Rising Above 2020–2021 Annual Report Thank You for Your Support Dear Supporters, IN MARCH 2020, we were in the process of wrapping up a hugely successful fiscal year. Our fiscal year runs from April 1st through March 31st. And then, “Bam!” the pandemic hit. So within that first quarter of the new fiscal year that started on April 1, 2020, we were faced with a very bleak picture: a raging global pandemic; social and political unrest; soaring rates of unemployment and loads of businesses going out of Edward Sortwell Clement, Jr. business; growing rates of depression; etc. How in the world were we going to meet our programmatic and revenue goals in this newly started fiscal year and stay afloat let alone thrive? We made some critical and strategic decisions early on that helped us not only stay afloat but thrive—decisions like the following: we immediately announced a team approach with a goal of maintaining all of our staff positions; we immediately empha- sized the importance of maintaining our positive and grateful organizational culture; we looked for new ways to serve our communities like our weekly lighting of the Mount Diablo Beacon during the pandemic and our new Nature Heals and Inspires Zoom series—both of which started in April 2020; and we also did a lot of careful financial planning. Our April 1, 2020–March 31, 2021 fiscal year was recently completed and the results, as outlined in this Annual Report, were incredibly bright despite a fiscal year with much darkness in a national crisis and pandemic period: • We substantially delivered on our Strategic Plan and programmatic goals; • We maintained all of our staff positions; • We completed the fiscal year deep in the black; • We raised substantial resources for our Forever Wild Campaign so we only have about $333,000 left to raise to complete this $15 million capital campaign; and • We grew and stewarded our reserves well so that we entered the new fiscal year in April 2021 with a solid financial foundation. You helped make this incredible success and momentum for our land conservation mission possible. We cannot thank you enough! With Gratitude, PHOTOS FRONT COVER: FLOYD MCCLUHAN; BACK COVER: NATE CAMPI; THIS PAGE: LAURA KINDSVATER Nature Heals and Inspires UNDERSTANDING THAT NATURE is the ultimate foundation for our long- term health and well-being, in April 2020 we developed and launched a free public education Zoom series entitled Nature Heals and Inspires to help our communities understand that nature is a critical part of the Light from the solution to working through the historically challenging times we were faced with. Mountaintop Beyond the documented health and psychological benefits of spend- ing time in nature, going outside will also help address one of the most ONE OF THE BRIGHT LIGHTS provided to serious environmental problems facing our planet. The lack of mean- the San Francisco Bay Area during the ingful connections between people and nature in this era of “nature pandemic and national crisis period was the deficit disorder” has resulted in us lacking the love and will required Mount Diablo Beacon, which Save Mount to fully address major environmental threats like the climate crisis. Diablo staff and volunteers lit every Sunday Thankfully, nature is a spiritual portal where, if we quietly and respect- night after sunset so that the Beacon could fully enter it with open hearts and minds, we will be transformed for shine brightly through the darkness until it the better, and in that lies our hope for salvation and survival. was rested after sunrise on Monday. To date, our Nature Heals and Inspires Zoom series has delivered This dedicated effort ran from April 12, over 20 presentations by an amazing and diverse group of experts 2020 through April 12, 2021, when it was (ecotherapists, conservationists, scholars, artists, etc.) exploring this concluded because COVID-19 vaccines had topic of how nature helps heal and inspire us and through this explo- become well distributed and there were ration we have been getting important clues on how to align ourselves tier-level improvements in the Bay Area. and our culture with the natural world we are part of. We will continue Ted Clement, Save Mount Diablo’s this popular series so stay tuned for details. Executive Director, stated, “We lit the Mount Diablo Beacon to thank our heroes, to honor those who had passed and were suffering, to bring our communities together, and to remind people to look up to the light and the healing power of nature.” “I want to thank two special Save Mount Diablo volunteers,” he said, “John Gallagher and Dick Heron, who helped me with this year-long effort.” Although Save Mount Diablo concluded its weekly Beacon lightings in response to the pandemic, the organization will con- tinue its regular care and maintenance of the historic “Eye of Diablo” as it has done for years. Further, Save Mount Diablo, California State Parks, the Sons and Daughters of Pearl Harbor Survivors Chapter 5, and California State University—East Bay will continue to organize the annual lighting ceremony of the Beacon every December 7th in honor of National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day. PHOTOS: SCOTT HEIN, TED CLEMENT, JOANNE MCCLUHAN ANNUAL REPORT 2020–21 1 8 Clayton Ranch Deer Valley 9 Regional Park 7 6 Marsh Creek Lands Mount Diablo Marsh Creek State Park 5 State Park Protected by 3 Forever Wild 2 1 Curry Canyon Round Valley 1 Morgan Regional Preserve 2 Rideau Conservation Territory Easement 3 Smith Canyon 4 Highland Springs 0 1 2 Miles Los Vaqueros Watershed Lands 5 Big Bend Morgan Territory Lands Protected by Forever Wild Regional Preserve 6 Hanson Hills Other Save Mount Diablo Properties 7 Anderson Ranch Regional Park 8 North Peak Ranch State Park Water District 9 Concord Mt. Diablo Trail 4 Other Public & Protected Land Ride Association Conservation Easement Save Mount Diablo in the Media 2 SAVEMOUNTDIABLO.ORG MAP: LAURA KINDSVATER PRESERVE Land Acquisition Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association AT THE END OF 2019, Save Mount Diablo and the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association signed an option agreement for a project that was 15 years in the making. The project will permanently pro- our needed total by December 31. To tect 154 acres of critical open space date, we still need to raise $333,000 to on North Peak, part of Save Mount preserve the land. Diablo’s “Missing Mile.” Save Mount It is truly a unique and special Diablo paid a $50,000 option pay- opportunity when we have the chance ment, allowing for two years—until to permanently protect a large, at-risk December 31, 2021—to raise $1.04 mil- open space property in the high peaks lion to purchase a perpetual conserva- area of Mount Diablo! Because of the tion easement on the land. property’s location high on North Recently, several generous and Peak, surrounded on three sides by visionary individuals donated more Mount Diablo State Park, protecting than $725,000 toward the $1.04 mil- this land is very strategic. The prop- lion needed for the acquisition of the erty is rich in biodiversity, in part conservation easement. Save Mount because of the serpentine geology Diablo is now much closer to reaching found on North Peak. habitat for California red-legged frogs and Alameda whipsnakes, listed spe- cies that are likely to be present on the property, as well as American kestrels and golden eagles. In acquiring this property, Save Mount Diablo continues to build and strengthen wildlife corri- dors for rare native plants and animals in the greater Mount Diablo area. Acquisitions like this help curtail Smith Canyon the climate disaster we are faced with as well. Smith Canyon’s natural “How often do you have the Canyon from Morgan Territory Road. environment serves as a carbon sink. ability to protect an entire The acquisition of Smith Canyon Forests and other undeveloped lands canyon?” SETH ADAMS provides a second, legal point of absorb greenhouse gases, keeping access into Save Mount Diablo’s those gases out of the atmosphere and ON APRIL 3, 2020 (at the beginning 1,080.53-acre Curry Canyon Ranch. filtering the air we all breathe. of the fiscal year), and in spite of the Plus, its connection creates a potential Stewardship staff and volunteers COVID-19 pandemic, Save Mount future eastside entrance to Mount have been busy restoring the prop- Diablo purchased the beautiful and Diablo, a dream that has existed for erty: removing fences and trash heaps, strategic 28.73-acre Smith Canyon 110 years. removing invasive species, doing property. This incredible blue oak The purchase of Smith Canyon is strategic fire abatement, and building woodland and live oak–bay riparian also important for the conservation of trails. Staff have also been building corridor property could become the Curry Canyon area. This incred- and installing bird boxes in partner- the recreational gateway into Curry ible property is the quintessential ship with The Kestrel Campaign. PHOTOS: SCOTT HEIN, FLOYD MCCLUHAN ANNUAL REPORT 2020–21 3 DEFEND Land Use Planning and Advocacy Despite the challenges of COVID, we continue to defend The Antioch City Council adopted our initiative, but we knew bad Mount Diablo and its connections to the creeks, foothills, and wider developers would try to stop us, and mountain range that give us such amazing views and allow populations they tried. Two of them, Zeka and of native wildlife and plants to thrive. This past year, we’ve continued to Richfield, made legal challenges, monitor more than 50 agency agendas, work with diverse stakeholders and and the court told the city council to immediately put our initiative on the coalitions, and respond to more than a dozen project and policy proposals.