The Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy's purpose is to engage people in the conservation, stewardship, and enjoyment of our state's rich ecological, historical, cultural, and economic resources.
To accomplish this mission, we work closely with community-based partner organizations to:

1. Preserve, restore, and steward a “necklace” of publicly accessible, protected natural areas and historical sites in a Heritage Corridor Network across California, through fee-title ownership, conservation easements, public lands advocacy, and community stewardship alliances;
2. Create and maintain a Cross-California hiking trail that would link these sites in a contiguous route from the Pacific coast to the Sierra crest and encourage local community-based travel and human-powered recreation and transportation;
3. Lead educational programs and develop and distribute educational materials that advance a strong conservation ethic for California’s ecological, historical, and cultural heritage; and
4. Promote tourism-related and other economic benefits of the Heritage Corridor Network, Cross-California Trail, and resource conservation/stewardship.

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The Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy (MTC) was created by conservation pioneer John Deveaux Olmsted, and continues in his memory with an active 12-member board of directors and numerous volunteers. To support our efforts, please donate at this link (or by check addressed to Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy, PO Box 1026, Nevada City, CA 95959), check our events page for upcoming volunteer opportunities, and read on about our current projects and past successes.

Current Projects:
Save our State Parks!
70 of California’s state parks are slated for closure in 2012 due to state budget shortfalls, and MTC board member Alden Olmsted, son of founder John Olmsted, is pioneering a campaign to raise the funds necessary to keep the parks open, one dollar at a time. Please donate at this link, visit this link for the list of endangered parks, visit your own local parks in person to volunteer and to enjoy them, and spread the word to everyone you know!

Cross-California Trail
Imagine hiking, cycling, or horseback riding all the way from the Pacific coast to the Sierra crest, through the incredible ecological diversity of California, experiencing crashing ocean waves, colorful wildflower meadows, fragrant sage scrub hillsides, tall redwood groves, ancient pygmy forests, golden oak-studded foothills, verdant riparian corridors, fascinating serpentine plant communities, uniquely delicate vernal pools, fertile agricultural lands, powerful rivers with runs of wild salmon, valley wetlands filled with migratory waterfowl, craggy peaks and buttes, twining manzanita shrublands, towering forests of fir, lush montane meadows, dramatic alpine scree, and high-mountain vistas! These diverse landscapes form our ecological heritage, and are located somewhat linearly along California’s 39th Parallel, our proposed route for the Cross-California Trail. Inspired by John Olmsted’s vision of this trail, MTC is scouting route options and contacting regional partners in the western portion of the proposed route, and hiking the eastern 100 miles of trail that are already contiguous and accessible to the public, with plans to publish our findings in August 2011. The Cross-California Ecological Heritage Trail was included as one of 27 state-recognized California Trail Corridors mapped in the California Recreational Trails Plan in 2002 (downloadable at this link, map on Appendix B, page xiii). Let’s make this dream a reality today!

Yuba Powerhouse Preserve
With 80 acres of blue oak / foothill pine woodlands, several wetland acres, and abundant wildlife, the ecological values of the Yuba Powerhouse Preserve are also complimented by its pre-1900 historical significance as the site of one of the first hydroelectric power operations of the gold rush era. The site is also a keystone of ecological connectivity, as it is located between the University of California's Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center and California Department of Fish and Game lands and conservation easements, providing a contiguous landscape for wildlife movement through several thousand acres of Sierra foothills habitat. Owned by the MTC’s partner non-profit organization (also founded by John Olmsted), the California Institute of Man in Nature (CIMIN), the site has inspired several environmental education groups and hosted public tours to enrich people’s connections to both nature and history. The MTC is currently in the visioning and planning stages for the long-term stewardship of this vibrant site, and is working to raise the several thousand dollars still needed to secure the site’s long-term future. Please donate to help secure this site of California’s heritage in perpetuity by mailing checks addressed to: Mendocino-Tahoe Conservancy, PO Box 1026, Nevada City, CA 95959.

Earth Planet Museum
Two graduate students in the California College of the Arts’ curatorial program will be spending the summer in John Olmsted’s Earth Planet Museum, in the basement of St. Joseph’s Cultural Center in Grass Valley. After inventorying and cataloging the many historical treasures and ecological artifacts that John collected there, Amanda and Roula will develop a proposal for the future of the museum and its collections, and will recommend ways to provide the greatest educational benefit to the public while remaining financially sustainable. Come explore the museum at St. Joseph’s open house event on Sunday, June 26, 2011, from 12-5pm!

Past Successes:
Jughandle Creek Farm
Goat Mountain
Independence Trail
Bridgeport State Park, Yuba Powerhouse, Simpson Lane
California Ecology Slide Shows and Guided Naturalist Hikes