• May 24: French Broom Removal in Russian Gulch

• June 7: French Broom Removal in Russian Gulch

The Wildlands Conservancy is seeking grazing proposals from ranchers interested in leasing approximately 1,400 acres of the Jenner Headlands Preserve for livestock grazing that consists of annual and perennial grasslands with smaller portions of woodland and coastal scrub rangeland, as well as serpentine grasslands.

Important dates:

• May 28th: required tour of property
• June 14th: RFP proposals due

Hikes: June 14th & 28th. Redwoods, Rivers, and Coastal Prairie Grasslands.

Come out and hike with us as we explore redwood groves, rivers and creeks, and coastal prairie grasslands on the Jenner Headlands.  Along the way we will discuss the natural history and ecology of these three diverse habitats and talk about how we are diligently working to bring back the big trees, restore native fisheries, and maintain the incredible habitat diversity found in coastal prairie grasslands.  During the hike we will talk about our ecologically-based management practices that are key to our restoration activities.  Click here to sign up.

Workdays: May 24th & June 7th. French Broom Removal.

As much as folks love coming out on our staff-led hikes and learning about the Preserve from one of our Rangers, they often ask, "So when can I come out and I hike on my own?"  Well, believe it or not, we have been working on that "puzzle piece" ever since the Preserve was purchased and protected as open space.  You see, the Preserve is sizeable, over 5,600 acres, but there are actually very few locations where it reaches a public road and provides safe access for visitors.  After consulting with local community members, user groups, and local park groups and agencies, the most suitable and safest spot to access the property is along State Highway 1.  We have carefully thought through the design of a Highway 1 parking lot to make it as aesthetically pleasing as possible, blending it into the natural topography and nature-scaping it with rocks and pervious pavers instead of hard concrete and asphalt.  With all the work we have put into the design, we are happy to announce that we have just finished the conceptual designs for our Highway 1 parking lot!

The parking lot is proposed to be two-tiered, matching the existing hillslope, with cars parked into the hillside and away from sight-seers traveling along the highway.  Separating the two tiers would be a large seasonal wetland or bio-swale that would collect rainfall runoff, providing wetland habitat and a pleasing environment to visitors.  An ADA-trail would start at the parking lot and travel along the old railroad grade that was originally created back in the early 1900s as a way to haul redwood timber out to schooners waiting in the nearby rugged and rocky coves.  Along the trail, a restroom would be tucked away into an old rock quarry where a section of hillside was removed when the railroad was originally created.  Close by would be a day-use area with picnic tables and kiosks providing visitors with information on the natural and cultural history of the Preserve and the Sonoma Coast.  Hikers could then use existing ranch roads to hike up into the Headlands and experience and explore the Preserve.  Currently we are working on detailed construction designs and obtaining all the necessary permits.  Next, we will begin fundraising for construction costs.  We look forward to the day we can put this puzzle piece into place as the "Gateway to the Headlands" and welcome everyone to come up and experience this incredible Preserve.

People tend to think that forests have higher biological value than grasslands.  But grasslands can also support a rich assemblage of native plants and animals -- and coastal prairie grasslands, like those found on the Preserve, are one of the most diverse types of grasslands in North America!  Unfortunately, since early Euro-American settlement, more than 90 percent of coastal prairie habitat in California has been lost due to urbanization, agriculture, non-native plant invasion, fire suppression and shrub encroachment.  Because of this, coastal prairie has been designated an "Environmentally Sensitive Habitat Area" by the California Coastal Commission and is protected under the California Coastal Act.

So then, how do we keep grasslands grassy and wildlife happy in their habitat?  Well, back in the day native elk and antelope as well as other grazers munched on grasses and shrubs as they moved through the grasslands.  In some cases, with the right set of circumstances, we can bring back native grazers, like at our Wind Wolves Preserve where we have reintroduced close to 300 Tule Elk, which now munch on the grasses like they did many moons ago before they were locally hunted to extinction.  For the Jenner Headlands Preserve with a major highway at our doorstep and only about 1,100 acres of grassland, Tule Elk reintroduction is unfortunately not a viable option now, but there are other solutions.  Over the last couple of decades researchers and ranchers have worked together to find that a well-managed rotational livestock grazing system can be quite effective for large-scale management of coastal prairie grasslands, while also helping to support the local ranching community.  Like the native grazers that moved through the grasslands, cattle can be managed to move through pastures, keeping non-native plants in check and providing a diversity of wildlife habitat.

So, at the Jenner Headlands we are now looking for a rancher that fits the bill.  That can rotate cattle through the pastures, varying the intensity of grazing levels throughout the year to develop a mosaic of native plant diversity and vegetation structure. That is why we have just sent out a Request for Proposals (RFP) to experienced ranchers that are interested in working with us to manage the Preserve's grasslands.  If you are an interested rancher, or if you know someone that fits the bill, please download the Grazing Lease RFP and let us know you are interested as soon as possible.   Click here  to download the RFP today!

Have you ever had an amazing wildlife observation and wanted to share it with friends and nature lovers alike?  Or have you ever seen an animal, insect, or flower and wondered what the heck it is?  Well now there is a way to Share, Explore, and Learn more about this incredible world we inhabit and it's called iNaturalist!  Here's how it works.  Create a free account on the website and then download the free iNaturalist app on your smart phone.  Then the next time you're out exploring one of our Preserves and see something you want to share or something you want to learn about, record the GPS location, take a photo or two and post it to iNaturalist.  If you don't know what species of plant, animal, or insect it is, you can ask experts on the site to ID it for you.  If you're an expert yourself, you can help ID other posts on the website.  iNaturalist is also linked to Wikipedia and Encyclopedia of Life and other biological databases, allowing you to dig down and learn more about any particular species you may be interested in.  And recently, The California Academy of Sciences brought iNat under its wing, so stay tuned for even better, more robust online and in-the-field tools to learn more about our natural world.

To get a better idea of how it works, check out our Jenner Headland iNaturalist Notebook.  Our iNaturalist Notebook provides staff and visitors an opportunity to share their valuable observations and provide us with important information on the distribution of the plants and animals of the Preserve, that in the end, will help us better manage and steward these incredible resources for this and future generations.  We hope you, our citizen-scientists, will add observations to our iNaturalist Notebook each time you visit us.  Check it out today!