Fairfield Osborn Preserve – A Sonoma Mountain Gem By Pat Eliot September 2008 SMP Newsletter

There are changes afoot at the Fairfield Osborn Preserve atop Sonoma Mountain, changes that may close the Preserve in the future to both school groups and to the public.

Over the past eleven years Julia Clothier has served the Preserve as Site Manager and Educational Coordinator directing field work shops, naturalist training and elementary school field trips as well as supervising the Friends of Fairfield Osborn docent programs. During her tenure the Preserve has grown in its reach to where at least 1200 individuals visit the site annually . With the departure of Ms. Clothier, The Friends of Fairfield Osborn, a dedicated docent group, will no longer lead public hikes and teach school children about the newts and salamanders found in Copeland Creek. The newly refurbished Marjorie Osborn Environmental Education and Research Center will remain closed for now.

In l971 William and Joan Roth donated 221 acres to create a nature preserve on Sonoma Mountain to honor Joan’s father, Fairfield Osborn, a nationally recognized environmentalist. Along with their donation the Roths placed a Nature Conservancy easement in perpetuity over the land which requires the Preserve host elementary school children for ecological and environmental educational programs and offer the public hikes over its numerous woodland and meadow trails.

In l997 the Preserve was transferred to Sonoma State University’s School of Science and Technology. With acquisition by SSU the Preserve became a teaching and research facility for SSU students and scientists. Much research has concentrated on finding the causes of Sudden Oak Death Syndrome.

In 2004, the Roths donated another l90 acres to the Preserve. Now a 411 acre wild land, situated at an elevation of 1,700 feet on Sonoma Mountain, the Preserve affords valley views to the west and north as far as the Pacific and on the east into Sonoma valley and beyond . It’s trails take hikers to the top of Sonoma Mountain and down along Copeland Creek where outcropping basalt rocks give hikers a close look at the bed rock of the mountain.

In 2004, an additional l0 acres were granted the Sonoma County Agricultural and Open Space District by the Roth family allowing for a trail from the trailhead at the Jacobs Ranch located off Sonoma Mountain Road near Santa Rosa to join with the Hayfields trail at the top of Jack London State Historic Park. This new trail will be a new section of the Bay Area Ridge Trail.

With Ms Clothier’s resignation, it is still unclear whether the Preserve will continue to be open to students and the public. Current ongoing research will hopefully continue, especially those projects involved with SODS.