Presentation to the George Wright Society about parks and conservation in the Bay Area and how the demographics of the region are affecting our work.

1. Bay Area Land Conservation and
Changing Demographics
George Wright Society Conference
March 31, 2015

2. This is Annie
Annie Burke
Deputy Director
annie@openspacecouncil.org
Twitter: @BA_OpenSpace
Instagram: @bayareaopenspace

3. Photo: Lech Naumovich
What does land conservation
mean in the Bay Area?
How does land conservation
happen in the Bay Area?
Who’s changing?
How can we all use our
Outdoor Voice?

4. Photo: Lech Naumovich
What does land conservation
mean in the Bay Area?

5. 1.4 million acres of
protected land
1 million acres publicly
accessible
10’s of millions of park
visitors annually
Thousands of trailheads
Hundreds of thousands
of acres in farms and
ranches
7 million human residents
Biodiversity hotspot

6. Redwood forests
Rich agricultural land
Oak woodlands
Hundreds of watersheds
Sacramento Delta
Prairies and grasslands
Mountains and ridges
Urban parks
Beaches and shoreline
Trails of many kinds

7. Land acquisition
Land stewardship
Outdoor education
Community building
Food production
Water supply
Public health
Habitat restoration
Cultural resources
And 100 other flavors

8. • Conservation Lands Network
(BayAreaLands.org)
• Nonprofit land trusts buy land, turn
over to public agency
• Partnerships between land trusts
and Native tribes
• 20,000 acres in Buckeye Forest in
Sonoma Co all the way to 8 acres
in El Cerrito purchased by Trust for
Public Land
• Habitat Conservation Plans, Master
plans, Greenprints, Mitigation and
Vision Documents
• And more…
Some examples of how the Bay Area:
PROTECTS THE LAND

9. • Stewardship 5.0 led by
Sempervirens Fund
• Tamalpais Lands Collaborative
• Urban Releaf in Oakland
• Terrestrial Biodiversity Climate
Change Collaboration
• Critical Linkages for wildlife
• Save the Redwoods climate
change research
• And more…
Some examples of how the Bay Area:
STEWARDS THE LAND

10. • Grazing on public lands
• Sunol AgPark
• Pie Ranch
• Coyote Valley in the south bay
• Conservation easements
• Marin Carbon Project
• UC Cooperative Extension
• And more…
Some examples of how the Bay Area:
WORKS THE LAND

11. • Trails Challenge by East Bay
Regional Park District
• Healthy Parks Healthy People
• Pogo Park in Richmond
• LandPaths’ Bayer Farm
• Shuttle from Bayview Hunters
Point to the Presidio
• Ridge Trail and Bay Trail
• And more…
Some examples of how the Bay Area:
CONNECTS PEOPLE TO THE LAND

12. Photo: Lech Naumovich
How does land conservation
happen in the Bay Area?

13. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Aristotle

14. 65 member organizations and agencies including:
 Nonprofits: land trusts, advocacy organizations,
friends groups, conservancies
 Cities
 Counties
 Special districts
 Resource Conservation Districts
 California State Parks
 Federal agencies: National Park Service, BLM

15. Relationships
Photo by Jen Hale

16. Break
bread
together

17. Share information
(and not just the good stuff)Photo: Jen Hale

18. Make it visible
Photo: Jen Hale

19. Have fun

20. Photo: Lech Naumovich
Who’s changing?

21. By 2050, California’s population will grow by 35%.
That’s the size of metro LA today.
95% of Californians live in urban areas. This isn’t
expected to change.
Today Latinos are the largest ethnic group in
California – by 2050 Latinos will comprise nearly
half the population.
Nearly a quarter of Californians live in poverty
today.
California is growing older, more obese, and
unhealthy.
Source: California Council of Land Trust’s Horizon’s Report
CALIFORNIA

22. Source: Plan Bay Area, Chapter 2
Between 2010 and 2040, the Bay Area is
projected to add 2.1 million people and 660,000
homes, for a total of 9.3 million people and 3.4
million homes.
By 2040 Latinos will emerge as the largest ethnic
group, increasing from 23% to 35%.
The number of Asians will increase from 21% to
about 24% of the population.
Non-Hispanic whites will drop sharply from
approximately 45% in 2010 to about 31% in 2040.
The African-American population is expected to
decline slightly, dropping from 6% to 5%.
BAYAREA

23. Source: Focus group with 10 Latino participants, January 2015
There is an untapped potential to engage Latinos
and business/tech workers.
People need to be asked to get involved.
LATINOSandBUSINESS
I don’t know if I would have done that if not prompted
to, but now that I see it on here, it is worthy of giving a
portion of that (theoretical) $1,000.
I was one of those who wouldn’t have thought to give
to natural areas, unless prompted.
It looks like some of these parks need help and there
is a bunch of things I can do, not just make a bunch of
trailheads. It seems like there is something I can do.

24. What are we doing about it?

25. What we do What they do
Where the magic happens

26. What we do What they do
Where the magic happens
National Park Youth program

27. What we do What they do
Where the magic happens
National Park Youth program
Land trust
Public health
department

28. What we do What they do
Where the magic happens
National Park Youth program
Land trust
Public health
department
Parks
& Rec
dept
Job
training
center

29. Maybe we don’t need to change
what we’re doing.
We will need to change
how we’re doing it.

30. Photo: Lech Naumovich
How can we all use our
Outdoor Voice?

31. What if we did this math:
Ecosystem of organizations
and agencies protecting the
land, stewarding & working the
land, and connecting people to
the land
+
The need for significant
regional funding
+
More Bay Area residents who
care about land conservation IF
prompted

32. Outdoor Voice
A regional initiative to
build a large and
diverse constituency for
land conservation
A way for park users to
deepen their experience
with the places they
love

33. Outdoor Voice
www.outdoorvoice.org
facebook.com/outdoorv
oice
@outdoorvoice
Launching at Open
Space Conference on
May 14, 2015

34. Photo: Lech Naumovich
Land conservation means a wide range
of things in the Bay Area.
Embracing a culture of collaboration
means achieving more.
We can change what we do, or how we
do it (or both). Either way we need to
change.
A regional initiative is launching to
maximize opportunities and unify the
region.

35. This is Annie
Annie Burke
Deputy Director
annie@openspacecouncil.org
Twitter: @BA_OpenSpace
Instagram: @bayareaopenspace