Our Vision

The Claremont Canyon Conservancy is Building its Vision for 2029

For simplicity's sake we see ourselves moving forward on two fronts:
Stewardship of the Canyon and Capacity Building to enable us to achieve our goals.

Stewardship

Our goal is to preserve and enhance the natural beauty of Claremont Canyon, to protect native species and remove invasive and fire-prone ones, to maintain trails and create places for people to hike and enjoy the outdoors, to provide information and educational opportunities, and to make our community and the region more firesafe.

The Conservancy has a long history of working with major land owners, UC, the EBRPD, and EBMUD to remove invasive vegetation and encourage native species. Early in our history we planted redwood trees when eucalyptus were removed. Today we are planting oaks (as photographed above) and continuing to uproot French Broom and thistle, and advocating for removal of more eucalyptus and Monterey pine.

Our volunteers work regularly in both Garber Park and the Upper Canyon to keep our trails in good, safe condition. We have attracted groups of high school and college students (photographed on the left), scout troops, employee groups and individuals from the neighborhood to work with us.

The opportunities for future growth are endless. Among other potential projects, we envision creating a new open space area where the giant oak along the Willow Trail succumbed to Sudden Oak Death (SOD). (Read the story)

The Conservancy has sponsored bird walks for members and the general public featuring noted local ornithologists but there is potential for other programs to explore the natural history, plant, and animal species in our canyon. (Visit our Flora and Fauna page)

Since the 1991 wildfire that took many lives and homes in our neighborhood, wildfire prevention has become a major concern. In addition to reducing the fuel load on public lands in the canyon, the Conservancy recognizes that this issue must be addressed on a regional level. The Conservancy is working with other organizations and public officials to lead in the formation of a regionwide approach to vegetation management and wildfire prevention.

Capacity Building

The Conservancy has taken a bold step towards achieving our stewardship goals. We are moving from an all-volunteer model to retaining part-time staff. We recognize that while volunteers are the backbone of our organization, we need a professional staff to do all that we envision.

We have retained a stewardship coordinator to recruit and supervise our student and community volunteers. This enables us to provide the direction and supervision needed to get more done in the field and to make sure it is done in a way consistent with our environmental goals.

As the work of communication with our members and the public has grown and as changes in technology require additional skills, we have retained a part-time coordinator to make sure our newsletters and emails are produced on time and with the content needed to attract and inform our audience.

With the increase in the volume of our work and the retirement of our volunteer bookkeeper, we have retained a new person with the skills needed to maintain our records and ensure that we maintain the trust of our contributors.

Moving Forward

The Conservancy is growing and changing with the times in order to continue leading efforts to enhance the beauty and community access to Claremont Canyon. We need community support and involvement to achieve our goals and we cannot succeed without you.