The Trust for Public Land in California THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF
in 2021
AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD
CLIMATE, HEALTH, EQUITY, AND ACCESS IN CALIFORNIA REUBEN HER ZL /GROUNDMAKING, LLC.
Banning Ranch Newport Beach, CA
As a Trust for Public Land supporter, you create climate-resilient communities, boost health and wellness, conserve and restore invaluable landscapes, and reconnect people to the land and to each other. Together, we’re rising to today’s challenges and bridging the park divide for 1 million Californians. We’re creating green spaces where they are needed most by advancing over 20 park equity projects in the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles, expanding park equity to California’s Central Coast, and growing our schoolyards initiative. In December, we protected 1,171 additional acres of Temescal Ranch. In January 2021, more than 600 elementary students at Oakland’s César E. Chávez campus will tend their new garden, play and run on their athletic field, and rest under shady trees on their newly renovated schoolyard. We have also recently completed construction on Oakland’s second green schoolyard conversion at Markham Elementary, scheduled to open in fall 2021. We are also excited to share that, thanks to an extraordinary $50 million gift from philanthropists Frank and Joann Randall, The Trust for Public Land is now under contract
to purchase the 384-acre Banning Ranch—the largest parcel of unprotected coastal land between Ventura County and the U.S./Mexico border in Southern California—and transform it into an outdoor recreation destination! The Randall’s gift—the largest single donation in The Trust for Public Land’s history—illustrates the transformative impact that private contributions can have on millions of people in the region. Your impact goes beyond creating great parks, public lands, trails, and schoolyards. You are helping to strengthen the social, civic, and emotional connections that our communities depend on, while addressing the most pressing climate, health, equity, and access issues our country faces. With gratitude, Guillermo Rodriguez California State Director
TRANSFORMING CALIFORNIA’S SCHOOLYARDS There is a schoolyard in nearly every neighborhood in California yet, across the state, too many schoolyards are paved over, trapping heat and contributing to poor health outcomes for students. The Trust for Public Land sees an affordable opportunity to create green, sustainable schoolyards and simultaneously enrich the lives of students, families, teachers, and the whole community with our schoolyards transformations. In 2021, we completed two schoolyard transformations in Oakland. At the César E. Chávez campus, we created a park-like environment for 628 K–5 students. The students and nearby community will benefit from the cooler campus, opportunities to learn about nature, and enriched outdoor recreation every day. We also replaced 21,000 square feet of pavement at Markham Elementary with droughttolerant landscaping and 67 shade trees. The new playground, athletic field, and outdoor classroom will be open for students to enjoy during the 2021–22 school year.
LOOKING AHEAD Together with the Oakland community, we are raising funds to renovate Bridges Academy’s campus with a new garden, outdoor classroom, and athletic field. We are also planting over 40 shade trees and improving ADA accessibility. Construction will begin in early 2022. In Los Angeles, we are inspiring California’s largest school district to embrace our schoolyard vision and joint use agreements through a pilot project at the Camino Nuevo Charter Academy Jose A. Castellanos campus. We will convert one acre of the 2.5-acre campus into a thriving place to learn, featuring a multiuse field, outdoor classroom, running track, shade trees, and stormwater management elements. This project is the first in our 28x28 initiative to create 28 green schoolyards across Los Angeles by 2028!
How you can help
Make a gift today in support of our statewide schoolyard efforts!
TPL STAFF
BEFORE
AFTER
PROTECTING CALIFORNIA’S LAND FOR PEOPLE TPL STAFF
Hayden Ranch
Siskiyou County, CA
Conserving land is a proven method for improving health, combating the climate crisis, advancing equity, and strengthening communities. Protecting properties like Hayden Ranch, Sanhedrin Ranch, Temescal Ranch, and Robin’s Nest aligns with California’s 30x30 initiative— which aims to protect 30 percent of the state’s lands by 2030—and The Trust for Public Land’s California Climate Conservation strategy to link millions of acres of public lands from the U.S./Mexico border to San Luis Obispo County.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA Hayden Ranch
We secured 6,095 acres of forest, wetlands, and meadows in Siskiyou County in December 2020. Hayden Ranch includes 2.5 miles of the east fork of the Scott River, which is a critically important spawning and rearing ground for Coho and
Chinook salmon, as well as steelhead. Trail access to the surrounding public lands, located adjacent to the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), and the property itself will be developed over time and will serve a variety of travelers drawn to the area’s outstanding natural beauty and small-town getaways.
Sanhedrin Ranch In July 2021, we secured the final phase of Sanhedrin Ranch. Located in the Coast Ranges of Northern California, the 12,000-acre property is the largest parcel of its kind in the Mendocino National Forest. Trust for Public Land donors raised over $12 million for this project. In addition to expanding public wilderness lands, the project will create new non-motorized access to the Yuki Wilderness, which presently has few access points and requires extensive travel over difficult, unimproved roads. This section of the ranch contains over ten miles of hiking trails
winding through grasslands studded with huge oak trees, as well as over five miles of remote, pristine salmon streams.
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA Temescal Ranch
In December 2020, we completed the second phase of the land protection effort at Temescal Ranch, adding 1,171 more acres, bringing the total protected acreage to 2,401. Once our final phase of land protection work is complete, your support will have created the largest property ever conserved in Los Angeles County, totaling 6,006 acres! The property joins an unbroken stretch of protected lands and a critical wildlife corridor that reaches up to the Central Coast. Bear, mountain lion, California condor, and other species live on the property or migrate along the wildlife corridor. In addition, two creeks on the property flow into the regional drinking water supply. The County has already developed a 12-mile trail plan, and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority (MRCA) is committed to restoring habitats.
Robin’s Nest East of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County, Robin’s Nest offers a lush backdrop of cottonwoods and willows for thousands of PCT hikers from around the world annually. In December 2020, we secured an additional 18 acres, preserving nearly a mile of the Santa Clara River and multiple endangered species’ habitats. Combined with our previous work, we have protected 70 acres at Robin’s Nest. MRCA will own and manage the properties in perpetuity. Plans propose that the Santa Clara River Trail run through the Robin’s Nest properties. This future mountains-to-the-sea trail will start at the nearby Pacific Crest Trail and end at the Pacific Ocean in Ventura County.
How you can help
Help us protect over 40,000 acres in California over the next two years by donating to Protect California Fund!
TPL STAFF
Temescal Ranch Santa Clarita, CA
CLIMATE SPOTLIGHT: KE’PEL CREEK
At the invitation of the North Coast’s Yurok Tribe, we joined their efforts to reacquire more than 2,424 acres of forestlands and prairie surrounding Ke’pel Creek, a remote tributary of the Klamath River. Since time immemorial, the Yurok Tribe has resided in this region and holistically manages more than 75,000 acres of forest along the Klamath River. With 6,311 enrolled members, the Yurok Tribe is California’s largest federally recognized Tribe. During the past decade, the Yurok Tribe has successfully recovered a portion of their original lands and is now actively engaged in multiple forest rehabilitation projects on the recently recovered properties. Using data analytics, innovative planning technology, and knowledge of state public conservation funding, The Trust for Public Land helped the Tribe access funds from the California Natural Resources Agency to finance the purchase. In April 2021, the Yurok Tribe announced the return of this significant forest area to the Tribe’s ownership, expanding a 34,000-acre stretch of Tribal land. “It is a good day for the Yurok people,” said Joseph L. James, the Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. The acquisition ensures that Yurok members can hunt, fish, and hold ceremonies on their ancestral lands without trespassing on private lands or facing intrusions from tourists on public lands.
PAUL ROBERT WOLF WILSON
The Trust for Public Land has a long history of working with tribal communities in California to return culturally important land, including the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness and the Kashia Coastal Reserve. We have partnered with more than 70 tribal governments and organizations to restore ownership and management of more than 200,000 acres.
We’re not complete until we gain “back that land and gain back the ability to manage that land. ”
– Rosie Clayburn, a member of the Yurok Tribe
As the original stewards of these lands and resources, the Yurok Tribe’s forestry expertise and vision for the future of this area benefit the health of the land, water, resources, and environment for all Californians. The Tribe’s major initiatives include holistic forest management, fisheries protection, restoration and management, Klamath dam removal, condor reintroduction, natural resources conservation, cultural preservation, and sustainable economic development and land acquisition.
How you can help
Join us in raising funds to support other Tribal and Native lands efforts across California and the U.S.
CONNECTING THROUGH CALIFORNIA’S TRAILS TPL STAFF
Trails are the common ground for communities, connecting us to nature and each other. Trails are where people mix and mingle—where joggers and cyclists share the route with dog walkers, kids on scooters, and families with strollers. Plants and wildlife flourish along these corridors.
LOS ANGELES’ GREEN ALLEYS Green and safe corridors With your help, we transformed crumbling and neglected alleyways into vibrant community spaces for the children and families of Pacoima. The recently completed Bradley Plaza and Green Alley project serves nearly 8,500 people who live within a 10-minute walk of the site. It is the first of Los Angeles’ planned Shared Streets initiative, designed to slow traffic, create a safe space for children and residents to gather and play, and improve pedestrian safety and vehicle access to businesses and homes. The completed Bradley Plaza and Green Alley will: • Improve water quality by capturing and infiltrating approximately 2 million gallons of stormwater runoff. • Eliminate alley flooding. • Promote sustainability and neighborhood connectivity by creating a vibrant open space for community members to gather. Bradley Plaza and Green Alley is the first project completed through the newly designed and highly innovative Transformative Climate Communities (TCC) program. The TCC grant program, one of many California Climate Investments programs, funds development and infrastructure projects that provide environmental, health, and economic benefits to California’s most disadvantaged communities.
CALIFORNIA TRAILS Our trails come in all forms—from alley networks, additions to the revered Pacific Crest Trail, to walking and biking paths along waterways in Los Angeles, Ventura, and the San Francisco Bay Area. In the City of Richmond in the East Bay, we are transforming one mile of residential streets into a multi-use greenway corridor. Thanks to new bike lanes, improved sidewalks, and green infrastructure, nearly 18,000 residents will have new access to regional and local destinations. We expect to celebrate the opening of the Richmond Wellness Trail in spring 2022. In Ventura, we are working to protect 28 acres of the floodplain bisected by a .22 mile stretch of the Ventura River Parkway. This 6.2-mile trail connects a recreational trail network to the ocean.
Join us
Support us in furthering the work of the TCC and raising funds to complete our next Green Alley projects: Quincy Jones and Avalon alley networks, also based in Pacoima.
CONSERVATION FINANCE IN CALIFORNIA Park access in California—and across the nation— is not created equal. Our 2021 ParkScore® Index—an annual ranking of the top 100 cities for park access—found that parks serving a majority of people of color are nearly half the size and serve five times more people than parks in majority white neighborhoods.
The complex process of identifying and applying for public funds draws on the full gamut of our expertise: grant writing, GIS-mapping and research, project management, community outreach, and partnership building. We also support our partners—especially small cities that lack capacity—with grant applications.
The Trust for Public Land is uniquely poised to help close this vast equity divide to urban green space by unlocking historic levels of public funding. We have the experience, expertise, and a strong track record of leveraging public and private funds to support our park equity mission.
How you can help
By contributing to our Parks Catalyst Fund, you help us unlock public funds and bring quality parks to every Californian in need of safe and equitable green space.
Since 1972, we have raised $85 billion in state and local funding to support local parks and land protection projects.
In Oakland, we leveraged a $100,000 private grant for our Oakland schoolyards to raise over $2 million from the California State Coastal Conservancy and other agencies. This was further enhanced by the passage of Oakland City’s Measure Y in November of 2020, which approved a $735 million school bond that included funding towards green and living schoolyards. In the past year, we played a vital role in the passage of Fresno’s Measure P, a 3/8-cent sales tax for parks. For years, Fresno has ranked at or near the bottom of our ParkScore index. The passage of Measure P means that Fresno will now have the resources to invest in public health, strengthen local economy, and provide jobs for residents by investing in parks and green infrastructure.
CHRISTI COOPER-KUHN
Throughout the state, private seed funding unlocks public moneys for green spaces. In fact, for every $1 donated, we generate $2,000 in state and local funds.
California Advisory Board A note from our California Co-Chairs Thank you for your continued support of The Trust for Public Land. As co-chairs of the California Advisory Board, we are committed to supporting efforts that increase access to public open space for all Californians. Your contributions help to improve climate resilience through land protection and park creation and ensure that every community—regardless of zip code—can be stronger, healthier, and more connected. We look forward to continuing our work together, creating equitable access to nature and open space where it is needed most. Yours sincerely, Desirée Portillo-Rabinov Co-Chair, California Advisory Board Michael Parish Co-Chair, California Advisory Board Member of the National Board of Directors
Marcia Choo Val Cole Lisa Craypo Lucy Finn Lawrence N. Gelb Shepard Harris Kathryn Welch Howe Alex Martin Johnson Cindy Polite Kamm Dan Martin Richard Morrison Julie Parish Michael Parish* Desirée Portillo Rabinov Karl Robillard Daniel Rosenfeld Laura Shell Vanessa Smith Aaron Vermut Francesca Vietor Trina Villanueva Keith E. Weaver* Ward Wolff Michelynn Woodard * also serves on the National Board
PAUL ROBERT WOLF WILSON
Ke’pel Creek
Humbolt County, CA
INTRODUCING OUR NEWEST BOARD MEMBERS
Lisa Craypo is Principal at Ad Lucem Consulting with more than 20 years of experience in strategic planning, initiative design, philanthropic advising, program evaluation and research.
TPL STAFF
Marcia Choo has worked in the private and public sectors as well as holding teaching assignments. Currently, she serves as a board member for the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs, Genesis LA (CDFI), LA Más Advisory Board, and the Los Angeles Business Council. Lucy Finn is a senior managerial health care consultant for Kaiser Permanente. She works primarily on programs that improve care and support patients with diabetes, hypertension, and a history of heart attack or stroke. Lucy graduated with a Masters of Public Health (MPH) from Columbia University.
Vanessa Smith is Senior Manager for Boeing’s Global Engagement in the Southwest Region where she manages the company’s environmental portfolio. In this position, Vanessa partners with nonprofit, non-governmental organizations to invest corporate and local resources, supporting sustainable, positive impact in communities where Boeing employees live and work.
Francesca Vietor has been a dedicated voice and advocate for the environment for more than three decades, from her early days at Rainforest Action Network to the founding of San Francisco City’s first Environment Department to her current role as Senior Advisor on the Environment to the San Francisco Foundation.
Trina Villanueva serves as Director of Corporate Social Responsibility, covering Northern California and the Central Valley for MUFG Union Bank’s Corporate Social Responsibility for the Americas group. In this role, Trina manages philanthropic strategy, oversees employee engagement and volunteer activities, and creates partnership opportunities.
Ward Wolff is Associate Director of Upstart Co-Lab, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors focused on investing for social and environmental impact in creative enterprises and real estate. Ward oversees Upstart’s strategic partnerships, field building efforts, research, and investment pipeline.
WE ARE GRATEFUL FOR THE GENEROUS SUPPORT OF THE FOLLOWING FOUNDATION AND CORPORATE PARTNERS. Bella Vista Foundation Boeing Company Caldwell Fisher Family Foundation The California Endowment The California Wellness Foundation The Clifford Family Foundation Cushman & Wakefield Flora L. Thornton Foundation Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Hellman Foundation John S. Kiewit Memorial Foundation John Pritzker Family Fund The Joseph & Vera Long Foundation JPMorgan Chase & Co. Justice Outside Kaiser Permanente Martin Family Foundation
Molina Family Foundation National Fish and Wildlife Foundation June G. Outhwaite Charitable Trust Ralph M. Parsons Foundation Resources Legacy Fund Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation The Rose Hills Foundation S. Mark Taper Foundation San Fernando Valley Audubon Society Seed Fund Sierra Pacific Foundation Sony Pictures Entertainment Southern California Edison Co. Union Bank Foundation Wayne and Gladys Valley Foundation Henry W. and Ellen R. Warne Family Endowment Fund Wyss Foundation Wells Fargo
Thank you for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in California and beyond. We couldn’t do this without you.
BACK: REUBEN HER ZL /GROUNDMAKING, LLC. • FRONT: REUBEN HER ZL /GROUNDMAKING, LLC.; RICH REID PHOTOGR APHY; TPL STAFF; TERR AY SYLVESTER; ANNIE BANG
Join us Help ensure everyone has access to the outdoors. Every park we create, schoolyard we transform, trail we extend, and landscape we protect is thanks to supporters like you.
tpl.org/donate
Guillermo Rodriguez California State Director guillermo.rodriguez@tpl.org David Zhang California Senior Director of Philanthropy david.zhang@tpl.org 101 Montgomery Street, Suite 1000 San Francisco, CA 94104