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Bohemia Ranch History

Bohemia Ranch has a long history in Sonoma County. Once open land with a beautiful waterfall, it was held by absentee owners and was subject to much trespass and abuse, with the property becoming eroded and littered with junk. It’s beauty and wildness have not gone unnoticed, however. The Open Space District made an effort to acquire it as a county park in 1999 and failed. As part of that effort, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart headlined a benefit concert to raise money for a purchase, but the property was sold to another. Over the last ten years the property, under this private ownership, has been slowly cleaned up and restoration has begun. It is an unique property with a spectacular waterfall, rare plant communities, thick fir and redwood forests, and oak grasslands with spectacular views. Its 862 acres are a substantial portion of the watershed of Dutch Bill Creek, where state and federal agencies have spent millions of conservation dollars to bring back coho salmon.

Starting in 2009, the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, community activists and the Sonoma Land Trust have been trying to create a public park at Bohemia Ranch, also known as Waterfall Park. With the current financial crisis in our government agencies, the conventional approach of buying parkland with public money was no longer feasible and the process stalled. A new approach for protecting open space was needed.

Ted and Phyllis Swindells, the owners of Bohemia Ranch, realized that not only were resources for acquiring more land dwindling in the public sector but that there was no provision for funding stewardship and no plan in place for land management and immediate public access. Sonoma County Regional parks had its hands full with the succession acquisition of hundreds of acres by the Open Space District for parks over the past ten years.

In early 2010, Swindells engaged David Katz, a private conservation consultant to work with him to develop a private approach to preserving the ranch and making it accessible to the community in some fashion.

The solution that emerged, working in concert with private land partners and community groups, will create a beautiful and unique Waterfall Preserve with an ample stewardship budget and a very competent nonprofit, LandPaths, as a owner/manager. “It was exciting to work with landowners and buyers that were both sophisticated business people and very committed to conservation,” Katz noted. “Their generosity combined with their interest in making the land accessible to the public is inspiring.”

Swindells is donating 42% of the value of the bulk of the land (550 acres) as a gift to the community along with a gift of $50,000 for stewardship. The W. Parish family from San Francisco is buying the remaining portion of the land for a rural retreat and will seed a fund for stewardship that has been established at the Community Foundation Sonoma County to receive donations and to manage the endowment for the Preserve.

The lead park and land manager will be LandPaths, the accomplished nonprofit organization who manages open space throughout the county. LandPaths has ably demonstrated that it can manage public recreation and land stewardship in a very cost effective approach that engages a wide range of citizens in stewarding and enjoying our native lands. Their “People Powered Parks” approach engages volunteers and local resources to manage community parks and open space preserves.

The Parishes have been long involved in education and park preservation and are strongly committed to wild nature and are inspired by the idea of restoring and managing the land in conjunction with a private open space group. They have entered into an agreement with LandPaths to allow trails across their property that will be part of the outdoor recreation activities on the site.

The transaction is a complex one - the Sonoma Land Trust will purchase a conservation easement over 550 acres of the property using a grant from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The easement will remove all the development potential of the land, allowing only conservation and managed recreational uses to remain. The title for the property will pass to LandPaths, who will have management responsibility for the preserve

Swindell's motivation is conservation of land that he loves. He originally donated a conservation easement over the entire property worth $2.5 million and has spent millions over the past ten years in cleaning up and restoring the property. Swindells has formally committed to continuing to fund restoration at the property in the future with a determination to create, restore and manage public access to the Preserve that inspires understanding of the land and a sense of responsibility for its future.

Waterfall Park is part of our community to take care of now and always.

January 31, 2012

After many years of dramatic twists and turns, the Sonoma Land Trust and LandPaths are delighted to announce today the creation of a 554-acre ecological preserve on Bohemia Ranch located between Occidental and Monte Rio, and known to locals as "Waterfall Park." This magical landscape is home to rare serpentine plants, tributaries of Dutch Bill Creek, significant forestlands and the famed Bohemia waterfall. With funding from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, the new preserve, named the "Bohemia Ecological Preserve," was created through the purchase of a conservation easement by Sonoma Land Trust and pending donation of the restricted land by Ted and Phyllis Swindells to LandPaths, which will manage the property for resource protection and public use.

"It is inspiring to see two of our leading land organizations come together to craft a deal that will not only protect this spectacular property for all time, but also ensure that the public has access to it without burdening our parks budget," said Sonoma County Fifth District Supervisor Efren Carrillo.

Bohemia Ranch has long been sought by West County residents as a park. In the late 1990s, Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart headlined a benefit concert to raise money for a purchase, but the property was sold with some conservation restrictions. A second effort to create a county regional park in 2010 faltered as funding diminished.

It was then that a collaboration formed between the nonprofit organizations, Sonoma Land Trust and LandPaths — and the Swindells and the W. Parish family (which was interested in purchasing a portion of the ranch) — to explore the idea of an accessible preserve on a portion of the ranch.

"These times with uncertain public funding push us to be creative," said Ralph Benson, Sonoma Land Trust executive director. "While it won't be a public park, much of the land will be opened to public use by LandPaths. LandPaths has extensive experience in connecting people with the land and will be an innovative steward of this special property."

Sonoma Land Trust purchased the conservation easement that extinguished the development rights over four parcels of land totaling 554 acres for $1.45 million. Purchase funds were provided by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The Parish family purchased 352 acres of the ranch and agreed to work with LandPaths to provide trail access across a part of their private land and to cooperate in the management of a shared watershed. The Swindells and the Parishes have pledged to provide $100,000 in seed funds for the management and stewardship of the preserve.

"Once again, the Sonoma Land Trust has found an innovative way to protect a very special and beautiful part of Sonoma County," said Craig Anderson, LandPaths executive director. "We are grateful for the opportunity to both introduce — and in many cases — reintroduce people to this stunning landscape in the coming months. I have great faith that the West County community and beyond will get engaged in this effort for the long term."

While Bohemia Ranch has long been known for its year-round waterfall, it also harbors a wealth of natural resources. A variety of habitats, including biologically diverse forestlands, riparian woodlands and rare serpentine communities, support a wide array of plant and animal species. The serpentine soils, creeks and varied terrain contribute to the presence of unusual plant species, including Pennel's bird's beak (which is federally listed as endangered), Baker's manzanita, Crystal Springs lessinga and serpentine reed grass. The habitat types found on the property support a wide range of birds and wildlife, such as osprey, pileated woodpecker, northwestern pond turtle and dusky-footed wood rat. Species of special concern on the preserve are the northern spotted owl and steelhead trout, both federally threatened.

The Sonoma Land Trust will continue to monitor the conservation easement over the original ranch property as well as the new, more restrictive easement over the newly formed preserve.

So break out the champagne!

Bohemia Ranch: A Story of Entrepreneurial Conservation

A unique, entrepreneurial approach has succeeded to creating a new park for the people of Sonoma county at Bohemia Ranch.