Seventy Acres, Old Redwoods, and Zero Poison Oak Rashes

I must have driven past the land a hundred times. Sitting along a road I often take on my way to the coast, you would think it would be easy to have my eyes drawn to it, but somehow I'd never really looked. Yesterday, though, that changed and I finally did.

I spent the afternoon with our Executive Director, Devin, and our Conservation Director, Rob, walking along seventy acres of a GSLC-protected property in west Sonoma County. Rows of old vineyards give way to a grove of redwoods on the beautiful, classically Californian landscape, some of them huge and clearly very old. Rob showed us the small tags on several of the biggest trees, marking them as protected — a quiet reminder that someone decided these trees should still be standing long after all of us are gone.

He also stopped to point out what he thought were wild boar tracks in the soft ground. I was thrilled and a little nervous at the same time at the sight. Glimpsing signs of animals you never actually see is part of the magic of this work. It shows how much is going on out there when nobody's watching.

Interested in the animals our work protects? Check out Catraio Ranch Preserve: An Unexpected Discovery (opens in new tab)

On this particular outing, our team also learned that we have one very useful fun fact in common: none of us react to poison oak. I’m not saying it’s in the job description, but given how much poison oak grows in California and on the land we protect, it certainly doesn’t hurt.

Along with experiencing the beauty of the landscape, the best part of the day was learning about the inner workings of land conservation along the way. As we walked, Rob explained the difference between a mitigation easement and a donated easement. Both protect land permanently, but they come from very different places:

• A donated easement starts with a landowner's choice. They decide to protect their land forever, often because of a deep personal connection to it, and donate the easement (but not the land) to a land trust like ours.
• A mitigation easement is required to offset the environmental impacts of a development project. The protected land may be part of the same property or elsewhere, and the easement usually includes long-term funding and agency oversight to ensure the protection lasts.

The property we walked on this trip was a donated easement, and you could feel it. It was not manicured, and wasn't meant to be. The owner has given the land room to heal and regenerate on its own, leaving the old trees standing and letting nature take its course. You could see how much she loved this land in how much she trusted it. Protecting it forever was her choice, and walking it made that choice feel very personal.

Whichever way an easement comes to us, our job is the same: we take care of the land and keep that promise for good.

I came home with dirty shoes, a long list of questions, and a new appreciation for the places I drive past every day without noticing and the stewardship that goes into caring for them.

To learn more about how conservation easements work, visit our Protect Your Land Page (opens in new tab)