Acknowledgement

Our community gardens, office, and preserves throughout Sonoma County are located on the ancestral homelands of the Southern Pomo, Coast Miwok, Dry Creek Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians, and Mishewal people, past, present, and future. We recognize them as the first people and the first stewards of this land.

Initiatives

Rooting Youth in Nature

LandPaths significantly reduces the barriers and expands opportunities to get outside so that more youth are able to experience wonder, joy, awe, belonging, and connection in nature.

Branching Out Conservation for Everyone

LandPaths expands the amount of people in Sonoma County who benefit from healthy land, understand the value of nature, and cultivate a sense of wanting to care for the land that gives so much back to us.

Community Care

Growing Community with Nature

Wildfires, flooding, and other challenges have dramatically increased globally and locally because of human-caused climate change. Reciprocal and joyful relationships between people and the land is a solution to climate disruption. From volunteer land stewardship days to community gatherings in local open spaces, you’ll find a range of creative, impactful opportunities to participate with LandPaths and make a difference.

Featured Outings

Hut Hill Hootenanny

  • Day: Friday, April 12
  • Time: 2pm – 6:30pm
  • Place: Bohemia Ecological Preserve, Occidental
  • Music with very special guests Bruce Kunkel (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band)  and Greg Anton (Zero)
  • Free!

Join LandPaths’ Executive Director Craig Anderson and two super special musical guests at Bohemia Ecological Preserve on a magical spring Friday afternoon! And learn a bit about our popular and transformative summer nature camps and how you might help LandPaths get even more kids outside for joy, belonging, and community this summer! Drop by anytime between 2pm – 5pm  and stay as long as you like! Enjoy the musical and story offerings of Bruce Kunkel, co-founder of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and Greg Anton, co-founder of the seminal SF band Zero, along with many other wonderful musical guests. Delicious snacks and beverages will be provided!

Register Here

Branch Out with Nature Vogue-ing

  • Day:Saturday, April 20
  • Time: 10am – 2pm
  • Place: Myers Preserve, Occidental
  • Part two of our Branch Out series, centering LGBTQ+ community members with the purpose of creating a sense of belonging and inclusive spaces in the outdoors.
  • Made possible by the support of our partners at Ag & Open Space

Join LandPaths and Ag + Open Space District for wildly creative Earth Day celebration! We’ll gather at magical Myers Preserve, next door to Ocean Song in West Sonoma County! We’ll create outfits from lichen, leaves, and other materials of the forest & grasslands for a fabulous outdoor fashion show. This outing is part of LandPaths’ new Branch Out series, centering LGBTQ+ community members with the purpose of creating a sense of belonging and inclusive spaces in the outdoors. Allies are welcomed!

Sign Up!

Volunteer Gardening Day at Ocean Song Preserve

  • Day: Sunday, April 21
  • Time: 11:30am – 3:30pm (you can leave earlier)
  • Place: Ocean Song Preserve, Occidental 

The pollinator and habitat garden at Ocean Song/Myers is a truly magical place. You are invited to experience the land as you help tend the garden, a home for myriad blooms, bees, and birds (so many birds!) Activities depend on the season, and might include invasive species removal, pruning, mulching, mowing and other seasonal needs. We’ll cater the task to your ability!
The day will be led by LandPaths’ wonderful volunteer garden steward Jan Lochner

Sign Up

Burn Pile Volunteer Stewardship Day at Riddell Preserve

  • Day: Friday, April 26
  • Time: 9am to 3pm
  • Place: Riddell Preserve, Healdsburg

It’s wildfire fuels reduction time on the preserve! Now that we’ve pulled tons of French Broom and lopped Douglas Firs, it’s time to minimize the woody debris while it’s okay to do burn piles. The more people we have, the more we can do!

Sign Up Here

Stories + News

Stories from the Field

Enter the Big Tree Month Photo Contest – January 2024

January 2, 2024

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It’s time for the Big Tree Month Photo Contest!   Large and big old-growth trees in Sonoma County captivate LandPaths participants with their immense size and complex network […]

Reflections: Slow Restoration Community Forestry Project for Women and Nonbinary Participants

November 20, 2023

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By Lara O’Herlihy, Stewardship Field Specialist This past October, fourteen strangers met for the first time at Riddell Preserve, LandPaths’ 400-acre protected open space preserve in the […]

Students Make More Nature and Science Connections through New Environmental Education Pathways Project in Sonoma County

February 5, 2024

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Students Make New Connections WithEnvironmental Education Pathways  On a brisk and sunny day at Glen Oaks Ranch, 3rd graders from Flowery Elementary School chat merrily as they hike […]

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