2019-2020 Stephen Joseph Stephen Annual Report Protecting DIABLO’S WILD LANDS This map shows the expansion of protected lands on Mount Diablo from 6,788 acres in 1971, when Save Mount Diablo was founded, to more than 120,000 acres that have been protected by Save Mount Diablo and our great partners. Scott Hein Scott BOARDBOARD OF DIRECTORS OF Effective April 1, 2020 Dear Supporters, JimDIRECTORS Felton, President Burt*Term Bassler, ended Treasurer in 2013 We are so grateful for your support, space. Further, we advanced understanding of Liz HarveyScott Roberts Hein, Vice President the need to better protect the Diablo Range. & Secretary which enabled us to complete an President Keith Alley extremely successful fiscal year that ran We saw many successes with our educational JohnMalcolm Gallagher Sproul from April 1, 2019 to March 31, 2020. Joe PastGaraventa President programs as well. For example, we have Garrett Girvan completed 11 Conservation Collaboration Burt Bassler On the land acquisition front, we signed ClaudiaTreasurer Hein Agreements (CCAs) with local schools Scott Hein two agreements to protect two very strategic Amara Morrison and businesses, with four such agreements Giselle Jurkanin properties. On December 31, 2019, Save Mount Secretary completed in this fiscal year. In surveys of Margaret Kruse Diablo and the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride CarolHeath Lane Bartosh numerous CCA participants, 95 percent Frank Martens Association signed an option agreement, 15 Joe Canciamilla report they would recommend the program Bob Marx years in the making. It gave our organization Ken Dami* to other students. Our free educational public Robert Phelps two years to raise a little over $1.04 million to John Gallagher hike program, Discover Diablo, had more Malcolm Sproul permanently protect 154 acres, one of the most Jeff ClaudiaStone Hein than 300 participants this fiscal year. Gary Johnson strategic and important unprotected properties STAFF Doug Knauer remaining on Mount Diablo’s main peaks. You helped us realize success with our Ted Clement ExecutiveBrian Director Kruse* stewardship efforts too. For example, this In early March 2020, Save Mount Diablo SethSue Adams Ohanian fiscal year our volunteers donated well over Land Conservation Director successfully entered into a purchase agreement Marty Reed 2,000 work hours to our efforts to steward Sean Burke to buy and protect the strategic 28.73-acre Land Programs Director the couple thousand acres under our care. Smith Canyon for $650,000. This property KarenArt Ferriere Bonwell DevelopmentDr. Mary DirectorBowerman can become an important gateway to Curry Your outstanding support is also MonicaFounders Oei Canyon from Morgan Territory Road. Finance & Administration Director how we will not only weather the Megan Shockro With our land advocacy work, we also have coronavirus crisis, but also continue to Director of Major Gifts & Planned Giving successfully advance our mission to Denise Castro great examples of success. After more than 14 Education & Outreach Associate years of advocacy efforts by Save Mount Diablo protect our critical natural foundation Hidemi Crosse and our good partners, most of the 2,500 for our long-term well-being. Senior Accountant acres for a new Concord Regional Park were Juan Pablo Galván Senior Land Use Manager conveyed to our important partner, East Bay With Gratitude, Shannon Grover Regional Park District, in July 2019 as part of the Senior Development Associate & Events Manager Concord Naval Weapons Station Reuse Plan. Dana Halpin General Office Manager Also, Save Mount Diablo and our good partners Edward Sortwell Clement, Jr. Laura Kindsvater helped lead a successful campaign that resulted Communications Manager Executive Director Katie Lopez in Magee Preserve being approved by Danville Save Mount Diablo Accounting & Administration Associate voters in March 2020. That success means that 93 Roxana Lucero percent of the 410-acre Magee Preserve property Land Stewardship Associate Save Mount Diablo’s area of interest expanded in 2019. In addition to the area bounded by I-680 to the west, I-580 is now permanently protected as public open Joanne McCluhan to the south, the Carquinez Strait and Suisun Bay to the north, and the Delta to the east, we now also work south of Executive Assistant I-580 to the Santa Clara County line. Save Mount Diablo monitors development projects in this entire area. In the Ian Smith Development Associate & Photo on the front cover is of the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail area north of I-580, we also work to connect and expand new and existing parks and preserves while working with Database Manager Ride Association land that we are working to protect. our allies to preserve, protect, restore, and promote enjoyment of these natural lands. PeterCover: Townley First Last Name Land Stewardship Manager THE DIABLO RANGE Preserve Save Mount Diablo has launched a campaign to connect Mount Diablo to the whole of the Diablo Range, a 150-mile long mountain range and biodiversity refuge that’s next LLANDAND AACQUISITIONCQUISITION door to millions of people, but that most people know nothing about. Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association and Smith Canyon Acquisitions Ogden Cooper Seventy-five percent of the ecologically important area the first ever published map of the public and protected lands The 2019–2020 fiscal year was an exciting one for Save Canyon east of Clayton for $650,000. This incredible oak around Mount Diablo has been preserved, while in the full of the Diablo Range. Mount Diablo’s acquisition efforts. During this time, our woodland property can become an important gateway into 150-mile range, only 24 percent of the landscape has any organization secured a conservation easement option Curry Canyon from Morgan Territory Road. protection. Save Mount Diablo’s first step is defining the Also as part of the campaign, Save Mount Diablo recently agreement with the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride range as a whole for the conservation community and the expanded the geographic area in which it now does its land Association in Clayton and also secured a purchase Smith Canyon is blanketed by blue oak woodlands, public and educating them about its importance. use advocacy; it includes the three northern counties of 12 agreement to acquire a strategic property, Smith Canyon in grasslands, and a live oak–bay riparian corridor. This crossed by the Diablo Range. The organization’s primary Morgan Territory. incredible property provides great habitat for California As part of this campaign, Save Mount Diablo helped to acquisition focus remains north of Highway 580 and around sponsor a newly published cover story and supplement the main peaks of Mount Diablo. In addition to working in On the morning of New Year’s Eve, 2019, Save Mount about the Diablo Range in Bay Nature magazine. “The Spine Contra Costa County between Highway 680 and the Byron Diablo and the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association of California” explores the most rugged, plant-rich stretch Highway, Save Mount Diablo now also works in southeastern signed an option agreement that was 15 years in the of California you’ve never heard of. It’s the first article ever Alameda and southwestern San Joaquin Counties. making to preserve and permanently protect about published specifically about the Diablo Range, and it includes 154 acres of one of the most pivotal and unprotected properties remaining on Mount Diablo’s main summits. The property stretches across the northern aspects of North Peak from the pastoral Three Springs area, toward the ethereal and ephemeral waterfalls found on the Falls Trail, beautiful Cardinet Oaks, and upper Young Canyon. Hein Scott Save Mount Diablo paid a $50,000 option payment to red-legged frogs and Alameda whipsnakes, special status secure the option agreement. It gives us two years to raise species that are likely to be present on the property. With this acquisition, Save Mount Diablo can strengthen the wildlife Stephen Joseph Stephen a little more than $1.04 million to purchase the perpetual conservation easement on 154 acres of critical open space, habitat corridors that rare and native plants and animals which will continue to be owned by the Concord Mt. Diablo depend upon in the Mount Diablo area. SAVE MOUNT DIABLO IN THE MEDIA Trail Association. The association will keep about 47 acres, The acquisition of these properties is paramount in the fight where its buildings are located, outside of the proposed 154- against climate change as well. The oak woodlands, oak acre conservation area. savannas, and grasslands found on each of these properties The proposed acreage to be conserved is surrounded on serve as carbon sinks, absorbing and filtering greenhouse three sides by Mount Diablo State Park and contiguous with gases from our atmosphere. In August 2019, the UN Save Mount Diablo’s conserved Young Canyon property and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change issued a new its North Peak Ranch acquisition project. This acquisition report, Climate Change and Land. This report focused on is highly strategic because it builds upon already protected how land is under increased pressure from humans and wildlife habitat corridors, scenic views, and watershed lands. climate change, but also noted that land is a critical part of the solution to climate change. With the conservation of In early March 2020, Save Mount Diablo entered a purchase lands like these, we can directly address the climate crisis in agreement to buy and protect the strategic 28.73-acre Smith lasting ways. California landscape photographer Stephen Joseph has published his new book, Mount Diablo, A Story of Place and Inspiration. Sponsored by Save Mount Diablo, East Bay Regional Park District, J. Rockcliff Realtors, Bishop Ranch, and Claudia and Scott Hein, it features more than 200 panoramic photos that celebrate Mount Diablo’s extraordinary lands. Accompanying the photos are inspiring essays, including one by Seth Adams and one by Ted Clement of Save Mount Diablo.