THIS WILL BE THE CONSERVANCY’S TENTH YEAR anniversary, and we want to celebrate it with you. At each of our nature walks, at each of our stewardship days where ever they may be in Claremont Canyon, at each of our special events, we all hope you join us and become part of the discussion about the local treasure that is Claremont Canyon. Our website is our main communication device for us to talk to each other—and our newsletter, which comes out twice a year, is our way of trying to keep you posted on our accomplishments and seasonal activities.
First, I would like to thank Past President Barry Pilger for his leadership, stout-heartedness and insights in his guidance of the Conservancy over the last two years. These have been tumultuous times, filled with many policy decisions, feet on the ground input, and listening to advice from many corners and points of view. Barry not only survived, but persevered so that the Conservancy is now on a higher level of understanding, teaching and community influence than ever before. There is no “filling Barry’s shoes” but, as the new president, I will try to maintain the course he set and will work closely with him in his current role as the Conservancy’s treasurer.
The Conservancy has done much over the last ten years—it has been your community based organization. We’ve established solid working relationships with the agencies who actually own and are responsible for the land management within the Canyon: principally with the University of California (with Tom Klatt), the East Bay Regional Park District people (too many to name, all of them important), the City of Oakland (with many Department people from Fire to Parks), and EBMUD working with the advice and cooperation of Scott Hill. Cooperation is the key so that the agencies, the public and the special interests can all be heard. Together we are creating a safer, more friendly Claremont Canyon for local residents, hikers or people just interested in taking a look at our unique wedge of wildland projecting into the urban edges of Oakland and Berkeley. Our citizen-based Conservancy has much more planned for the future —helping facilitate trail work and general stewardship projects as well as offering our enjoyable and educational nature walks. Please do come join us for a couple of hours.
We want to make the next ten years as productive and inspiring as the first ten. We need you and want you to become more involved in the work of the Conservancy. If you are not yet a member, please sign up. You can do this through our website or you can drop us a note in the mail. Call or email one of the officers if you have any questions or if you want to volunteer for a specific project. New ideas are always welcome so please tell us what you’d like to do or work on in the Canyon.
Looking forward to meeting all of you at one time or another.
