California
THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE PROUD OF IN 2022 AND MORE TO LOOK FORWARD TO IN THE YEAR AHEAD
• Provide park equity for 1 million Californians in underserved communities.
• Protect, restore, and increase public access and use of California’s natural and working lands that contribute to conservation and climate resiliency goals.
Thanks to your generous support in California—only two years in—we are already three-quarters of the way to our goal of connecting 1 million additional Californians
Guillermo Rodriguez , California State Director and Vice President, Pacific Region
to quality parks. We have also planted 7,503 trees, captured 25 million gallons of stormwater runoff, and protected 175,146 acres of land.* In our efforts to increase public investment—thanks to voters and with state budget surpluses—we were approved for over $3 billion. And since 2020 we have launched two initiatives to conserve large, connected natural areas—the Transverse Range in Southern California and our Central Coast initiative—that will focus on climate resilient properties in vital regions of California.
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With gratitude,
Trust for Public Land has long believed that everyone needs nature— but we know that access to parks and public land is not equally shared. That is why, with your generous support, we are leading a nationwide movement to close this outdoor equity gap. Together, we are creating nature-rich places in the communities that need them most, improving people’s health, nurturing their joy, and strengthening their connection to the outdoors and one another.
Thank you for being a TPL champion!MarkhamElementary
• Grow public and private investment in parks and open space and advance policy and legislation that supports access, equity, and climate conservation in California by $5 billion.
This is just the beginning of the impact that your giving provides. Together, we are ensuring everyone can benefit from nature’s healing and unifying powers. Thank you again.
In 2020 our California team created a five-year plan to maximize the impact of our work on the issues most pressing to Californians today: aligning our efforts with the state’s climate action strategy and delivering great community-centered resilience and equitable access to nature. To this end, we set the following five-year goals:
© AMY OSBORNE
* (Page 2) This data includes statistics from projects currently in the pipeline and not yet completed.
The property is slated for a 12-mile hiking, biking, and equestrian trail that will transport users from urban Los Angeles to views unchanged since the days of Alta California. The preservation of Temescal Ranch is a monumental advancement of California’s 30x30 initiative, which aims to conserve 30 percent of the state’s lands and coastal waters by 2030.
We are excited to share that the final phase of our efforts to protect Temescal Ranch is complete. Your support has resulted in one of the largest properties ever conserved in Los Angeles County, totaling 6,195 acres!
When we protect forests and grasslands, we don’t just protect wildlife, water quality, and places to play outside—we also help to meet ambitious climate goals.”
TEMESCAL RANCH
Temescal Ranch is the latest addition to TPL’s Transverse Range Climate Conservation Strategy—an effort to link millions of acres of public lands stretching from San Luis Obispo County to San Bernardino County. These linkages will enable species movement and adaptation and prevent development in fire-prone wildlands. Bears,
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Climate resilience in California
As climate change tightens its grip on communities across the U.S., extreme heat, wildfires, and flooding are growing more frequent and severe. Public land is one of the most effective tools to help communities protect themselves from the ravages of climate change. From protecting people from extreme heat, poor air, and water quality to managing stormwater and sequestering carbon in soil and vegetation—the parks we create and the lands we protect help communities become more resilient and prepared for change.
Brendan Shane, Trust for Public Land Climate Director
mountain lions, California condors, and other species that live on the property or migrate along the wildlife corridor are now able to freely move up the coast. The property also hosts two creeks that flow into the regional drinking water supply and support endangered Southern California steelhead habitats.
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Protecting Nyland also provides the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band with a cultural easement, granting perpetual rights to access and restore the land through traditional land stewardship, cultural and educational activities. TPL hopes that a future partnership involving the San Benito Agricultural Land Trust, Amah Mutsun Land Trust, and Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, will help ensure the property’s ecological, agricultural, historical, and cultural resources are preserved for the benefit of future generations.
Support TPL’s Central Coast initiative so that other properties like Nyland can be preserved for generations to come.
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NYLAND
TPL purchased a 540-acre property in San Benito County, known as “Nyland” in an effort to protect critical wildlife corridors, increase public and cultural access, and create greater community resiliency. Threatened by poorly planned development along Highway 101 from Monterey County and Santa Clara Valley, Nyland is in a strategic location for the Santa Cruz Mountains Linkage connecting the Santa Cruz Mountains with the Gabilan and Diablo Ranges. This corridor is vital for the survival and movement of mountain lions, bobcats, badgers, black bears, and blacktail deer. Its year-round, drought-resilient freshwater reservoirs provide habitat for many resident and migratory species. Protecting these habitats will ensure their ongoing climate benefits, including carbon storage, tree canopy, and critical wildlife habitat in the face of a changing climate.
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In partnership with the City of Los Angeles, our Green Alleys help advance safety and climate measures in South LA. by improving pedestrian infrastructure, creating safe spaces for families, and managing stormwater.
CENTRAL JEFFERSON AND QUINCY JONES GREEN ALLEYS
Alleys in Los Angeles present an opportunity to capitalize on untapped publicly owned resources, one-third of which are located in the community of South L.A. This high-density neighborhood lacks adequate green space, and though Green Alleys are not an exact replacement for a park, they provide shade, walking spaces, and safer commuting environments. South L.A. experiences more extreme heat days than many other parts of the city, which will only worsen
with climate change. Planting trees, promoting sustainability, and using “cooler colors” will help alleviate some of the urban heating that takes place throughout the year.
With construction set to be completed in December 2022, the Quincy Jones and Central Jefferson Alleys will create 1.3 miles of safe passageways linking the community to resources like grocery stores and schools, while simultaneously beautifying the neighborhood with plants, 50 new trees, art, and other park-like features.
© ANNIE BANG
This year, with your continued support, we broke ground on two additional Green Alleys in Los Angeles: Central Jefferson and Quincy Jones in South Los Angeles. These two alley networks build on the success of TPL’s previously completed Bradley Plaza and Green Alley and the Avalon Green Alley network.
Bayview-Hunters Point is home to San Francisco’s largest African American population, and one of the region’s most disadvantaged neighborhoods, with 19.3 percent of residents living below the poverty level compared with 8.2 percent citywide. There are few quality parks and the nearby waterfront is contaminated and inaccessible.
© COURTESY OF IBWATERFRONTPARKS.COM
Once complete, India Basin will create a continuous system of publicly accessible parks and trails, closing the gap in the San Francisco Bay Trail and facilitating the expansion of the 13-mile Blue Greenway network. Meanwhile, restoration of the natural shoreline will provide critical habitat for marine and bird species. These improvements will increase Bayview-Hunters Point’s climate resilience by buffering the community from rising seas, capturing rainwater, improving air quality, and encouraging carbonfree transportation. TPL is proud to be a member of this team and we value your support in helping to push this monumental project forward.
Collaboration among local groups, stakeholders, and residents has been a top priority since the conception of this project. TPL helped inform an Equitable Development Plan, the first in the city, which aims to mitigate the displacement of current residents once the new park is complete, support their health, recreational, and economic needs, and celebrate the community’s culture.
TPL’s Land and People Lab uses evidence to increase the impact of our on-the-groundwork and spark a national movement for parks and public land. We inform policies and practices, build partnerships, and share resources to expand the many benefits of nature and the outdoors. Locally, the Lab provides tools like the Oakland Park Evaluation App which allows volunteers to assess the quality of Oakland’s 500 parks and advocate for the city to continue to make progress on park equity for its communities.
urbanRevitalizingspaces
Spanning over 1.5 miles of shoreline and 60 acres of parkland, India Basin Waterfront Park and trails system will soon be a Bay Area gem. The transformation of this toxic post-industrial waterfront into a destination for recreation will benefit Bayview-Hunters Point, a diverse and historically underserved community, and is the most ambitious park equity and environmental effort in Bay Area history.
INDIA BASIN
THE LAND & PEOPLE LAB
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VENTURA RIVER PARKWAY
endangered steelhead trout and southwest willow flycatcher to return to their natural environments.
Following the first phase of trailhead construction and habitat restoration, we are now working to protect 56 additional acres along the Lower Ventura River, formerly used by oil and gas companies. The purchase of this downstream property will reduce the impacts of flooding in the area and represents a substantial victory for the Ventura community, who has been calling for the property’s restoration for decades.
LARGE: © DARCY KIEFEL; INSET: © TPL STAFF
TPL is working with the local community to revitalize habitats and construct trailheads to connect to the Ventura River. This will not only improve recreation access to the Ventura River Trail, but also encourage the
Once a farm and later an industrial storage yard, the property is divided by a stretch of the Ventura River Trail, a 6.2-mile-long trail for hiking, biking, and wildlife viewing. The trail is part of a larger network of trails along the coast, linking the Omer Rains Coastal Bike Trail with Ventura County’s nine-mile-long Ojai Valley Trail to create a nearly 20-mile stretch from the Pacific Ocean along the Ventura River to downtown Ojai.
An hour north of Los Angeles, an industrial 28-acre property along the Ventura River will soon provide meaningful recreational opportunities and climate benefits for the Ventura County community.
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Before After
California’s green schoolyard movement
LEFT & RIGHT: © TPL STAFF
We are also collaborating with the Los Angeles School District (LAUSD) to transform Jose A. Castellanos Elementary School in the Pico Union neighborhood of Los Angeles. The design for the green schoolyard, conceived by students, parents, and teachers, has been completed and we will break ground in early 2023. Students, teachers, and residents can look forward to a “Campus Creek” themed playground featuring a tree circle for outdoor classes and gatherings, a climbing structure, native plants, a seasonal creek, jaguarthemed art, a multi-use playing field, and a discovery trail traversing California landscapes.
In addition to working with local communities, our team advocates in Sacramento for the policy changes and public funding streams that make it easier for others to do this work. We have secured $50 million from the California surplus budget to fund green schoolyards and are advocating for an additional $200 million which will help expand schoolyard greening to other school districts across the state.
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LOOKING AHEAD
In an effort to connect more people to nature’s benefits, TPL is transforming paved school grounds into verdant campuses and opening them to the public after school. Swapping out blacktop for trees, gardens, and up-todate play equipment delivers an abundance of benefits to students, from emotional to academic. The community benefits are enormous: Opening our state’s schoolyards to the public during non-school hours would put a park within a 10-minute walk of nearly 10 million Californians.
HOW YOU CAN HELP
This past year, having successfully raised over $8.2 million for our green schoolyard efforts, we completed our second pilot schoolyard at Markham Elementary School in Oakland. We will begin construction on our third pilot school in Oakland, Melrose Leadership Academy, this fall.
While public funding supports the physical costs of constructing green schoolyards, philanthropic support is essential. Your donations support community outreach to students, parents, and teachers and enables us to engage school districts and advocate for the policy changes needed to bring the work to scale. Donate to our statewide green schoolyards initiative so that we can partner with additional school districts throughout California.
To advance the green schoolyards movement in Los Angeles, TPL has made several major investments in the last few years. We helped found the Los Angeles Living Schoolyards Coalition (LSYC), a diverse group of organizations working together to create healthy school environments. LSYC hosted a tremendous convening in June 2022 to promote the importance of well-designed school campuses and their role in supporting community health, especially in the most underserved parts of the district. TPL also recently created a new position for the organization, a California Green Schoolyards Campaign Manager, to help elevate the work at the state level through policy and advocacy. Additionally, the Campaign Manager is working with LSYC partners to move TPL’s goal of greening 28 LAUSD sites by 2028, an initiative referred to as “28x28.”
Juan: Our priority is to continue to establish TPL as a conservation leader around the state, with an emphasis on meeting the new state lawmakers at the Capitol. We are looking to advance green schoolyard legislation, analyze and advance ballot measures that will support our work, and protect and enhance the budget funding of the various agencies with which we partner. The election will drastically change California’s political landscape. We will see nearly a third of the legislature turn over, with some of the most powerful voices either retiring or terming out. While the direction and tone will not change, we will have to develop relationships with the new leaders to ensure our agenda is at the forefront of their decision making. It will be incumbent upon us to make sure they know who we are and the value that we bring to their respective districts.
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Rico: To remind everyone, California’s 30×30 effort is a community-driven initiative to protect 30 percent of California’s land and waters by 2030. The goal aligns with a global campaign to protect nature and avoid an extinction crisis.
How do those funds tie into the 30x30 initiative that TPL focuses heavily on?
Juan: And TPL’s role as an implementer will be critically important to its success. We have and will continue to protect significant areas of biodiversity, while also guaranteeing equitable access is at the core of that work. As a key leader and stakeholder in the conservation space, we are uniquely positioned to unlock public dollars to ensure impactful projects on the ground.
What is your team hoping to achieve in this coming year, especially considering the November election?
Support our policy work in California’s state capital by donating to TPL’s Park Catalyst Fund.
© ANGELA DECENZO PHOTOGRAPHY
Rico: Overall, we had a remarkable year. We were able to submit several key proposals, securing about $50 million for land conservation projects and $50 million for green schoolyards, among other initiatives.
What were some of TPL’s accomplishments this past year?
Sacramento spotlight
TPL is sounding the alarm on park funding. We partner with elected officials, thought leaders, and communities to mobilize support for critical bills and policies that advance parks and public lands for people. We work with cities, states, counties, and communities to pass ballot measures and to create and unlock public funding for parks and open space. Americans have cast more than 110 million votes since 1996 for TPL ballot measures that have generated over $84 billion in new public funding for parks and conservation around the country.
A large facet of California’s success lies in Sacramento with our government relations team. Juan Altamirano, Director of Government Affairs, and Rico Mastrodonato, Legislative and Policy Director, shared their thoughts on TPL’s progress at California’s state capitol.
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© TPL STAFF
Michael Parish Portillo Rabinov
Alex Johnson , Co-Chair California Advisory Board
Val KathrynShepardLarryLucyLisaColeCraypoFinnGelbHarrisWelch Howe Alex M. Johnson Jane Thornton Jones Cindy Polite Kamm Daniel Martin Mandi McKay Julie Parish
A note from our new California co-chairs
Thank you for your continued support of TPL. As the newly appointed co-chairs of the California Advisory Board, we are excited to continue the incredible work that Desiree Portillo Rabinov and Michael Parish have set in motion. Their diligence, commitment, and passion for park equity and land protection have set a high standard for our board and we look forward to following their lead in assisting TPL’s efforts to build public green spaces where they are needed most.
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Desiree
As each year passes, the severity of climate change grows and the need for climate resilient parks increases, your contributions are essential in helping us create sustainable urban parks and conserve acres of vital wildlife habitats up and down the state of California.
Marcia Choo
Many thanks.
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Val and Alex California Advisory Board Co-Chairs
We are happy to be partnering with you this coming year and hope that you will continue feeling inspired about the opportunities we have to give everyone in California equitable access to nature.
CALIFORNIA ADVISORY BOARD
Val Cole , CaliforniaCo-ChairAdvisory Board
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/ca THANK YOU for helping improve the health, equity, and climate outcomes for communities in California and beyond. We could not do this without you. Guillermo Rodriguez California State Director and Vice President, Pacific Region guillermo.rodriguez@ tpl.org David Zhang California Senior Director of LOSPOTRUSTdavid.zhangPhilanthropy@tpl.orgFORPUBLICLANDBOX889336ANGELES,CA90088-9336 COVER, TOP: © JOSHUA LEUNG; © LUCY BLAKE © ANGELA DECENZO PHOTOGRAPHY; LARGE: © ANNIE BANG; THIS PAGE: © TPL STAFF
