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The Field in the Middle of Town
In spring, the field in the middle of town is waist-high with grasses and wild radishes blooming yellow, pink and white. A red-hot poker plant and a few clumps of watsonia suggest that someone once tended a garden here. The 1.18 acre field is undisturbed except for a diagonal path that local teen-agers have worn between the town and the high school on the hill. At first glance it looks like any other vacant lot – a large rectangle of weeds waiting for the inevitable bulldozers and construction crews.
But this is no ordinary lot. This is Heider Field, now a part of Mendocino Headlands State Park and managed by the local Mendocino Land Trust. It is Mendocino’s own village green, the result of twelve years of meetings, a generous gift, a State Assembly Bill, a complicated land swap and a general plan amendment.
The events which led to the preservation of Heider Field started in the fall of 1975 when the Human Potential School, represented by John Heider, purchased the field for a future campus. The school had already purchased the historic Blair House across the street (later to become television’s “Murder She Wrote” house) and then acquired a large building on North Lansing. The school was also negotiating to purchase the Baptist Church on the west side of the field.
Some townspeople were alarmed that Mendocino Village might lose this field, which was the site of many local gatherings and celebrations over the years. Originally, the land was known as the Heeser lot, part of the 200 acre farm William Heeser purchased from William Kelley in 1858. The Heeser family raised corn, potatoes, hay and pigs there. The old Apple Hall, where the Baptist Church now stands, hosted a number of local events, the biggest of which was the annual Apple Fair and parade. Many events held at the Apple Hall spilled over into the Heeser lot.
The Human Potential School soon realized the Lansing Street property was a better location for their campus and decided they no longer needed the Blair house or the field. Out of respect for the feelings of the local townspeople, they kept the property off the market, trying to find a person or group willing to purchase it for open space.
Local conservationists had just won a major battle in 1972 when 71 acres of Mendocino’s magnificent headlands became Mendocino Headlands State Park. As part of the deal, State Parks required the village of Mendocino to adopt a strict historic zoning ordinance. The park group disbanded when their work was done and there was no local organization to help preserve the field.
The Mendocino Land Trust is Born
The Human Potential School contacted the Trust for Public Land for help. TPL, a national conservation organization headquartered in San Francisco, had just been founded in 1972. With some additional prodding, some people from TPL agreed to come up to Mendocino and see what they could do. Although TPL was not interested in this type of property, they suggested forming a local land trust. At that time, land trusts were new on the conservation scene and few people knew what they were all about.
A land trust is a private nonprofit organization that works with willing landowners to conserve land. Land trusts raise money, work with government agencies and other nonprofits, and help property owners with legal and tax-related issues.
The land trust movement began in this country in the 1950s but really took off in the 1970s, mainly out of frustration with ineffective planning and zoning laws. While land trusts acquire some land through outright purchase, they do most of their work using a relatively new tool called the “conservation easement.” A conservation easement is a partial interest owned by the land trust that runs with the land, regardless of who owns it. Conservation easements identify and protect environmental and cultural resources such as forests, wetlands, wildlife habitat, scenic vistas, farmland, trails, geologic formations and historic places.
Unlike zoning, which can change, conservation easements are permanent. Many landowners feel more comfortable working with a local nonprofit than with a government agency. While conservation easements promote public conservation values, they don’t necessarily confer the right of public access.
The Mendocino Land Trust was founded in the spring of 1976. Their main project was protecting the field in the middle of town. The Human Potential School promised to keep the property off the market for three years while the land trust got organized and tried to raise money to buy it. They gave the land trust the right of first refusal and even offered to sell it to them below market value, appraised at $117,000 in October, 1976.
In spite of their best efforts, the land trust was unable to raise even a fraction of the roughly $88,000 needed to buy the field. At the same time, the Human Potential School was reluctant to sell it on the open market and allow it to be developed. Also, local activists threatened to block anyone who attempted to subdivide or develop the field. Meanwhile, the townspeople continued to hold maypole dances, Fourth of July celebrations and harvest festivals on the field, and children from the Good Shepherd School used it as a playground.
In 1980, John Heider and his Human Potential School broke the stalemate by donating the property to the Mendocino Presbyterian Church, with the condition that the field remain as community open space for five years.
During this time, the Mendocino Land Trust negotiated a land swap between the Presbyterian Church and the new Mendocino Headlands State Park. State Parks would get the field and the Church would get a chunk of park property roughly equal in size immediately south of the historic church building.
In March, 1983, the Mendocino County Board of Supervisors adopted a resolution in favor of the land exchange. Soon afterward, Assemblyman Dan Hauser and State Senator Barry Keene introduced Assembly Bill 479 to enable the swap. Governor Deukmejian vetoed the original bill but signed a revised version into law in 1984.
The Mendocino Land Trust then began negotiations with State Parks to manage the field. They also helped process the required general plan and zone changes for the two properties.
Finally, in July 1988, after 12 years of effort, the land swap took place. The formal dedication ceremony was held on December 30, 1988, with special guests John Heider and Assemblyman Dan Hauser attending. From that day on, it has been known as Heider Field.
The Mendocino Bay Public Access Viewpoint
In August, 1996, the Mendocino Land Trust opened the Mendocino Bay access, winning a plaque from the California Coastal Conservancy for “pioneering public access to California’s coast by becoming the first non-profit to open and operate an OTD.” This took ten years to accomplish.
There are over 1,200 OTDs (offers to dedicate) on the California Coast and over 100 in Mendocino County. OTDs are potential coastal access easements which were required as a condition of approval for certain coastal development permits. Most of these easement offers expire in 21 years unless a public agency or nonprofit agrees to accept and manage them.
Unlike other conservation easements, OTDs sometimes involve an unwilling donor, which was the case at the Mendocino Bay access. In spite of efforts to negotiate, the absentee owner sued the Mendocino Land Trust to prevent it from acquiring the easement. The land trust successfully defended itself and opened the trail.
The Mendocino Bay access offers a spectacular view of Mendocino Bay and the historic village of Mendocino. It is located on Brewery Gulch Drive (500B Road), west of Highway One just south of Big River. The trail is open to the public and is maintained by local volunteers.
A Bold Step Forward
In early 1998, the Board of Directors of the Mendocino Land Trust realized that conserving land took more work and cost more money than a volunteer board could handle by themselves. The Heider Field and Mendocino Bay access projects were important learning experiences.
Taking a bold step, they hired Roger Sternberg to be their part-time Executive Director, extended their area of interest to all of Mendocino County and launched a major fund-raising campaign. Roger brought a wealth of experience to the Mendocino Land Trust. He had worked for the Vermont Land Trust, the Trust for Appalachian Trail Lands and the Pacific Forest Trust, and was also a Registered Professional Forester.
The land trust now employs several part-time contractors who are working on opening new coastal access trails, writing conservation easements, doing baseline reports and keeping the nonprofit’s books. The Mendocino Land Trust has struggled to raise funds through grants, donations, memberships and fees for contract work.
However, In order to accomplish their ambitious conservation efforts, the land trust needs large gifts from private donors. Private donors account for more than half of all funding for the country’s 1,200 land trusts, which have protected over 4.7 million acres nation-wide. MLT currently has a $5,000 challenge grant to hire a part-time development (fund-raising) director and needs a matching $5,000 gift to fund the position.
Recent Accomplishments
In the last year, The Mendocino Land Trust has acquired the following.
- A conservation easement on 437 acres of vineyards and oak woodlands on Jim Fetzer’s McNab Ranch south of Ukiah.
- 75 acres of beach, bluff top, forest and grassland at Caspar Beach funded by a $1.855 million grant from the California Coastal Conservancy. MLT will own and manage the property, most of which could eventually become a state park.
- A $60,000 grant for pre-acquisition costs from the Coastal Conservancy for the 37-acre Glass Beach property in Fort Bragg. MLT is working with the City of Fort Bragg and the Mendocino Recreation and Park District on the Glass Beach project.
- A $15,000 grant from the Coastal Conservancy for developing 7 more coastal access trails.
Current Projects
The Mendocino Land Trust is currently working on conserving the following properties.
- 8 acres of coastal headlands in the village on Westport, in cooperation with the Westport Village Society
- 112 acres in Irish Beach
- 1,240 acres of oak woodlands on the Linda Loma Ranch in Ukiah
- 130 acres of high elevation meadow and mixed conifer and hardwood forest in Willits
- 65 acres of forest and old growth redwood along the Navarro River in Philo
- 700 acres of oak woodlands in Hopland
- The Mendocino Land Trust has participated in the “Adopt-A-Beach” program since 1989. Assisted by a small army of volunteers, they clean up Big River Beach twice a year on the Saturdays following the Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends.
Members, Supporters and Volunteers Needed
The Mendocino Land Trust needs members, supporters and volunteers. Members of receive a newsletter, participate in special events and support conservation efforts throughout Mendocino County. Annual memberships start at $25. Contact the Mendocino Land Trust for more information.
Mendocino Land Trust Inc. PO Box 1094 Mendocino CA 95460 707-962-0470 mlt@mcn.org Roger Sternberg, Executive Director
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