IMPACT REPORT
Protecting and Defending Mount Diablo and the Diablo Range
Dear Supporters,
We are celebrating and giving thanks for the outstanding fiscal year we recently completed. Together, we delivered a successful fiscal year financially, programmatically, and organizationally. This April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 fiscal year is outlined for you in this impact report.
Save Mount Diablo has consistently delivered successful fiscal years for many years now, and a wonderful team is key to making consistent wins possible. At the heart of our team are our great staff, Board, and supporters. I want to thank you all for making our land conservation success, year in and year out, possible.
Another key to our ongoing success has been not taking our success for granted. We are deeply grateful for it and the people who help make it possible.
Also important to our ongoing success is our remaining actively strategic as a team. We have a rolling three-year strategic plan
process where we regularly engage with our strategic direction, work to build team alignment around it, and consistently check our progress with our strategic plan goals—making adjustments and improvements as we go.
Your generous investments in us are also critical. Your investments this past fiscal year created numerous lasting green returns that will benefit Mount Diablo, and its Diablo Range and associated communities (flora, fauna, and peoples), for years to come. Here are just a few examples of the returns your investments created this past fiscal year.
We were part of the campaign to pass Prop. 4 this past November. Its passage created the largest state climate bond in the history of our country and will make resources available for conservation in the Diablo Range for years.
We bolstered the campaign for slow-growth Measure A in San Benito County in November. Its passage
added new open space protections to the county with the largest swath of the Diablo Range.
We successfully acquired the strategic 98-acre Ginochio Schwendel Ranch from the most important landowning family in Contra Costa County. This strategic land is contiguous with Marsh Creek and other land we previously protected.
We successfully made our annual payment of $100,000 toward our planned acquisition of the 88.5-acre North Peak Ranch on the slopes of Mount Diablo. That was our ninth of 10 regular annual payments we must make. Then in December 2026, we will make a final balloon payment of over $250,000, closing escrow thereafter.
We opened new public trails at our Curry Canyon Ranch. In the last few years, we have created more than seven miles of public trails!
We stewarded thousands of conserved acres—like removing numerous 40-yard dumpsters of debris from the Balcerzak inholding property, within Mount Diablo State Park, which we acquired in 2023.
We connected thousands of people to nature through our education and communication efforts like our new Young Diablo Explorers program for third to fifth graders.
The fiscal year covered in this impact report was also meaningful to me for another reason: For more than half of the fiscal year my family and I were dealing with a major crisis. Last September, my wife, Boonsuay, was diagnosed with an aggressive type of breast cancer. She is such a positive light and foundation for our family so when we learned she was at risk it was scary.
The chemotherapy phase of her cancer treatment started last October and was completed in late February. The chemo was hard on her system
and triggered emergency room visits and other frightful experiences.
Boonsuay is now in the radiation phase of her treatment and there will be other phases that run until at least October. However, we are grateful because since completing chemo she is doing well and getting stronger by the day.
Despite this big challenge we did not collapse but kept moving forward in a positive and successful way. That fills me with immense gratitude. Gratitude for my wife and family. Gratitude for our Save Mount Diablo team. Gratitude for the kindness of so many people who helped us during our time of need. Gratitude for nature and our mountains, which helped me get through this past year.
For all the reasons above and more, I extend a heartfelt thanks to you and the rest of our team for helping Save Mount Diablo complete another successful fiscal year. Thankfully, we come into the new fiscal year
with momentum, gratitude, and confidence knowing we have a great team, with people like you, and we have a clear strategic plan to continue advancing our land conservation mission for Mount Diablo and its Diablo Range.
With Gratitude,
Edward
Sortwell Clement, Jr.
Executive Director,
Save Mount Diablo
Ted (left), Boonsuay (right), and their youngest son (center) out for Boonsuay’s first return hike in the Diablo mountains since completing her chemotherapy. 1
Through focused strategy, collaborative effort, and a dedicated community of supporters, the success of Save Mount Diablo’s land conservation program continues to grow. This year’s acquisition work highlights the organization’s endurance and ability to increase the amount of permanently protected land in the Diablo region, year after year.
for a huge number of
species, including birds and butterflies.
Blue oak forests at Ginochio Schwendel Ranch. Oaks provide habitat
wildlife
Acquisition
Ginochio Schwendel Ranch. We purchased and permanently protected 98 acres in the Marsh Creek corridor, with generous support from the Wildlife Conservation Board and a dedicated conservation community, including readers of Joan Morris’s column in the East Bay Times and The Mercury News.
This high-priority acquisition is our first conservation purchase from the Ginochio family, owners of significant lands on and around Mount Diablo. Its conservation will protect rare volcanic habitat, enhance conservation values of our adjoining Marsh Creek 5 property, and provide increased protection to the Marsh Creek corridor.
North Peak Ranch. We completed the ninth of 10 annual option payments toward the purchase and permanent protection of 88.5 acres, in the same area as our Krane Pond property (protected in 2023), our Young Canyon property (protected in 2006), and the Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association conservation easement (protected in 2022). We’re already preparing for our stewardship role at North Peak Ranch when its acquisition is concluded, which will be by January 2027.
Acquisition Partners. This year, we formed a coalition working group of many of the state’s leading land trusts and conservation organizations and began meeting monthly, with the shared goal of increasing land acquisition activity by California State Parks. We also made multiple trips to Sacramento to meet with California State Parks and with state assemblymembers, senators, and other officials to draw attention to this issue.
Wildflowers (Collinsia sp.) at Ginochio Schwendel Ranch. The property’s unusual volcanic substrates support many species of rare and endemic native plants. 3
Smart land use decisions that protect natural land, connect recreational trails, and link wildlife corridors are a critical piece of Save Mount Diablo’s conservation strategy. The undeveloped land that remains in the Diablo region is a precious, and dwindling, natural resource.
Amid constant development pressure, communities also have extraordinary opportunities to advocate for sound land-use planning decisions that can enhance the quality of life for their residents, and neighbors, for generations. This work requires continuous advocacy and a watchful eye—it’s easier to create a good plan from the outset than to undo a bad one.
In November, we won a major land use victory with the
passage of Measure A in San Benito County.
Pictured here: Pinnacles National Park, one of the protected areas in San Benito County.
Advocating for Conservation
Proposition 4. We invested significant time and resources into the successful passage of Proposition 4, the $10 billion California climate bond, which will provide new and essential funding for conservation work throughout the state. Save Mount Diablo served on the Board of the Committee for Clean Water, Natural Resources, and Parks, which had a seat on the official Yes on Prop. 4 campaign. The climate bond is the largestever voter-approved climate investment, and includes up to $80 million dedicated to the greater Diablo Range through a “San Andreas Corridor/ Inner Coast Range” program. We are making plans for projects that could be made possible by this extraordinary opportunity.
Measure A, San Benito County. Our expanded advocacy work is already having a positive impact and helping to increase protection for sensitive, open space land in the Diablo Range. We supported the efforts of Protect San Benito, a grassroots organization in San Benito County, and helped bring about the passage of slow-growth
Measure A in November 2024. Thanks to Measure A, voter approval is now required to change the land use designation of unincorporated rangeland or agricultural land in San Benito County.
Measure II, Dublin. We led the campaign in opposition to Dublin’s Measure II, which undermines the 2014 Urban Limit Line protections and could lead to significant development in the open space between Dublin and Livermore. Regrettably, confused voters approved the deceptive Measure II in November 2024 by a narrow margin, but we were prepared for the possibility of that outcome. We had already filed a lawsuit under the California Environmental Quality Act and made a legal challenge to the measure.
Our work to challenge Measure II and any development plans that would cause harmful fragmentation of this essential wildlife corridor continues.
As a land trust, our long-term stewardship responsibilities are paramount. By conducting scientific research on our conserved properties, and by opening those protected acres to partners for their research, we’re constantly learning and adding to the scientific community’s body of knowledge.
Kestrel nest box on Save Mount Diablo’s Curry Canyon Ranch property.
DiRT (Diablo Restoration Team) Days
DiRT Watering Crew
Volunteer Property Stewards
Diablo Conservation Experience
Student Stewardship Volunteers
Coastal Cleanup Day
Fifth Annual Pine Canyon Cleanup
Eagle Scout Service Project
10,000 Trees and Plants Project. This pragmatic initiative, part of our organizational Climate Action Plan, inspired hundreds of students and volunteers through hands-on stewardship opportunities this year. After four years of progress, and the help of many people, we’ve planted or protected more than 4,400 native trees and plants on conserved land.
Milkweeds for Monarchs. We planted 300 native California milkweeds and hundreds of native nectar plants to support migrating monarch butterflies and other pollinators.
American Kestrels. With grant support and a working partnership with The Kestrel Campaign, we expanded our multiyear effort to support the American kestrel population in the Mount Diablo area. We added 12 new wildlife cameras, and we now monitor activity at 19 of the 37 nest boxes that we’ve installed.
Managing Wildfire Risk. As land stewards and rural landowners, we successfully fulfilled our annual fire abatement requirements and managed wildfire risk on 16 of our properties. Our staff and volunteers also helped reduce fuel load in Mount Diablo State Park during organized workdays by chipping and clearing material.
One staff member, who recently completed rigorous training and certification, volunteered to support two prescribed burns in the Mitchell Canyon area of Mount Diablo State Park.
Planting blue oaks in Irish Canyon. 7
Nature is an age-old teaching tool, and we’re helping students discover its priceless, timeless lessons at our Mangini Ranch Educational Preserve and Curry Canyon Ranch field station.
Students and school groups are benefiting from dynamic lessons in our outdoor classrooms, where they can hike, observe wildlife, sample creek waters, and experience the natural world up close, sometimes for the first time.
Building Partnerships with Educators
Young Diablo Explorers. To reach even more elementary school students and educators, we made the curricula for our new third- to fifth-grade outdoor learning program available to the public on our website.
Diablo Conservation Experience. Our staff helped inspire more than 220 students from Campolindo High School, De La Salle High School, Pittsburg High School, and Concord High School this year. Students benefited from a classroom learning session followed by an uplifting day in nature, where they contributed to a restoration project, completed an interpretive hike, and enjoyed a period of solo reflection and writing in nature.
Mangini Ranch Educational Preserve. Our 208-acre preserve, with support from our crew of volunteer docents, provided space for a private and peaceful day in nature to many return visitors and new community groups.
ENJOY
A primary goal of Save Mount Diablo’s conservation programs is to encourage participants to deepen their relationships with nature through service, education, and responsible recreation.
By inviting people into these wilder spaces, where nature can be a counterbalance to the demands of modern life, we inspire durable community support for the land we’ve worked hard to protect together.
New Trails. In 2024, we opened 1.7 new miles of publicly accessible trails through the upper portion of Save Mount Diablo’s Curry Canyon Ranch, connecting more trails to Knobcone Point Road and opening several new loops for hikers, runners, mountain bikers, and equestrians. In the past three years, we’ve opened more than seven miles of trails on our protected lands and improved access to remote and wild areas of Mount Diablo.
Moonlight on the Mountain. This spectacular mountain gala provided an unforgettable experience to more than 500 guests, who generously helped raise more than $550,000 to support conservation on and around Mount Diablo and in the Diablo Range.
Discover Diablo. Through this free public outing series, staff and volunteers offered 36 informative hikes and outings—birding, geology, wildflowers and botany, plein air painting, mountain biking, meditation, yoga, and more—to hundreds of participants from around the Bay Area. This year, Discover Diablo also offered a growing number of opportunities to explore the Diablo Range through photography, hiking, and rock climbing. 9
DIABLO RANGE
The Diablo Range is extremely high in biodiversity and home to many rare and endemic plant and wildlife species. Last August, a flock of seven endangered California condors flew from San Benito County to Mount Diablo, demonstrating once again how the Diablo Range is a critical wildlife corridor that sustains Mount Diablo. In this time of the climate and biodiversity crises, long-term vision and bold action are vitally needed.
Save Mount Diablo’s advocacy work spans all 12 counties in the Diablo Range. We’re forging new collaborative partnerships, strategically planning for the long term, thinking holistically and ambitiously, and working with urgency to protect more land faster.
Pinnacles National Park, home to many young California condors that have been using the Diablo Range as a wildlife corridor and flying to the Mount Diablo area.
BioBlitz. This year’s 24-hour event was held at the San Antonio Valley Ecological Reserve (SAVER) in the Diablo Range. The group of 40 scientists, researchers, and Save Mount Diablo volunteers and staff recorded 400 species within the reserve, including rare and charismatic species like golden eagles, bald eagles, and a herd of 30 or more tule elk. A mountain lion was spotted near SAVER, the first time one has been recorded during a BioBlitz event.
Blunt-Nosed Leopard Lizard. We launched a new partnership with the Fresno Chaffee Zoo to support recovery of the endangered blunt-nosed leopard lizard, which lives in the Panoche area and other parts of the southern Diablo Range.
Diablo Range Convening. This year, we’ve connected with dozens of conservation organizations, lined up speakers, and planned a one-day conference, held in San Juan Bautista on June 5, 2025. Organizational partnerships and collaboration will be key to achieving increased land protection throughout the 12-county Diablo Range.
San Benito County. Although Measure A led to a significant win for conservation in San Benito County, our continued advocacy support was still needed after the election, when the outgoing Hollister City Council quickly approved General Plan updates that would have undermined Measure A’s slow-growth protections that had not yet been implemented. With our support, our grassroots partner, Protect San Benito, organized a successful signature drive and referendum, and the General Plan updates were rescinded.
We’re deeply grateful for the incredible community of individuals, foundations, and partner organizations whose generous support made this year’s inspiring conservation progress possible.
Every contribution has helped build the momentum for our conservation work by providing hope, energy, and meaningful impact. Together, we’re making tangible progress—protecting natural lands, inspiring the next generations of conservationists, enhancing habitats for local wildlife, and helping to shape a bright, sustainable future for the Diablo region.
This year’s success is a powerful tribute to the generosity and dedication of our amazing community.
We truly could not do this work without you.
Thank you!
For a list of donors, please visit bit.ly/smdgifts.
This fiscal year (April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025), Save Mount Diablo successfully raised more operating revenue than operating funds expended, thereby achieving a large surplus with its general operating budget.
Save Mount Diablo’s total revenue for this fiscal year was just over $5.9 million. More than 74 percent of our funding comes from donors like you!
Operating and nonoperating expenditures for this fiscal year totaled approximately $5.7 million (including our
Ginochio Schwendel Ranch property purchase of $1.39 million with a generous grant of $728,000 from the California Wildlife Conservation Board and our ninth option payment of $100,000 for North Peak Ranch). Program expenses other than land acquisition include stewardship projects on 22 properties and conservation easements we own, education and outreach programs, and advocacy to counter land conservation threats.
Numbers are based on unaudited financials for April 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025. Please go to savemountdiablo.org/about/financials/ to see our most recent 990 tax returns.
Total Expenditures
Quien Sabe Valley, San Benito County
Editor: Laura Kindsvater Contributing Writers: Ted Clement, Samantha Kading, Monica Oei
Photographers: Sean Burke, Ted Clement, Gavin Emmons/National Park Service, Fresno Chaffee Zoo, Scott Hein, Laura Kindsvater, Floyd McCluhan, Mary Nagle, Protect San Benito, Emily Sherwood, Vishal Subramanyan
and
Map: Seth Adams, Samantha Kading,
Laura Kindsvater
Design: Brit Hutchinson