What We Do

How We Preserve Diablo’s Wild Lands

Save Mount Diablo preserves, defends, and restores the natural lands on Mount Diablo and its foothills for wildlife and people to enjoy.

1. We preserve property through perpetual conservation easements and acquisition.
2. We care for and restore the lands we buy through stewardship prior to turning them over to a park system, protected for wildlife and future generations;
3. We defend our area of interest through advocacy and land use planning to ensure that habitats and wild lands are protected when development takes place;
4. We educate the public about the Diablo area’s special wildlife and cultural history;
5. We host numerous events and activities on the mountain to encourage recreation consistent with the protection of natural resources.

Most Lands Are at High Risk

Contrary to what many think, Mount Diablo is not saved, its lands not fully protected, and there is still much more we need to do to save these wild lands in our own backyard.

• Although two-thirds of the mountain is protected as parks, watershed lands, and preserves, more than 60,000 acres are still at risk for development north of Highway 580.
• Maintaining necessary wildlife corridors in the Diablo Range south of Highway 580 and Altamont Pass affects even more lands.

Once the land is lost, it is gone forever.

What’s at Stake?

Imagine a Mount Diablo that was once entirely wild lands: more than 280 square miles of canyons, cliffs, woodlands, meadows, streams, microclimates, and unique habitats sheltering 900 species of plants and animals, 14 only found on the mountain, dozens rare or endangered.

Over time, these wild lands have been carved into pieces, creating a checkerboard of developed and natural lands, some publicly and some privately owned.

These fragmented lands hinder wildlife survival, increase pollutants in our creeks and streams, and severely limit public access.

With community help, Save Mount Diablo can stem the rapidly accelerating pace of development and sprawl that threaten the last remaining open lands at risk, land that could be developed over the next 10 years.

We can preserve unprotected land through strategic land acquisition and stewardship that will counter the threat of habitat loss, restore connections between existing natural areas, and provide the possibility of new trails and recreation areas.

Protecting the remaining Diablo wild lands is an extraordinary undertaking. It’s our mission to continue the legacy of conservation started by generations of residents of the Mount Diablo area who had a fierce love of the mountain.

Now, together, we must further protect and restore one of the most important natural areas in California.

Protected Lands

Together in Partnership

We work with partners such as California State Parks, the East Bay Regional Park District, local cities and counties, the Coastal Conservancy, Contra Costa Water District, and others.

We, together with the help of generous supporters like you, have pieced together a conserved expanse of Diablo wild lands that today is greater than 120,000 acres, an area bigger than Point Reyes National Seashore or the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Educating and Inspiring

Fostering the Next Generation of Conservationists

Developing a personal relationship with nature is one of the best ways to foster appreciation for the greater environment.

Save Mount Diablo facilitates a number of programs intended to educate the public about the priceless value of preserving Diablo’s immensely rich biodiversity and majestic landscape.

We inspire our communities by getting more and more people outdoors and exposing them to all that nature has to offer.

We strive to keep you informed about the important land conservation issues affecting the East Bay area and across the Diablo Range.

These challenges include climate change and development projects that threaten to destroy important habitat and deteriorate the quality of life in our community.

Visit our acquisition, land use planning and advocacy, stewardship and restoration, and education pages to learn more about how Save Mount Diablo preserves, defends, and restores wild lands.

See how we do our time-sensitive, mission-critical land conservation work in Contra Costa, Alameda, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Merced, San Benito, Fresno, Monterey, Kings, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties.

Map of Protected Lands from 1971 to 2024

Since Save Mount Diablo’s founding in 1971, the preserved lands on Mount Diablo and its foothills have been increased from just over 6,788 acres in one park to over 120,000 acres and more than 50 parks.

Geographic Focus

The geography of the area we serve includes portions of Contra Costa, Alameda, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Merced, San Benito, Fresno, Monterey, Kings, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties.

It is bounded by Suisun Bay and the Delta to the north, the San Ramon Valley and Highway 101 to the west, Highway 580 and Highway 5 to the east, and south through Altamont Pass and the entire Diablo Range.

This area of interest is designed to ensure Mount Diablo is connected through open space to the rest of the Diablo Range, and we look to continue to educate the public about the importance of this linkage with the Diablo Range over the coming years.

Though primarily focused on protecting the remaining important threatened open space properties north of Interstate 580, we’ve expanded our land acquisition activities south to Corral Hollow.

We will consider accepting land or conservation easements as far south as Pacheco Pass. We conduct related preservation and advocacy activities in all 12 Diablo Range counties.

The Diablo Range includes portions of Contra Costa, Alameda, San Joaquin, Santa Clara, Stanislaus, Merced, San Benito, Fresno, Monterey, Kings, San Luis Obispo, and Kern counties.