Diablo Watch Magazine

As we continued to celebrate our 50th anniversary, we protected more land, celebrated two major legal victories towards the defense of the hills between Pittsburg and Concord, and discovered a new population of the endangered Mount Diablo buckwheat and monarch butterflies on our properties! We’ve partnered with the East Bay Regional Park District on a purchase option for one of our top five priorities—the 768-acre Finley Road Ranch. We’ve continued our advocacy with the Friends of Tesla Park coalition to designate Tesla Park, a critical linkage between Mount Diablo and the rest of the Diablo Range, as a state reserve. After a long advocacy campaign, the Pittsburg City Council rescinded approvals for Seeno’s Faria project that would have covered the top of the scenic Los Medanos hills. Now, there’s a chance for the project to be reevaluated and made into something better for the community.

We’ve spent 50 years defending, protecting, and restoring land. Our once small organization, composed of just volunteers, has grown to be a monumental force in the conservation and preservation of natural wild lands. We’ve helped expand Mount Diablo State Park from just 6,788 acres to almost 20,000 while stopping developmental threats on and around the mountain along the way. We’ve strengthened the community by starting free programs like Discover Diablo and opening Mangini Ranch Educational Preserve — the first of its kind in Contra Costa County — to inform and strengthen the region’s connection to nature. Now, we are in the midst of one of the most important moments of our 50-year history as we look south into expanding our efforts into the Diablo Range, connecting Mount Diablo to its namesake mountain range.

We hope you enjoy this special 50th-anniversary edition of our newsletter!

As epic wildfires and other extreme weather events become more frequent and more devastating, there is no more denying that we cannot wait any longer to address climate change.Save Mount Diablo recently published an organization-wide Climate Action Plan (CAP) to guide us in the coming years. We have carefully planned steps to significantly reduce our organizational carbon footprint, increase our communities’ love of nature and awareness of the climate crisis, and make more strategic acquisitions, among many other efforts to address climate change.This newsletter takes you through more of our climate actions that your support makes possible.

After finishing a fiscal year entirely within a national crisis and pandemic period, we delivered on our Strategic Plan, maintained all of our staff positions, grew our and stewarded our reserves, and have almost completed our $15 million Forever Wild Campaign!Thanks to donors like you, our Forever Wild Campaign has helped us raise funds to conserve numerous strategic properties: Curry Canyon Ranch, Smith Canyon, North Peak Ranch, Anderson Ranch, Rideau, Big Bend, Hanson Hills, Highland Springs, and Concord Mt. Diablo Trail Ride Association. This campaign also helped us raise funds to start a Stewardship Endowment Fund and grow our Legal Defense Fund.We began Diablo Range Revealed, a series exploring life after the flame of the SCU Fire Complex.