The Nature Conservancy in California - 50 Years of Conservation in California

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Partners: The Secret to Our Success

In looking at our past 50 years in California, it’s easy to see a pattern emerge — so many partners have been vital to helping us achieve significant, lasting successes.

Partners accelerate the pace of our work, leading to quicker action; they open doors that allow for policy reform; and they facilitate a broader vision, enabling us to protect more land to ensure the survival of more species.

From public agencies, universities, corporations and other conservation organizations to community leaders and private citizens — five decades of achievements are the result of collaboration.

We thank all the partners who have worked with us to preserve the riches that make California so spectacular. An anniversary is the perfect time to celebrate our accomplishments and to thank those who have led us to where we are today.

Building a Lasting Legacy

To celebrate the Conservancy's 50 years of protecting California, we are highlighting some of our most innovative conservation successes:

Take a tour of the Golden State through our Imagining California photo slideshow!

From the Klamath River to Otay Mesa, we’ve planned, partnered and preserved. We’ve tracked, measured and mapped. We’ve negotiated, influenced and lobbied. And, we have successfully saved more than 1.2 million acres of spectacular California landscape.

2009 marks the Conservancy’s 50th anniversary protecting California. In these 50 years, we’ve safeguarded hundreds of parcels of land and waterways and millions of acres of ocean — natural habitats essential to the survival of all species, including us.

Achieving Success for Nature

Starting with our first project, the Angelo Coast Range Reserve in Mendocino County, we’ve saved the Marin Headlands, rescued the San Francisco Bay shoreline, formed the Northern Sierra Partnership and rehabilitated the Sacramento River.

We created Andrew Molera State Park and Elkhorn Slough Reserve, helped establish the Carrizo Plain National Monument and dramatically expanded Montaña de Oro State Park.

We brokered the Coachella Valley Preserve, stewarded the Irvine Ranch National Natural Landmark, developed the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve and restored Santa Cruz Island.

Tackling the Toughest Issues

Along the way, the Conservancy built a reputation as an innovative group that brings pragmatic, real-world solutions to the toughest conservation issues. Our willingness to try new approaches has led to many once-competing interests forging long-lasting alliances that benefit conservation.

One of the most notable of such accomplishments was our work to mediate the embittered standstill over development of the Coachella Valley. Our success in achieving an equitable solution for all parties, including nature, continues to be the model for how to reach planning consensus.

Roughly a decade later, we partnered with others to push through California’s revolutionary Natural Community Conservation Planning (NCCP) program for land-use planning on a scale that is necessary for nature to function well.

Blazing the Trail

Over the past five decades, we’ve watched the scope of our work broaden. We’ve grown from an organization that acquires exceptional properties for habitat protection to one that focuses on landscape-scale endeavors that allow room for wildlife to adapt to the changing climate.

Today, through our climate change program, we are at work in one of the first — and largest — forests to be recognized in California as a verified source of carbon credits. We played a leadership role in the state’s new landmark climate change legislation. We even guided CalPERS (California Public Employee Retirement System) to begin investing more than $2 billion in environmentally friendly timber projects.

What Is Next for Nature?

We are proud of what we’ve accomplished in California over the past 50 years. It’s a remarkable record. And, as for the future? We will continue to show the world how to achieve healthy and prosperous communities. We’ll export what we’ve learned and what we know works. And we will continue to create a world where nature and people thrive.