Blog

The first time I saw Mount Diablo I was a student at Berkeley, helping deliver furniture to a home in Lafayette. It was 1970. As we traveled Highway 24 and…

Protecting a national-park sized wilderness around Mount Diablo requires a huge community of folks working together over a long period of time. And yet land conservation is comprised of a…

Curiosity shapes the world around us. Science is the pursuit of comprehension, driven by observation and intrigue. Boiled down to its most basic components, science is a guess and check…

Over the course of her numerous bushwhacking and scree surfing botanical expeditions as a graduate student in the late 1930’s, SMD’s co-founder Dr. Mary Bowerman recognized the importance of preserving…

The Conservation Buyer Program will generate important revenue for Save Mount Diablo to invest in protecting and preserving more land in the Diablo Wilderness. Save Mount Diablo envisions a permanently…

In 2015, Save Mount Diablo (SMD) signed a ten-year agreement to purchase 87.2-acre North Peak Ranch from Steve and Brenda Benkly, for a total purchase price of approximately $1.1 million. The beautiful property rises from Marsh Creek Road just east of Clayton onto the slopes of North Peak, Mount Diablo’s second tallest and more rugged peak. It shares a boundary with Mount Diablo State Park. Steve and Brenda will retain 6.2 acres and continue to live in their small 1200 sq. ft. farmhouse, built in 1924, which first necessitated a subdivision process through the County to split the parcel. SMD is also acquiring right of first refusal on that smaller parcel where the Benklys will continue to live.

Deborah brings with her over 15 years of experience fundraising to protect special places in the San Francisco Bay Area. Previously she directed the Institutional Giving program at Save the…