BSLT’s Stewardship Team – Putting Real Conservation on the Ground Every Day

Small_bslt%20spring%202011%20enews%20photo%20for%20people%20making%20a%20difference

Members of The Big Sur Land Trust have the opportunity to enjoy great trails on beautiful properties—an ideal setting for getting away from the daily cares of the city and spending some quality time in nature. Yet while you’re hiking through a cool redwood forest or along the sunny ridge of a mountain, it can be easy to forget that the trail under your feet is the result of many hours of stewardship planning and maintenance.

“If you’re on the property, you’re treading on something the Land Trust’s stewardship team is actively maintaining,” says Bryce Hall, BSLT’s Field Assistant. “Even with the simplest trail, we have to ask, is it functional, is it accessible, is it sustainable?”

The ability to answer such questions comes from spending time on the land, from careful observation, and from watching a property throughout the seasons. That kind of attention and devotion to the land is part of the job description for the Land Trust’s stewardship team: Hall, Cameron Chabre, Conservation Projects Manager, and Sarah Godfrey, Conservation Program Steward.

“We are the people who are on the ground,” Chabre says. “Stewardship is not just one event. It takes place over many years.”

Chabre’s interest in being outdoors began as a child when she would spend time with her paternal grandfather in San Juan Capistrano.

“He had an old adobe house and French-style gardens and orchards next to the Mission. He was really into gardening that involved natural processes: no chemicals, companion planting. He would have 8 varietals of avocadoes with 6 feet of mulch around the trees. It was a great place to play as a child.”

Godfrey also always loved being outdoors. “We would spend summers at my grandparents’ place in northern Maine. They had 80 acres and a house on a lake. I loved it all—canoeing, picking blueberries, the bald eagles, exploring. There was a feeling of open space and blue skies. I liked to get dirty and go squish around the bogs.”

A native of New Jersey, Godfrey always knew she wanted to come to California. While a student at UCSC, where she majored in Environmental Studies with an emphasis in Conservation Biology, she worked in Florida for a nature-based rehabilitation program for adjudicated youth. After graduating, she worked for the UC Reserve System and for California State Parks.

Small_odtug%20609%20rts%2028%20(group%20shot)

Since coming to work for the Land Trust, she has focused on work that involves “a desk and muddy shoes.” “The stewardship team works on management plans for the ecological benefit of our properties, and then we’re the brawn that goes out to mow the fields and build the roads,” she says.

One of Godfrey’s proudest achievements is the ongoing work at Martin Dunes. “It’s such rare habitat, and our only coastal property,” she says. “It’s been really satisfying to be involved in project planning on every level, from coordinating volunteers to removing invasive weeds.”

Martin Dunes is also a big focus for Chabre, who points out that stewardship is also about community. “As we get to know a site, we also get to know our neighbors, other land owners, other land managers. We’re not working in a bubble. Stewardship allows us to really develop community around the land,” Chabre says.

Hall saw that kind of community close-up when he was involved in restoring old, decaying structures at Marks Ranch. Hall worked alongside students of the Hartnell Center for Sustainable Design and Construction. “We did a whole lot of cleaning, weeding, vegetation removal—it was great, we really kicked butt on that stuff.”

Hall was born and raised in Pacific Grove. After finishing college in southern California, he came home to a new understanding of the beauty of the Central Coast. Two summer internships at the Land Trust led to a full-time position.

“I feel very fortunate,” Hall says. “People come from around the world to see this beautiful environment. I want to be engaged in the setting where I live.”

Chabre has also followed her passion for the outdoors by working throughout her career to restore native places. After graduating from the School of Agriculture at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, she worked for State Parks, the Water Management District, and at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve.

One of Chabre’s goals for the Land Trust’s stewardship team is to develop the program so that its focus is less project-based. “It’s been an exciting year,” she says. “I really see stewardship projects getting put on the ground. BSLT is really showing up as stewards for the community. There is momentum now to build on what we’ve accomplished so that the focus is not just acquiring a property but how we are going to manage it.”

That momentum is one reason why Donna Meyers, Director of Conservation, is so enthusiastic about the Land Trust’s current stewardship team. “We now have a really talented, enthusiastic staff who work as a team to cover the whole spectrum of stewardship projects, from project scoping and identifying funding to complete the project, to implementing and managing the land to maintain that ecological improvement. They do an amazing job of putting real conservation on the ground every day.”

You can support stewardship activities on the land.